Art students strive to put a face on music

Last fall, a group of Art Center College of Design students was given a private performance of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances by the Pasadena Symphony. Now the films, photos, paintings and illustrations the students created in response to the music are going on view, thanks to “Concertos on Canvas,” an annual collaboration of the two Pasadena arts organizations.

“It’s one of the most challenging assignments we could possibly give our students because they’re not musicians,” said Mark Breitenberg, the Pasadena campus’ dean of undergraduate studies. “We’re really asking them to create through intangibles, forming emotions into some visual piece.”

Twenty-four students participated in this year’s program, which the symphony launched in 2004 as a means of fostering community engagement. The group has since been whittled to 10 finalists, whose work includes an abstract painting, an illustration of a crazed pianist and a photo of two young boys fighting. All 10 pieces will be displayed in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium lobby on Saturday evening and the night of April 1 (accessible with admission to the Pasadena Symphony’s performances) and for free March 17 to 31 at the San Marino Gallery.

“This is unusual in that the music is supposed to elicit some kind of visual reaction on the part of the artists,” said the symphony’s music director Jorge Mester. “Usually it flows in the opposite way. Music is written in reaction to a work of art.”

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-- Susan Carpenter

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“Concertos on Canvas,” Pasadena Civic Auditorium lobby, 3200 E. Green St., Pasadena, 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday and April 1. Access with admission to Pasadena Symphony, $15 to $72.

(626) 793-7172.

* Also: San Marino Gallery, 2640 Mission Ave., San Marino, March 17 to 31. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Free. (626) 441-9007.