It is rare for an orchestra to present a concert dedicated to only American composers, and rarer to present only women composers, and we offer both. The Culver City Symphony will be offering this concert as part of the orchestra’s American Beat series in which an American orchestra performs music of American composers. It is also a historic perspective of works by women composers from the turn of last century, to the mid-century and late 20th Century; to contemporary composers.
The concert is Saturday, Jan. 29, at 8 p.m. at Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium, 4117 Overland Avenue, Culver City; at the corner of Culver Boulevard and Overland Avenue. Free parking is available. This concert is under the direction of its Conductor-Frank Fetta.
Admission Charge: $10.
The American Beat: Women Composers
Program:
Frank Fetta – Conductor
Amy Beach, Gaelic Symphony- 4th Mvt., (1896)
Elinor Remick Warren, The Legend of King Arthur, Intermezzo and Aria: King Arthur’s Farewell, (1939)
Ellen Zwilich, (Pulitzer Prize Winning Composer), Jubilation, (1996)
Deon Nielsen Price, States of Mind, (1985, rev. 2003)
Adrienne Albert, Western Suite, (1999, rev. 2010)
Sylvia Lee Mann, Moonfire Rising, World Premiere
Alex Shapiro, The Ebb of Memory, (2003, rev. 2010)
Sharon Farber, Translucent Rocks, (2007, rev. 2010)
This concert offers an historic perspective of women composers from the United States. Amy Beach, (Sept. 5, 1867 – Dec. 27, 1944), is considered the first prominent American women composer. Her Gaelic Symphony was premiered in 1896. The 19th Amendment guaranteeing a woman’s right to vote became law in 1920. Los Angeles native Elinor Remick Warren (February 23, 1900 – April 27, 1991) was a tremendously successful composer whose works were performed by major orchestras in her lifetime. We hope the two excerpts from The Legend of King Arthur on the program will start a renewal of her works which need more hearings.
The remaining women composers on the program are living, active composers. Ellen Zwilich was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1983. Adrienne Albert, Sylvia Mann (the orchestra’s Principal Violist), Deon Nielsen Price, Alex Shapiro and Sharon Farber are contemporary women composer with a rich history of the works being performed nationally and internationally. All are West Coast based, most in Los Angeles.
There is a $10 admission charge to attend this concert, and donations and membership to the Westchester Symphony Society, Inc. are welcome. Members of the Westchester Symphony Society are entitled to reserved concert seating, and to a pre-concert talk given by Maestro Fetta and some of the Women Composers.. Membership is available at the concert. The Westchester Symphony Society, Inc., presents The Culver City Symphony Orchestra, and produces the Parness Young Artists Fund Concerto Competition.
This performance is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Culver City Performing Arts Grant Program Fund with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The Culver City Symphony Orchestra is now in its tenth year performing in Culver City, and begins its 47th season (formerly as The Culver City – Marina – Westchester Symphony). It has performed in many regional venues in the communities of Westchester, Venice, Los Angeles, San Gabriel, and now Culver City.
In addition to presenting the standard orchestra repertoire and concert dramatizations of operas, the orchestra has presented unique concerts devoted to Black American, Hispanic, and Women composers. It is the parent orchestra of the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony which performs at Burton Chace Park. The orchestra and its members have performed at The Los Angeles Street Festival, on live-radio music broadcasts from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.
Frank Fetta, Conductor and Music Director, is well known for his conducting of orchestral music, ballet, and opera in Southern California as well as throughout the country including engagements with the San Diego Symphony, the Redlands Bowl Music Festival (of which he is director), the Fresno Philharmonic, the Torrance Symphony, the Nevada Opera Theater, and the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony.
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