This season, Musica Angelica is bringing its Baroque orchestra out of the concert hall and into a quintessential public space: The Long Beach Public Library.<\/p>\n
Energizing new and underserved audiences is an effort that the Long Beach orchestra has continually taken to heart \u2014 from giving free concert tickets to college students to driving educational outreach programs at the Long Beach Unified School District.<\/p>\n
The free Community Concert monthly series will begin Dec. 2 at the Billie Jean King Main Library before it\u2019s offered at other branches across the city.<\/p>\n
The concerts will offer the public a rare, up-close experience with the orchestra\u2019s world-class musicians. For a show that might normally cost anywhere from $45 to $85, attendees will get access to the only local Baroque orchestra performing with period instruments free of charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a way to bring the art form directly to the community, and we feel that libraries are an ideal place because they\u2019re a kind of meeting place for a lot of people,\u201d said Musica Angelica Executive Director Matthew Faulkner. \u201cWe think it\u2019s just a fabulous way to bring period instrument playing directly to the community because there\u2019s big issues about access to the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new Community Concert series marks a sort of aspirational bridging for the 30-year-old orchestra, hitting their educational outreach, diversity and accessibility goals. The hour-long show will also include a lecture for both adults and children to enjoy.<\/p>\n
The inaugural show will be led by Musica Angelica\u2019s principal cellist Alexa Haynes-Pilon, a Baroque multi-instrumentalist who has performed with a slew of distinguished ensembles across North America and Europe. Among her many career points, her preference for animal gut-stringed cellos (the traditional practice for centuries) also made for a fitting recording credit on the gruesome crime thriller television series \u201cHannibal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canadian-born musician is also quite the historian of early Baroque cello music. Her doctoral research at the University of Southern California zeroed in on Italian composers from the 1680s and 1690s from Modena, Ferrara and Bologna.<\/p>\n
At the Community Concert on Dec. 2, she\u2019ll be performing music from Giovanni Gabrieli, Giuseppe Colombi, Achille Galli and Tomaso Antonio Vitali \u2014 all of whom she says created music for cello that\u2019s well-suited for first-time listeners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are some of the first guys to kind of dive into unaccompanied cello repertoire so it\u2019s a lot more approachable because a lot of pieces are shorter,\u201d she said. \u201cSo especially if there are children in the audience having a two- or three-minute piece is a bit more approachable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Audiences can expect about 30 minutes of music. Children will also be given coloring materials and be asked to draw whatever the music inspires.<\/p>\n
In keeping with the orchestra\u2019s ethos, Hayes-Pilon will be performing on a Baroque instrument \u2014 a replica Montagnana cello, \u201cwhich means that it has a larger body, which gives it a deeper, more resonant sound,\u201d she said. Her original 18th-century cello, crafted by English luthier John Morrison in 1790, stays at her other home on the East Coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to buy its own seat for it,\u201d she said about the travel precautions.<\/p>\n
The other half of the program will include a lecture and a question-and-answer portion, the part Haynes-Pilon says will be the most rewarding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about accessibility, and you don\u2019t often get that in a big concert hall because it\u2019s the stage and the audience. You don\u2019t get that kind of connection,\u201d she said. \u201cFor the younger generations, it\u2019s about planting that seed and sparking the imagination and allowing them to be curious and ask questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m retired, I just want to know that maybe one of these outreach concerts got someone to start playing because they were excited about what they saw.\u201d<\/p>\n
Community Concerts with Haynes-Pilon will start at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2 in the Miller Room at the Billie Jean King Main Library. The monthly concert series will continue with single shows through April with local visits scheduled at the Los Altos Neighborhood Library, the Dana Neighborhood Library and Michelle Obama Public Library.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra plans to bring a free concert series to local public libraries in Long Beach, starting with the Billie Jean King Main Library on Dec. 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":79896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[292],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[8767],"class_list":["post-79892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-music","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79892"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79902,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79892\/revisions\/79902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79892"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=79892"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=79892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}