Category Archives: Vietnam

2015 Los Angeles International New Music Festival Starts July 7 at REDCAT!

01 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by in Composers, Contemporary Music, Elliott Carter, Gabriela Ortiz, Hong Kong, LA International New Music Festival, Latin Grammy Awards, Laura Mercado-Wright, Los Angeles, Mexico, Music, REDCAT, Southwest Chamber Music, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Toshio Hosokawa, Travel, Vietnam, Walt Disney Concert Hall

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REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall is the new home of the LA International New Music Festival.

REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall is the new home of the LA International New Music Festival.

I love studying scores early in the morning. Maybe it’s because I was born around 8:20 A.M. – some say that’s a good indication of a morning person. Those early hours are undistracted and quiet for learning chords, orchestration, voicings, tempi, interpretation, making all the new details familiar like old friends.

My rule of thumb is to go to sleep each night truly putting the day’s work away. If I can remember everything clearly when I wake up the next morning, I’ve learned just a bit more for the coming performances and then know what to repeat and when to move forward. That makes the next early morning so important for my work habit. And I knew today I’m ready for our LA International New Music Festival starting at REDCAT next week on Tuesday July 7 at 8:30 P.M., with a pre-concert talk at 8 P.M.

Because this morning I got a visitor telling me that just the right energy is coming out of my study!

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YOUNG RICE from Việt Nam arrives in Los Angeles July 9!

11 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in Composers, Contemporary Music, LA International New Music Festival, Los Angeles, Music, REDCAT, Southwest Chamber Music, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Vietnam, Walt Disney Concert Hall

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The Water Puppet Theater in Hanoi, Vietnam

The Water Puppet Theater in Hà Nội, Việt Nnam.

The music and instruments of Việt Nam are captivating. As rich a tradition as any other country in Asia, Vietnamese is also a prestissimo language perfectly suited to the sounds of their evocative culture.

Our Los Angeles International New Music Festival program on July 9 at REDCAT will focus on old enemies and rivals being transformed through music. Cuba, Việt Nam, México and Japan. As Americans we have had complicated relations with all of them, and it often can seem like some of the problems are ongoing.

As Ricardo Gallardo and I kept discussing ideas for this festival, we agreed that music can often succeed where business and politics stumble, and hit upon this concert to open new friendship between old adversaries.

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Complete Programs for the July 2015 LA International New Music Festival at REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall

21 Thursday May 2015

Posted by in Composers, Contemporary Music, Elliott Carter, Gabriela Ortiz, Japan, LA International New Music Festival, Los Angeles, Mexico, Music, REDCAT, Southwest Chamber Music, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Travel, Vietnam, Walt Disney Concert Hall

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REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall is the new home of the LA International New Music Festival.

REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall is the new home of the LA International New Music Festival.

Time to order your tickets for the 2015 LA International New Music Festival at REDCAT Theater in Walt Disney Concert Hall!

I am happy to announce the complete programs for all five concerts between July 7 and July 15. All concerts begin at 8:30 PM with a pre-concert talk at 8 PM.  My ensemble, Southwest Chamber Music, will be joined by our old friends from Mexico, the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, new friends here in Los Angeles, the Eclipse String Quartet, and vocal soloists Ayana Haviv, Laura Mercado-Wright, Elissa Johnston, Jon Lee Keenan and Abdiel Gonzalez. Have a good look at the concerts, and you’ll find the ticket information easily!

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2015 Los Angeles International New Music Festival at REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall, July 7-15

02 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in Composers, Contemporary Music, Elliott Carter, Gabriela Ortiz, Japan, LA International New Music Festival, Latin Grammy Awards, Los Angeles, Mexico, Music, REDCAT, Southwest Chamber Music, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Travel, Vietnam, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Woman in Gold

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REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall is the new home of the LA International New Music Festival.

REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall is the new home of the Los Angeles International New Music Festival.

I am happy to announce the 2015 Los Angeles International New Music Festival will take place at the REDCAT Theater in Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Make your plans now to attend!

Between July 7th and 15th we’re offering five programs contributing to the hard to deny fact that Los Angeles is a leading force moving the classical music world forward in the 21st century, and doing it at top speed. And here’s hoping that many of the 8,000 devoted readers of my blog in over 115 countries might use our festival as a catalyst to visit southern California!

Read on for my July 2015 LA International New Music overview!

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Finding Stravinksy, Ho Chi Minh and Rue Victor Hugo in Biarritz

11 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by in Composers, Contemporary Music, Food, LA International New Music Festival, Los Angeles, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Igor Stravinsky.

Igor Stravinsky, who shaped many of my teachers in Los Angeles.

I’ve always thought that to understand history, you need to experience the locations that can bring a story to life. Being born in Los Angeles, my life as a musician is anchored by Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, both living for many years off of Sunset Boulevard. These two hometown heroes, current academic giant killing be damned, were formative influences on many of the teachers and musicians who shaped my thoughts and ideas. That’s a genuine tradition in my book. Looking back, I realize what a wonderful crucible for music they created in the City of Angels.

Jan and I spent a delightful time in San Sebastian, in Spanish Basque Country, this October, celebrating her 60th birthday. She’d always wanted to experience the legendary pintxos eating and experience first hand what all the gastronomic fuss was about. It didn’t disappoint.

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Lucky Sundays in Los Angeles

18 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by in Composers, Contemporary Music, Elliott Carter, Evan Hughes, Food, LA International New Music Festival, Los Angeles, Mexico, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Vietnam

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Nu Pham Son and Jan at Venice Beach on Lucky Sunday.

Nhu Pham Son and Jan at Venice Beach on Lucky Sunday.

Everyone needs a Lucky Sunday.

Though I still have a few months to go before announcing my 2015 Los Angeles International New Music Festival, there have been a lot of behind the scenes developments that are beginning to shape next steps. It’s a process of reconnecting with old friends, bumping into to new ones (from Hanoi of all places), and planning for important trips to New York City, Carnegie Hall, Mexico City and the Festival de Mexico in the New Year.

Living in Los Angeles grounds my love for seeing, hearing and tasting the world. And my friends in Los Angeles ground my vision for next steps. We’ve reconnected with two of the inspirations of our life, composer William Kraft and author/broadcaster Martin Perlich, caught up with bass-baritone Evan Hughes at Walt Disney Concert Hall, had a visit from Virgil Blackwell (Elliott Carter’s assistant for over 20 years), and by chance bumped into new friends from Hanoi, Thuy Thu Thuy and her daughter, Nhu Pham.

Everyone needs a Lucky Sunday.

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Happy Anniversary!

17 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by in California wine, Food, LA International New Music Festival, Latin Grammy Awards, Los Angeles, Luang Prabang, Mexico, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Thanks to our readers!

Thanks to my global readers!

Today is the first anniversary of my LA International New Music Festival blog. What a rewarding journey thus far – I’m making a great meal tonight to celebrate, as your encouraging readership is the best surprise imaginable!

88 countries around the globe. 5300 readers for 49 posts. 20 countries from Asia, 16 from the Americas (North, Central and South), 31 from Europe, 8 from Africa, and 5 from the Middle East. But let’s not stop there. God bless the island countries of Planet Earth for adding 8 more locations from Mayotte to Jamaica, Cape Verde to Mauritius. I should have started this sooner!

A big THANK YOU to all my readers!

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Sound Dreams in Los Angeles

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by in Cambodia, Carlos Chavez, Composers, Contemporary Music, Elliott Carter, Evan Hughes, John Cage, Kyoto, LA International New Music Festival, Latin Grammy Awards, Los Angeles, Mexico, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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East meets West in Los Angeles.

East meets West in Los Angeles as violist Do Huong Tra My of Hanoi tries Cafecito Organico at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

David Letterman, the revered American comic who has been keeping us up late at night for over 30 years here in the United States, revealed the two components of a good joke. To be funny the joke has to be 1) Obvious and 2) Stupid. Say all the words right and you can cue laughter.

If you are already one of my 4500 blog readers in 80 countries, you know I don’t see my LA International New Music Festival as an independent endeavor. So many ideas go into artistic decisions that adopting a single viewpoint is at the least annoying and at the worst dishonest. My thoughts and plots for the 2015 Festival continue apace, but for this post I thought I’d create an exposition of idea and concept behind the next installment.

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The Old Inn on the Green: Colonial Cuisine in New England

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by in Composers, Contemporary Music, Food, John Cage, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Twilight fog in New England.

Twilight fog in New England at The Old Inn on the Green in New Marlborough.

There is an unescapable magic in the New England countryside of the Berkshire Hills in Western Massachusetts. The legendary fall foliage, the evanescent green of spring, the fireflies of summer, the winter white snow fall.

And this post is a story for my many curious and interested readers in over 80 countries around the globe. America is a complicated country, with huge frustrations, a complicated historical legacy concocted from British, French and Spanish colonial interests, and often maddening contradictions. There’s nothing like a good meal and a good book to help you start to understand a people and their country.

Do yourself a favor and make a reservation at The Old Inn on the Green.

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Hanoi in Hollywood 4: Venice Beach

06 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Composers, Contemporary Music, Food, LA International New Music Festival, Los Angeles, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Venice Beach Easter with Jan Karlin & Do Huong Tra My.

Venice Beach with Jan Karlin & Do Huong Tra My.

Timing is everything.

Mae West was right. You only live once, but if you do it right, once should be enough.

So after hard work, it’s time to enjoy life on a holiday. It was Easter Sunday in LA, and my friends from Hanoi had naturally not had a lot of time to see things. And it’s important to see what any city has that is only found in that city. One of those unique places for Los Angeles is what I call The End of the Western World.

The Venice Beach Walkway. In all its bizarre glory…….

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