Harrison at his desert straw bale house in Joshua Tree. Photo by Eva Soltes
LOU HARRISON TURNS 100
ON MAY 14. An American original, founder of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and long-time resident (with partner Bill Colvig) of Aptos. Since his death in 2003 at age 85, his reputation has only soared. He was as widely loved for his sensitivity and exactitude as a musician/composer as for his gregarious personality—his own self-described “glandular optimism.” Alex Ross loved Lou in The New Yorker. Click HERE
COMING UP THIS WEEK
MANY PROMINENT SAN FRANCISCO Bay Area musicians will join Monterey Bay colleagues to celebrate Harrison’s 100th anniversary this Sunday in Santa Cruz. Also on Mother’s Day, the Camerata Singers celebrate their “Arts in Harmony” annual event at
Hidden Valley in Carmel Valley. The first of what is hoped to be an annual, Monterey International Blues Festival invades the Monterey Fairgrounds on Saturday. UCSC and Cabrillo College music ensembles in a flurry of concerts on both campuses. Spring Dance returns to Monterey Peninsula College. Harold Pinter’s Betrayal opens at PacRep’s Circle Theatre. Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (pictured) continues its current run at Mountain Community Theater in Ben Lomond. Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony performs on Saturday at Aptos High School. For details of these and many more live events, click on our CALENDAR and/or on the ads, left.
LOU HARRISON’S PACIFIKA RONDO
COMBINING WESTERN and Asian instruments and practices, it distills his masterful synthesis of cultures that ring the Pacific Ocean.
MONTEREY NATIVE MAKES D.C. DEBU
T
DANIEL HARRAY, film and stage actor, makes his Studio Theatre debut in The Father, opening this week. Off Broadway, he performed in The 39 Steps at Union Square Theater. Select regional credits include The Beaux’ Stratagem and Don Juan at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Cyrano at Sierra Repertory Theatre, 33 Variations at Festival Stage of Winston-Salem, Wit at Seattle Repertory Theatre, and The Scarlet Letter at Lookingglass Theatre Company. He is featured in the upcoming season of Orange Is the New Black and in the 2016 independent film Hold Me. Harray holds an MFA from the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting. Click HERE
CONGRESS: NEA & NEH MORE IMPORTANT THAN TRUMP
WHITTLED DOWN PRESIDENT’S budget attack backfires; it brought harm to veterans and an obvious threat to House Republicans. Story from the LA Times includes two video. Click HERE
BALLET FOR HYPERACTIVE BOYS?
WHY NOT? Click HERE
NEWLY ‘PRINTED’ STRAD VIOLIN COPY
SEE AND HEAR IT, and a real Strad for comparison. Click HERE
HOW GREEK THEATER SHAPED DEMOCRACY
IN ANCIENT ATHENS theater was a forum for ethics as well as drama. Click HERE
BEVERLY WATKINS
STILL SINGING AND PLAYING THE BLUES
FRESH REVIEWS
A.R. GURNEY’S hilarious Sylvia gets taken for a walk in Jewel Theatre’s revival at the Colligan in Santa Cruz. Click HERE
SAL FERRANTELLI’S last concert with I Cantori di Carmel, and the Santa Cruz Symphony’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Manzoni” Requiem. Click HERE
Scott MacClelland, editor; Rebecca RC Brooks, associate editor