Community: Orchestra board reinvigorates a dream
Organizers of the Los Angeles Premiere Orchestra introduced new leaders and presented scholarships to two young musicians during a reception for supporters in the Forest Lawn Glendale Auditorium in mid-November.
The orchestra lost its music director/conductor Norman Mamey shortly after its debut concert “Christmas Musical Spectacular” last year at the Alex Theatre. Mamey died in January after a long illness. The board of directors has continued to meet throughout the year discussing the future path of the orchestra.
Plans are to keep Mamey’s original ideas for the purpose of the orchestra, but the board wants to take time to rethink the orchestra’s place in town, instead of rushing into the next performance, said George Taweel, the orchestra’s new artistic director.
“Tonight was an opportunity to restart, to refresh everybody with this new vision,” he said. “We are considering how we are going to be different. We already have wonderful performing arts groups — the L.A. Phil and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra — and the most beautiful venues in town. So how can we bring the music to the people?”
Taweel said the orchestra needs time to build sponsor relationships and subscribers, and solicit grants.
“So many organizations don’t take the time to do that,” he said. “They are so busy trying to get to the performance that they forget that it’s about building relationships with people and so the board took several months to think how we are going to approach this, and tonight was the first unveiling of that vision.”
The board is keeping Mamey’s original goals for the orchestra. They include commissioning new works by new composers and arrangers and offering tickets to schools so students can see for free performances they wouldn’t be able to afford.
In honor of Mamey, scholarships will be given to young musicians in his name. Receiving the first scholarships, $1,000 each, were pianist Kelly Chen and flutist Erica Lee, who played selections during the evening alongside professional musicians, another goal Mamey wanted for the program.
Mamey also wanted to inspire the younger generation to come into the concert hall, said new board President Scott Drolet.
“Norman believed that kids have lost contact with orchestral music,” he said. “They are used to electronic music or rap, but they have never heard symphonic music. Norman wanted to reintroduce them to it. He thought, why don’t we have an orchestra that plays video game music, so the kids get immersed in music performed by woodwind, bass and drums — all the different things that happen in an orchestra. Norman’s fear was, as is ours, that someday classical music will just go away.”
Fundraisers are being planned, and the goal is to produce a concert in the spring, Drolet said, and keep Mamey’s dream alive.
Lions recycle more than 1,000 used eyeglasses
The Northwest Lions Club recently thanked the Glendale Unified School District for donating 731 pairs of used eyeglasses and three pairs of hearing aids to the Lions In Sight project.
Kelly King, assistant superintendent for Glendale Unified, led the campaign in which collection boxes were placed at each of the 35 schools in the district. The boxes will be out again at all the schools from January through June.
The Northwest Lions Club added to the bounty an additional 300 pairs of glasses that were collected at year-round drop-off locations throughout the city, including Windsor Manor, 1230 E. Windsor Road; the Glendale YMCA, 140 N. Louise St.; and Glendale Optometric Center, 308 E. Broadway St.
Eyeglasses are cleaned, sorted and measured. Between 30% and 40% of them can be reissued to patients examined at the Lions In Sight clinics conducted by professional ophthalmologists in developing countries throughout the world.
For additional drop-off locations, contact Ross Adams at (818) 243-4458.
Assistance League donates books to children
The Assistance League of Glendale joined more than 100 Assistance League chapters to collect children’s books in a campaign called National Make a Difference Day, a children’s book drive initiated by USA Weekend magazine more than 20 years ago. The books collected by the local chapter will go to the children at Ascencia’s homeless shelter in Glendale.
Throughout the year, the Glendale chapter provides books to Glendale schoolchildren. All youngsters who receive clothing donations in the league’s Operation School Bell program (582 children last year) are given a book of their choice.
The league presents an annual Authors and Illustrators program at three elementary schools a year. Each of those schools’ libraries receives $1,500 to purchase new books. Each teacher in the school receives a book given by one of the authors or illustrators who make a presentation at the program.
Adams Square Mini-Park is decked out for holidays
The Adams Hill Neighborhood Assn. is sponsoring an opening reception for its community art project “Our Starry Night” from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday in the Adams Square Mini-Park historic gas station. There will be caroling and seasonal refreshments.
The art installation is an artistic rendering of the hilly Adams Hill neighborhood made entirely of cardboard and paint. It was designed and realized in its final form by Adams Hill residents Cathy Hrenda and Stephen Meek.
The cardboard houses were all painted by community members, ranging from toddlers to senior citizens. Approximately 50 people participated in painting 36 cardboard houses built by Hrenda. The night sky over Adams Hill is depicted by 660 paper stars decorated with glitter by students at John Muir Elementary School.
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JOYCE RUDOLPH can be reached at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com.