Hear Now Music Festival aims to capture the sound of L.A.

The 2013 Hear Now Music Festival is meant to be the sound of Los Angeles.

What does that mean? No one really can say, anymore than what it means to be an Angeleno.

Over two programs at the First Lutheran Church of Venice on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, a dozen pieces will be played by a dozen composers. They don’t all live precisely in Los Angeles -- Altadena (William Kraft), Claremont (Karl Kohn), even Berkeley (John Adams) counts.

The age difference is great. They come originally from Austria, Germany, New Hampshire and elsewhere. Some, like Wolfgang Gernot and Billy Childs smooth across boundaries between jazz and classical. Some write for films or are old-school Modernists, there are hot neo-Romantics or cool Minimalists. It’s the sound of a pot melting. But in L.A. that’s as it should be.

The performers include many of the most reliable on the local new music scene. That’s us too.

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