Suzie HarrisonThe hills are alive with the...

Suzie Harrison

The hills are alive with the sound of music, as is the beach and the

canyon, in fact Laguna Beach as a whole is coming together for the

first ever Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival.

Put together through the impetus of Laguna Beach Live! with the

help of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Laguna Beach

Chamber Music Society this weeklong event, which culminates with

concerts today, Saturday and Sunday has branched out to be a citywide

event.

Cindy Prewitt, president of Laguna Beach Live!, spearheaded the

event. It was born out of the newly created Laguna Beach Live!, which

is now in its second year. It started with free chamber music at the

Laguna College of Art and Design known as “First Sundays.”

“We do it once a month and have a full house,” Prewitt said. “It

inspired me to apply for a grant. In ’92 when the Artists’ Theatre

was being remodeled, the Philharmonic went to Irvine Barclay Theatre.

We had no classical music or chamber music.”

The grant provided the seed money to allow Laguna Beach Live! to

go to the Philharmonic Society.

“The concept is different,” Prewitt said. “This is the only one

I’ve heard of where they bring in emerging artists and coach them

during the week. They are practicing together and their performance

is at the end of the week.”

Prewitt likes the concept in that it is building musicians on all

levels. During the dress rehearsals, some of the high school students

will be present. Also, some of the musicians will perform at Thurston

Middle School and Sage Hill in Newport Beach, where she said some

Laguna residents attend. Friday afternoon the group will be visiting

music director Wade Hendricks’ class at Laguna Beach High School for

a question and answer session.

“The concept of the festival is to have an established musician

work with emerging artists to give us the opportunity to watch them

work and then to hear them perform both individually and together,”

Prewitt said. “For this first year, Claude Frank, a pianist of

international reputation and teacher at Curtis Institute of Music and

Yale University, has been selected as the mentor musician.”

Frank’s career began with his debut with Leonard Bernstein and the

New York Philharmonic in 1959. He has continually performed with the

world’s foremost orchestras at major music festivals and most

prestigious universities.

This event has taken more than a year to organize and one of the

steps was contacting every music school across the country to find

the right musicians. The two chosen ensembles are The Calder Quartet

from USC and Trio Movado from New York.

Angela Jia Kim is part of the Trio Movado, and she feels this

experience is unparalleled.

“We just got together for this festival, they’re really wonderful

people -- it’s like a dream,” Kim said. “We were recommended from

people in New York City and got in contact with Claude Frank. He’s

just the consummate artist, everything I strive to be as a musician.”

Musician Annaliesa Place, who is a Julliard student, and has

traveled the world performing since age 12, is happy to be a part of

this event.

“It’s a big honor to be in Laguna Beach, not only is it the most

beautiful place I’ve ever been -- I’ve been to Europe and around the

world, but the people are so friendly,” Place said. “It’s really

amazing to be here working with Frank, getting to play with such a

great legend is great for all of us.”

Another aspect that connects the event with the community is that

all the musicians stay with host families in town. The families

chosen to host have student musicians in the Laguna School system.

The musicians meet, stay with, talk and rehearse with the host

family.

The music festival has offered a number of free events throughout

town such as a music and art reception at Woody’s, a discussion and

demonstration on performing chamber music at Laguna Art Museum, open

rehearsals for anyone to attend, as well as their introduction at

“First Sundays” at the college and two benefit performances and

receptions at Hotel Laguna.

Joan Halvajian, who is on the Philharmonic’s board of directors

and a co-chair of the event, feels this festival has been a wonderful

way to bring Laguna Beach Live! and the Philharmonic together.

“I’ve been involved with our schools forever,” Halvajian said.

“This involvement with our schools is bringing chamber music back to

Laguna Beach.”

At 8 p.m. today will be Brahms: Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8,

Saturday at 8 p.m. will include Brahms: Piano quartet in C Minor, Op.

60 and Sunday at 3 p.m. the concert will feature Schumann: Piano

Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44. Tickets are $20 per concert for

adults and $10 for students with a special package price for all

three concerts for $45 with reserved sections. Tickets will be sold

for the Festival concerts at the box office at the Artists’ Theatre 2

hours before concert time. They will be sold at the Playhouse and

Philharmonic office until 5 p.m. on Friday. The theater is at 625

Park Ave. For information or tickets, call 553-2422 or go online to

www.lagunabeachlive.org or www.philharmonicsociety.org.