Generous to the ears, easy on the wallet

Relatives or guests are in town for the holidays and you’re looking for concerts that won’t break the bank. Sure, there are plenty of “Messiahs” and “Nutcrackers” and church services that feature serious music. But you’re looking for something a little more worldly. You’ve taken them to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, but you’re eager for an opportunity to show off the local geography.

Now what?

Fortunately, the Los Angeles region offers a host of other opportunities to hear classical music.

Indeed, there’s a long tradition here of gathering together excellent musicians who make big money playing in Hollywood recording studios but who long to make more beautiful music. You can find many of them in the Long Beach, Pasadena, Pacific and Santa Barbara symphonies.

Other musicians are attracted to the exposure they get playing chamber music, which is where you’ll find composers’ best and most concentrated writing. That spirit is what kept alive the Coleman Chamber Music series, the oldest independent chamber music series in the country, founded 101 years ago in Pasadena by the pioneering Alice Coleman Batchelder. And that’s what inspired the Santa Monica-based Jacaranda series, founded only last year by Mark Hilt and Patrick Scott. Times music critic Mark Swed called a recent Jacaranda concert “a terrific program celebrating the West Coast spirit and American spunk.”

What most of these organizations have in common is a roster of accomplished musicians but a budget too limited to do much to promote them.

Still, word gets around.

Long Beach Symphony conductor and composer Enrique Arturo Diemecke brings an insider’s savvy to music, revealing the inner heartbeat of a piece. Orange County’s Pacific Symphony premieres new work and takes risks every year with an American music-themed festival.

The New West Orchestra is generating a lot of enthusiasm in Thousand Oaks and Ventura. A chamber series in Fullerton regularly enlists amazing young artists on the way up -- and it’s free.

So you and your guests don’t necessarily have to drive very far to hear something that’s very good.

What follows is a guide to the groups that can make your holidays and the start of the New Year a musical success.

Long Beach Symphony

Music director Enrique Arturo Diemecke recently sounded on the verge of tears when he spoke to the audience before conducting James MacMillan’s “The Confession of Isobel Gowdie,” a memorial to a woman tortured to death for witchcraft in 17th century Scotland. That willingness to be publicly emotional about music is one of the reasons everyone has so quickly taken to Diemecke, who took over the orchestra in 2001. That and his strongly led performances. Though he often leads bread-and-butter repertory, Diemecke usually makes it worthwhile. A subtle, moving performance of Elgar’s romantic “Enigma Variations,” full of personal details, comes to mind.

Diemecke is also a composer. Though he doesn’t generally use the orchestra as a vehicle for his own music, next month he’ll be conducting the world premiere of his own “Concerto Ultimus” at the next Long Beach Symphony concert -- and that should be something to hear.

Diemecke conducts six classical concerts a year, and the symphony also offers pops concerts and young people’s programs.

New West Symphony

When Canadian conductor Boris Brott formed this ensemble in 1995 out of the dissolved Ventura County and Conejo symphonies, people in those communities lamented the loss of their regional orchestras. But over the years, Brott and his group have garnered critical respect for their performances. Times critic Josef Woodard recently called them “increasingly a contender on the West Coast symphony scene.”

Brott’s next concert, devoted to American music, includes the haunting music Virgil Thomson wrote for the 1936 documentary “The Plow That Broke the Plains.” The program is part of the six-season concert series performed at the Oxnard Center for the Performing Arts on Fridays and at the Countrywide Performing Arts Center in Thousand Oaks on Saturdays.

Pacific Symphony

Music director Carl St.Clair is another conductor who doesn’t hesitate to talk to audiences if he feels doing so will help them understand music more deeply. That reaching out has endeared him to Orange County audiences ever since his appointment in 1990. It’s also helped drive the Pacific to become, in terms of budget, the third-largest in the state. Under St.Clair’s leadership, the orchestra has ambitiously premiered and recorded several large-scale commissioned works, including Elliot Goldenthal’s “Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio” and Richard Danielpour’s “An American Requiem.”

On a good day, the Pacific is as impressive an orchestra as you’d want, and these days, the good days tend to come more regularly than ever. Opera Pacific music director John DeMain, who has his own excellent reputation, will guest conduct the next Pacific concerts early in January. St.Clair, who never balks at a challenge, returns later next month to conduct excerpts from Wagner’s massive “Ring of the Nibelung,” with soprano Jane Eaglen as the soloist.

The Pacific offers 20 classical concerts each year, plus pops and chamber music series and a summer season at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.

Pasadena Symphony

Music director Jorge Mester, who’s in the middle of celebrating his 20th season with the Pasadena Symphony, loves to throw a few curves. He included the West Coast premiere of Philip Glass’ Concerto for Two Timpanists and Orchestra on a program that also featured works by Alberto Ginastera and Witold Lutoslawski. None of these composers is exactly a household name, and the orchestra could have used more rehearsal for the concert. But Mester carried the day. “A sense of danger adds zest to an orchestral concert world that regularly errs on the side of playing it safe,” The Times’ Swed wrote. “And that adventurous spirit, as a large audience at Pasadena Civic Auditorium enthusiastically demonstrated, can be contagious.”

Mester’s next program, Dec. 11, will have a slight twist to it too. He’ll preface Beethoven’s mighty Ninth Symphony with Beethoven’s Eighth. The earlier work is jolly and dancelike. The Ninth ends in a vaunted call to universal peace and brotherhood. Expect a grand performance.

Fullerton Friends of Music

What a daring idea harpsichordist Beulah Strickler had in 1959. She had already been giving increasingly well-attended concerts with friends in her home. Let’s move them, she thought, to the Fullerton Public Library. So began the series of free Sunday afternoon concerts that continue to this day. The series moved to its present location, Sunny Hills High School, in 1980. Strickler stepped down as artistic director in 2002 but remains active on the board. Operating on a shoestring budget, the series somehow manages to present star groups such as the New York Chamber Soloists, the Jacques Thibaud Trio and flutist Eugenia Zuckerman (all on the current season) as well as up-and-comers.

Jacaranda

The newest kid on the classical block, the Jacaranda concert series is the brainchild of artistic director Mark Hilt and series producer Patrick Scott. It grew out of an earlier series called Friends of Music at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, where Hilt is the director of music. That series lacked a distinctive profile, Hilt says, which the new version is designed to overcome by filling gaps in programming while also providing a venue for high-quality chamber music on the Westside. Unlike most other arts groups, Jacaranda is not a nonprofit organization. It operates under the auspices of the church, through funds raised privately. That gives the organizers some safety but also limits their fundraising potential because foundations usually won’t give to churches. Still, Hilt says the organization is going to remain under the auspices of the church for a few years to see how audiences develop.

Monday Evening Concerts

This is the granddaddy of new music concerts in Los Angeles, a descendant of Peter Yates’ legendary, pioneering Evenings on the Roof concerts performed in his cramped Silver Lake house, beginning in 1939. The series outgrew Yates’ little studio and moved to larger venues, eventually to settle at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1965, where it continues. The museum’s department of music actually presents several series, including one devoted to jazz. However much it’s changed over the years, there will always be a special nostalgia about Monday Evening Concerts.

The list of composers showcased there is a veritable Who’s Who: from George Antheil, Bela Bartok, Alban Berg, Pierre Boulez and John Cage at the start of the alphabet to Steve Reich, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky and Anton Webern at the end. And those names are just a sampling. “The series remains a phenomenon,” Swed wrote. “Nothing like it anywhere has had such longevity.”

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A few notes about where to hear the notes

Orchestras and chamber groups from east, west, north and south of Los Angeles define the broad boundaries of classical music in Southern California. Here’s a selective chronological map across that landscape that will get any eager listener through to the New Year with minimal financial pain. Any of the following concerts can be seen for $20 or less.

Saturday

New West Symphony

Boris Brott conducts a program of American music, including Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade, Thomson’s Suite from the “The Plow That Broke the Plains” and Gershwin-Bennett’s “Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture.” Violinist Cho-Liang Lin will be the soloist.

* Countrywide Performing Arts Center, Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. 8 p.m. $15-$60. (800) 639-9377 for area codes 818 and 805. Others, call (866) 776-8400 or www.newwestsymphony.org

Sunday

Brentwood-Westwood Symphony

Alvin Mills, who has led this orchestra for 52 years, will conduct music by Vivaldi, Beethoven and Vaughan Williams. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra flutist David Shostac will be the soloist in music by Doppler and Henry Mancini.

* Paul Revere Middle School, 1450 Allenford Ave., Brentwood. 3 p.m. Free. (310) 829-3149 or www.brentwoodwestwoodsymphony.org

Sundays Live

The Angeli Duo, violinists Julie Gigante and Sara Parkins, and guest violist Roland Kata play works by Telemann, Maria Newman, Dvorak and Bruce Dukov.

* Bing Theatre, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 6 p.m. Free. (213) 473-8525 or www.sundayslive.org

Fullerton Friends of Music

Now in its 46th year of sponsoring free Sunday afternoon concerts, the Fullerton Friends present the Premiere Trio in works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Schubert.

* Performing Arts Center, Sunny Hills High School, 1801 Warburton Way, Fullerton. 3:30 p.m. Free. (714) 525-9504 or www.webpan.com/fullerton-friends-of-music

Dec. 11

Pasadena Symphony

As part of his 20th anniversary season, Jorge Mester conducts Beethoven’s Eighth and Ninth symphonies, with the combined choirs of Occidental College singing in the Ninth.

* Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena. 8 p.m. $15-$69. (626) 793-7172 or www.pasadenasymphony.org

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

Guest conductor Joseph Swensen, who back home heads the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, will lead LACO in works by Beethoven, Chopin and James MacMillan. LACO music director Jeffrey Kahane will be at the piano.

* Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. 8 p.m. Also 7 p.m. Dec. 12 at Royce Hall, UCLA, Westwood. $17-$75. (213) 622-7001 or www.laco.org

Dec. 12

Sundays Live

The youthful Calder Quartet will play music by Debussy and Shostakovich. John Perry will join the ensemble in Brahms’ Piano Quartet.

* Bing Theatre, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 6 p.m. Free. (213) 473-8525 or www.sundayslive.org

Dec. 13

Monday Evening Concerts

The esteemed series presents Los Angeles’ own Xtet in the L.A. premiere of Donald Crockett’s new piano quartet, “The Ceiling of Heaven.” Works by Toru Takemitsu and Peteris Plakidis complete the program.

* Bing Theatre, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. $20. (323) 857-6010

Dec. 15

Los Angeles Philharmonic

Assistant conductor Alexander Mickelthwate conducts the first of two free December neighborhood concerts, featuring works by Mozart, Ravel, Part and Tchaikovsky.

* Alhambra High School, 101 S. 2nd St., Alhambra. 7 p.m. Free. (626) 308-2255. Also: Wilshire United Methodist Church, 4350 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. Dec. 16. Free. (323) 931-1085

Dec. 19

Nimoy Concert Series

Based on the book by Elie Wiesel, Charles Osborn’s “Souls on Fire” tells the story of the founders of European Hassidism. The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, led by Noreen Green, presents the West Coast premiere.

* Temple Israel of Hollywood, 7300 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. 3 p.m. $10-$25. (213) 805-4261 or nimoyconcertseries@earthlink.net

Sundays Live

Pianist Zeynep Ucbasaran will play works by Schubert and others.

* Bing Theatre, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 6 p.m. Free. (213) 473-8525 or www.sundayslive.org

Jan. 5

Pacific Symphony

Opera Pacific conductor John DeMain leads the Pacific Symphony in works by Beethoven, Vaughan Williams and Saint-Saens. Pascal Roge will be the soloist in Saint-Saens’ Piano concerto No. 5.

* Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. Jan. 5 and 6. $18-$74. (714) 755-5799 or www.pacificsymphony.org

Jan. 9

Fullerton Friends of Music

The 46-year-old Fullerton Friends of Music series presents the La Scala String Quartet playing Puccini’s “I Cristantemi,” Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” Quartet and Brahms’ Quartet in B flat, Opus 67.

* Performing Arts Center, Sunny Hills High School, 1801 Warburton Way, Fullerton. 3:30 p.m. Free. (714) 525-9504 or www.webpan.com/fullerton-friends-of-music

Jan. 10

Ensemble Residency Concerts

The California EAR Unit will play David Lang’s “Child,” Erkki Sven Tuur’s “Achitectonics VII” and Stephen J. Josko’s “J.”

* Bing Theatre, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. $20. (323) 857-6010

Jan. 12

Jose Itrubi Gold Medal Series

Winner of the Concert Artist Guild International Competition, young Bulgarian-born percussionist Svetoslav Soyanov, plays new works for marimba and other percussion instruments.

* Cerritos Center, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. 7:30 p.m. $20. (800) 300-4345 or www.cerritoscenter.com

Jan. 15

Jacaranda

As part of the enterprising Jacaranda series, the Denali String Quartet and other artists will perform Chavez’s Toccata for percussion and “Xoxhipilli (An Imagined Aztec Music)” for wind and percussion, Varese’s “Density 21.5” for flute and “Ionisation” for percussion.

* First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, 1220 2nd St., Santa Monica. 8 p.m. $15. (310) 451-1303

Pasadena Symphony

Jorge Mester conducts a Russian program, including Liadov’s “Kikimora,” Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Jennifer Frautschi will be the violin soloist.

* Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena. 8 p.m. $15-$69. (626) 793-7172 or www.pasadenasymphony.org

Jan. 18

Rosalinde Gilbert Concerts

Pianist Sergey Schepkin will perform Dorence Stalvey’s “Changes” and Bach’s “Goldberg Variations.”

* Bing Theatre, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. $20. (323) 857-6010

Jan. 21

South Bay Chamber Music Society

As part of its 42nd season of offering free concerts, the South Bay Chamber Music Society will present a program of trios by Poulenc, Beethoven, Durufle and Loeffler.

* Los Angeles Harbor College, 1111 Figueroa Place, Wilmington. 8 p.m. Free. Also 3 p.m. Jan. 23 at Pacific Unitarian Church, 5621 Montemalaga Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes. www.palosverdes.com/sbcms

Jan. 22

Long Beach Symphony

Enrique Arturo Diemecke will conduct Rodrigo’s “Concietro de Aranjuez,” Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 and the world premiere of his own “Concerto Ultimus.” Pepe Romero will be the guitar soloist.

* Terrace Theatre, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. 8 p.m. $12-$57. (562) 436-3203 or www.lbso.org

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

Margaret Batjer, the orchestra’s leader and violinist will conduct the world premiere of a work by her husband, Grammy-nominated Joel McNeely. The program also will include music by Mozart, Wagner and Schubert.

* Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. 8 p.m. Also 7 p.m. Jan. 23 at Royce Hall, UCLA, Westwood. $17-$75. (213) 622-7001 or www.laco.org

Jan. 24

Monday Evening Concerts

The Parissi String Quartet will play Philip Glass’ “Company,” Dorrance Stalvey’s String Quartet 1989, Arif Mardin’s “Three Sketches for String Quartet,” and John Cage’s String Quartet in Four Parts.

* Bing Theatre, LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. $20. (323) 857-6010

Jan. 25

Chamber Music Palisades

The eighth annual series continues with trios for various combinations of instruments by Beethoven, Durufle, Charles Martin Loeffler and Poulenc.

* St. Matthew’s Parish, 1031 Bienveneda Ave., Pacific Palisades. 8 p.m. $20. (310) 459-2070

Jan. 26

Voice Box

The CalArts New Century Players, soprano Jacqueline Bobak and baritone Paul Berkolds perform world premieres of Mark Bobak’s “Vocalbement,” William Brooks’ “Metamorphoses” and a piece by Vinny Golia, among others.

* REDCAT, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 631 W. 2nd St., L.A. 8:30 p.m. $18. (213) 237-2800 or www.redcat.org

Pacific Symphony

Music director Carl St.Clair conducts excerpts from Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung,” Beethoven’s concert aria, “Ah, perfido,” and Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony. Soprano Jane Eaglen will be the soloist.

* Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. Jan. 26 and 27. $18-$74. (714) 755-5799 or www.pacificsymphony.org

Jan. 28

Wu Man

Renowned pipa (Chinese lute) player Wu Man performs a diverse program of traditional and contemporary lute music.

* Beckman Auditorum, Caltech, 322 S. Michigan Ave., Pasadena. 8 p.m. $17-$25. (626) 395-4652

CEAIT Festival

The CalArts Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival includes works by French electronic composer Eliane Radigue.

* REDCAT, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 2nd and Hope streets, L.A. 8:30 p.m. Jan. 28 and 29. $18. (213) 237-2800 or www.redcat.org

Jan. 30

Coleman Chamber Music

Les Violons du Roy, founded in 1984 by Bernard Labadie, will play a Suite from Handel’s “Alcina,” the Sinfonia from Bach’s Cantata No. 42, opera arias by Handel and Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1. Soprano Karina Gauvin will be the soloist.

* Beckman Auditorium, Caltech, 322 S. Michigan Ave., Pasadena. 3:30 p.m. $17-$29. (626) 395-4652

Pacific Chorale

John Alexander will conduct the West Coast premiere of Luis Bacalov’s “Misa Tango” on a program that also includes Constant Lambert’s “The Rio Grande” and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. Eduardo Delgado will be the piano soloist. Fernanda Ghi and Guillermo Merlo will be the featured tango dancers.

* Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 7 p.m. $20-$60. (714) 662-2345 or www.pacificchorale.org