Violinist

Artistic Director

Each year, Salastina selects up to 10 young composers worldwide to take part in its Sounds Promising Young Composers Program. The program is zero-cost for all participants, and has resulted in “life-changing” (their words, not ours!) professional development – and even high-profile commissions. Last year, we pledged to commission one participant from each year’s cohort. This concert includes world premieres by 2021 Sounds Promising Young Composer Kian Ravaei and a 2023 participant to be determined. Each composer will pen a piece for our entire ensemble – piano, string quartet, and flute – taking inspiration from Bach’s Chaconne. Resident Pianist HyeJin Kim opens the program with Busoni’s arrangement of the same work. Wine and munchies reception to follow.

EPSG:4326

Main Series No. 4: Youth at the Altar

Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center

**Event Title:** The Universe Sounds Delicious

**Date and Time:** Sunday, April 28, 2024, from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM (18:00 - 22:00)

**Location:** The Revery, 1700 Naud Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90012, United States

**Description:**
Prepare for an interstellar journey where classical music meets the cosmic expanse in "The Universe Sounds Delicious." This unique event, hosted at the otherworldly venue of The Revery in Los Angeles, promises an evening where the music of the spheres has never tasted so good. 

Dive into a space-themed musical odyssey complemented by a gourmet 5-course meal crafted by Master Chef alum Becky Brown. The event features an intimate setting that allows for a stellar blend of astronomy, music, and gastronomy. Attendees will have the privilege of meeting three astronomers who are not only passionate about the cosmos but also share a deep love for music. They will unveil the millennia-old connection between music and astronomy, sharing insights and secrets of the universe.

Highlight of the evening includes a performance by NASA astronomer Steve Bryson, known for his work in discovering Earth-like planets. He will enchant the audience with the theremin, playing alongside Salastina’s string quartet, and share insights from his scientific endeavors. Additionally, two esteemed French employees from LIGO will discuss their Nobel Prize-winning work in 2017, which involves listening to the actual sounds of the universe to gain insights into its origins.

The event also features a "Theremin Petting Zoo," where guests can try their hand at creating otherworldly sounds and alien voices, adding an interactive and immersive element to the evening. The experience design by Mercedes Curran ensures an unforgettable night that blends music, science, and culinary arts in a way that's unparalleled in the universe.

**Artists:**
- Kevin Kumar and Maia Jasper White, Co-Artistic Directors and Violinists
- Yoshika Masuda, Resident Cellist
- Linnea Powell, Guest Violist
- Steve Bryson, Guest Theremin Player and Speaker
- Arnaud Pele and Marie Kasprczak, Guest Speakers
- Becky Brown, Chef
- Mercedes Curran, Experience Designer

**Program:**
- Terry Riley: Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector
- Carolina Eyck: Ascent Descent and Strange Birds
- Chris Westlake: Selections from Star Trek: Below Decks
- Hans Zimmer: Selections from Interstellar
- John Williams: Selections from Star Wars

**Menu Highlights:**
- Welcome drink: Bantha Punch
- First course options: Tai snapper crudo OR Shiso salad (vegetarian option)
- Second course: Extraterrestrial beet terrine
- Third course options: Braised beef short rib OR Braised King oyster mushroom (vegetarian option)
- Fourth course: Nebula luminescent chocolate cake

**Ticket Information:** In-person tickets are priced at $295.

**Additional Information:** All sales are final. Programs, artists, prices, and dates are subject to change. Donations to Salastina, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, are deductible to the full extent of the law.

Prepare to embark on a cosmic journey that tantalizes the senses and expands the mind at "The Universe Sounds Delicious."

The Universe Sounds Delicious

The Revery LA

Sounds Mysterious is a game in which Brian assigns us a piece of music that none of us recognize. He even redacts the composer’s name. We rehearse it, perform it, and attempt to guess the composer along with you. The delight of surprise and interactive “whodunnit” guessing game make for an engaging spin on the live concert experience. Mimosa and pastry reception to follow.

Happy Hour No. 121: Sounds Mysterious with Brian Lauritzen

Pasadena Conservatory of Music

What happens when a symphonist writes for 5 instruments? In this case, a masterpiece for the ages. Brian Lauritzen dissects what makes Brahms’ Piano Quintet such a perfect piece of music before a full performance of the work. Mimosa and pastry reception to follow.

Main Series No. 3: Sounds Genius Brahms' Piano Quintet

Slow your heartbeat and set it aflutter with a selection of soul-soothing and soul-stirring Romantic fare. Featuring world-premiere arrangements by Salastina’s Resident Violist, Meredith Crawford.

A Salastina.calm Valentine's Day

Beautycon

A contemplative Happy Hour exploring the porous boundary between mortality and the beyond. Musical selections include the slow movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 132 and the world-premiere instrumental-only chamber arrangement of Eric Whitacre’s profoundly moving choral work, The Sacred Veil. The setting – a marble sanctuary suffused with the rainbow light of hundreds of stained glass windows – sets the scene. Mimosa and pastry reception to follow. 

Happy Hour No. 120: The Sacred Veil with Eric Whitacre

Mountain View Mausoleum

As the holiday season approaches, immerse yourself in a late-19th-century musical, culinary, and generally Christmas-y explosion.

Enjoy a 5-course gourmet holiday brunch prepared by Master Chef alum Becky Brown. Travel back in time in the stunning period venue; built in 1899, the Doheny Mansion’s Pompeian Room is replete with actual gilded details, colored marble floors, and a golden, ombre glass dome that is simply resplendent at mid-day. And naturally, it’ll be appropriately decked out for Christmas.

Sounds Delicious: A Gilded Christmas Brunch

Mount Saint Mary's University

Salastina’s contribution to the statewide California Festival of contemporary classical music is in partnership with Leela Dance Collective, a Hindustani Kathak dance company. Encounters With Beauty is a world-premiere piece of choreography set to music by our dear friends and LA-based composers Derrick Skye and Reena Esmail. Wine reception, replete with Indian munchies, to follow.

Salastina x The California Festival: Encounters with Beauty feat. Leela Dance Collective

If you love dead, white, male German composers as much as we do – and are not (yet!) familiar with the greatness of Johann Nepomuk Hummel – this concert exploring the arbitrariness of fame is for you. In 1819, Hummel organized a concert for the world-premiere performance of one of his works; for the occasion, Schubert wrote the Trout Quintet for the same combination of instruments. Guess which piece is all anyone remembers? Salastina recreates this concert – so that you can be the judge of whether or not posterity was fair to jettison a composer with a name as awesome as “Nepomuk.” Wine and munchies reception to follow.

Main Series No. 5: Schubert and the Pummel of Hummel

Do not miss this one-night-only performance at the Huntington Library and Gardens. To get in the mood before dinner, you are welcome to wander the Huntington’s grounds until 5:00 PM free with your concert ticket purchase.

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

The Huntington

Say Salastinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah as we envelop you in a stunning musical playlist specifically designed to bring on a healing ugly cry. Reception to follow.

Salastina.calm

The Broad Stage - The Edye

An evening-length work for voice, flute, string quartet and electronics developed by Grammy-nominated composer/performer Nathalie Joachim, Fanm d’Ayiti is a celebration of some of Haiti’s most iconic yet under-recognized female artists, as well as an exploration of Joachim’s Haitian heritage.

Fanm d’Ayiti  (Women of Haiti) Nathalie Joachim and Salastina

Irvine Barclay Theatre

When your Resident Artists are this good, you owe it to everyone to shine a giant spotlight on them once in a while. Meredith’s luscious tone and keen sense of beauty shine in Vaughan Williams’ Suite for Viola. And Schumann’s Cello Concerto, arranged for chamber ensemble, has been on Yoshi’s wishlist for years. Who needs orchestral accompaniment when your chamber music friends have your back?

Resident Artist Showcase: Meredith and Yoshi

Sometimes, we can’t resist cutting our teeth on music that is incomparably gratifying and cleansing to play. This program is the sorbetto to Shostakovich’s borscht.

Salastina Goes for Baroque

We’d planned on starting a multi-year cycle of the complete chamber works of Dmitri Shostakovich back in March of 2020. This intense music is all the more cathartic now in light of not only the ongoing war in Ukraine, but also the broader political and existential fatigue in which we all find ourselves. Explore three of Shostakovich’s seminal works with us, written at the beginning, middle, and end of his life.

Shostakovich Cycle

Pasadena Playhouse

The “OC” of OC fan tutte is - you guessed it - Orange County. Once among the most conservative areas of the U.S, the OC is now undergoing rapid demographic and cultural change. This makes it the perfect setting for our drama. Diving right into the widening gulf between right and left, OC fan tutte brings humor and irreverence to the culture wars.
Mozart’s two young couples are now fundamentalist Christians. They're hell-bent on proving their moral superiority to social justice warriors… who have a righteous agenda of their own.

Season Finale OC fan tutte

The Broad Stage

Season Finale : OC fan tutte

Colburn School

Mozart's music for Così fan tutte has stood the test of time for hundreds of years. Its plot, however, hasn't aged quite so gracefully.
Librettist Vid Guerrerio's OC fan tutte leaves every note of Così fan tutte intact -- and hits refresh on the plot. Set in the Culture Wars battleground that is Orange County today, OC fan tutte replaces Così's 18th-century misogyny with current issues of gender equality and marriage rights.

Maia Jasper White

Violinist, Artistic Director

Events

Past events

10 - 11 May, 2024

Main Series No. 4: Youth at the Altar · Salastina

Apr 28, 2024

The Universe Sounds Delicious · Salastina

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