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  • DAVID BREIDENTHAL AND JAZZ PIANIST & COMPOSER BILLY CHILDS FEATURED IN WORLD PREMIERE OF CHILDS' BASSOON SONATA
  • Apr. 7, 2003
  • LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT

    GINDI AUDITORIUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF JUDAISM

    MONDAY, APRIL 7 AT 8 PM

    Members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic are featured in works by Mozart, Billy Childs, and Poulenc at the Chamber Music Society concert Monday, April 7, at 8 PM in Gindi Auditorium at the University of Judaism. Principal bassoonist David Breidenthal will premiere the Sonata for Bassoon and Piano written expressly for him by jazz pianist and composer Billy Childs, who will appear as pianist in this performance.

    The evening opens and closes with chamber masterworks written by Mozart in 1789. The concert begins with the String Quartet No. 21 in D major, K. 575 - one of three "Prussian" Quartets written after Mozart had met and received a job offer from the cello-playing King of Prussia - features Assistant Concertmaster Mark Baranov, violinist SuLi Xue, violist Hui Liu, and cellist Barry Gold. The concert finale, Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581, is the second of three works the composer wrote for Viennese court orchestra principal clarinetist Anton Stadler. It spotlights Philharmonic clarinetist David Howard, along with violinists Lyndon Taylor and Kristine Hedwall, violist John Hayhurst, and cellist Barry Gold.

    Poulenc's light and witty Sonata for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano (1926), features Assistant Principal oboist Marion Kuszyk, bassoonist Michele Grego, and pianist Joanne Pearce Martin.

    "I strove to emphasize the bassoon's unique lyricism in the sonata, which is in two movements," says Billy Childs of his Bassoon Sonata, the penultimate work on the program. "While the piece is technically demanding for both bassoon and piano, I wanted it to exude a fluid, singing, almost effortless feeling. " Born in Los Angeles, Childs began piano lessons at age six and at 16 entered USC's Community School of the Performing Arts. Although he initially focused on piano performance, Childs shifted his attention to composition, graduating with a bachelor of music in composition. Since then, Childs has received a number of orchestral commissions, including two by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic -- Tone Poem for Holly (1993) and Fanfare for the United Races of America (1994). Members of the Philharmonic have also performed Child's A Day in the Forest of Dreams for woodwind quintet and piano on the Chamber Music Society series (January 1999), a work commissioned, premiered, and recorded by the Dorian Wind Quintet. Other commissions have come from the Akron Symphony Orchestra, North Texas State Wind Orchestra, and the Monterey Jazz Festival, among others. He has composed scores for the Australian film Flynn, which was nominated for an Australian Film Institute Award, and Eriq LaSalle's Crazy As Hell. Equally acclaimed as a jazz pianist and arranger, Childs began his recording career in 1988 and has to date garnered four Grammy Award nominations.

    The 2002/2003 Chamber Music Society Series is generously supported by Sadie and Norman Lee, and Bernice and Wendell Jeffrey.

    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:

    MONDAY, APRIL 7 at 8 PM

    Gindi Auditorium, University of Judaism (15600 Mulholland Drive, West Los Angeles)

    CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY

    MEMBERS OF THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

    BILLY CHILDS, piano

    MOZART: String Quartet No. 21 in D, K. 575

    POULENC: Sonata for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano

    CHILDS: Sonata for Bassoon (world premiere)

    MOZART: Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581

    Tickets ($25) are on sale now at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office, all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons-May, Tower Records, Ritmo Latino, Tu Musica, and selected Wherehouse locations), or by credit card phone order at 323.850.2000. Tickets will also be available online at laphil.com and at Gindi Auditorium on the day of performance, two hours prior to the concert. For further information, please call 323.850.2000.

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  • Contact:

    Elizabeth Hinckley, 323.850.2047; for photos: Scalla Sheen, 323.850.2015