MUSE/IQUE to Present LA COMPOSED: A FESTIVAL OF LOS ANGELES MUSIC This Week

MUSE/IQUE continues its adventurous yearlong concert series, L.A. Composed: A Festival of Los Angeles Music, with Grand Avenue led by Artistic Director Rachael Worby and featuring the returns of Savion Glover, named by Dance Spirit magazine as one of the 13 Best Tap Dancers in History, and Charles Yang, recipient of the 2018 Leonard Bernstein Award and described by The Boston Globe as one who "plays classical violin with the charisma of a rock star."

Glover and Yang have each performed for MUSE/IQUE multiple times; they were also first brought together to perform through MUSE/IQUE.

Grand Avenue is performed on Thursday, October 6 at 7:30pm at The Huntington, San Marino and Sunday, October 9 at 7:30pm at the Skirball, Los Angeles. Each concert of the L.A. Composed series focuses on a different street and the music associated with it. For admissions and information, please visit http://www.muse-ique.com/.

Bolstered by the MUSE/IQUE orchestra, Artistic Director Rachael Worby brings to life some of Grand Avenue's biggest musical moments and stories in this epic performance. Among the program highlights is Glover and Savion's crossover duet of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons".

From the worldwide influences of L.A.'s earliest days to the world stage that our city has become, the musical history of Downtown Los Angeles is like a perpetual renaissance. Seemingly against all odds, its artists always find surprising ways to reinvent themselves, their art, and their community. This performance captures the sprawling grandness of Grand Avenue, from Chinatown, Olvera Street, past the Music Center (Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Walt Disney Concert Hall), Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, government buildings, Grand Park, Colburn School, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Broad, historic Pershing Square and Angel's Flight, then all the way to L.A. Memorial Coliseum, home to the 1932 and 1984 Olympics.

Headlining this tribute to downtown's ever-evolving musical landscape, is tap dancer, choreographer, and actor Savion Glover, the epitome of a living legend. Born in 1973, he has graced the stage since childhood. He set a record as the youngest person ever to receive a scholarship in the Newark Community School of the Arts. Before he was a teenager, Savion made his mark starring in the leading role in the Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid.

Glover developed his own dancing style he dubbed "free style hard core." The Tony Award winning dancer eventually worked with dancing greats Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr. Among his credits are starring roles in Jelly's Last Jam, written and directed by George C. Wolfe, a role for which he made history as the youngest ever recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant. [Note: the original pre-Glover production of Jelly's Last Jam had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum on Grand Avenue].

As a choreographer, Glover's work has helped maintain tap dancing as an art form in the modern dance world. His starring role in the musical Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk, which he also choreographed, debuted on Broadway in 1996. The musical chronicles events in African-American history and brought Glover a Tony for Best Choreographer. Glover was made known to the younger generation with recurring appearances on Sesame Street. He also holds the credit as the live captured dancing motion behind Mumble the penguin in the film Happy Feet. Savion also served as co-choreographer for the film. Glover's quick steps and amazing rhythms continue to influence the lives of young people. His production company tours schools across the country, spreading enthusiasm.

Glover's Library of Congress biography notes that Jelly's Last Jam, with tap choreography by Gregory Hines and Ted L. Levy, was based on the life of jazz legend Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, the hyperbolic pianist, composer, and bandleader who some call the first true composer of jazz music. Hines played Jelly Roll Morton and Glover played Young Jelly, and in one show-stopping scene there is a tap challenge between the old and young Jelly. Although their heads, wrists and elbows appeared to be as tightly choreographed as their feet, in truth, it was largely improvised, thus granting Glover the golden opportunity, on stage and before an audience, each and every night, to engage with the then most brilliant tap dancer of his time.

[Then later] blunt and driven by an internal fury, Glover's funk-driven, flat-heeled style of tap-dancing ... configured into a quintessential embodiment of hip-hop. With its fast, loud, and furious machine-gun volleys of sound and freewheeling cadences, Glover was the first young tap dancer of his generation to reawaken the art form and bring the history of rhythm tap in America up to date, making tap dance cool again.

Glover's inventiveness was ever more expansive in that he pushed the envelope of free form expression in jazz dance ... rediscovered sacredness in improvisation, turning attention away from the audience to focus deeply on finding the sacred beat. Instead of being "entertained," audiences are led through a maze of rhythmic meditation. As Glover has said, "Funk is real under. Against the beat. Just ridin'. It's the bass line. It's like a pulse. It's dead, but it's right there."

Juilliard graduate Charles Yang began his violin studies with his mother in Austin, Texas, and has since studied with world-renowned pedagogues Kurt Sassmanshaus, Paul Kantor, Brian Lewis and Glenn Dicterow. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras and in concert in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Russia, China, and Taiwan, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. On June 9th of 2005, the Mayor of Austin presented Mr. Yang with his own Charles Yang Day. In 2016 Mr. Yang joined the crossover string-band, Time for Three.

Not only confined to classical violin, Yang's improvisational crossover abilities as a violinist, electric violinist, and vocalist have led him to featured performances with a variety of artists in such festivals as The Aspen Music Festival, The Schleswig- Holstein Music Festival, The Ravinia Festival, The Crested Butte Music Festival, The Cayman Arts Festival, The YouTube Music Awards, The Moab Music Festival, TED, Caramoor, The EG Conference, Google Zeitgeist, Interlochen, and onstage at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center's Metropolitan Opera House, David H. Koch Theater, Dizzy's and David Rubinstein Atrium; The Long Center, Rudolfinum, The Royal Danish Theatre, Le Poisson Rouge, Highline Ballroom, Ars Nova, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Forbidden City in Beijing among many others.

He has performed in the presence of two former US Presidents, the Queen of Denmark and has shared the stage in collaborations with artists including Peter Dugan, CDZA, Steve Miller, Jesse Colin Young, Jake Shimabukuro, Ray Benson, Michael Gordon, Marcelo Gomes, Savion Glover, Twyla Tharp, Misty Copeland, and Jon Batiste. Yang recently made his solo debut with Marin Alsop and The Chicago Symphony at The Ravinia Festival. His career has been followed by various news media including The New York Times, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Financial Times, The Austin-American Statesman, The Austin Chronicle and The Strad. Yang is featured in Nick Romeo's book, Driven as well as Discovery Channel's Curiosity.

Regarding Yang, The Texas Observer has noted, "Mr. Yang is a true crossover artist, a pioneer who can hop between classical and popular music and bring fresh ideas to fans of both genres. Rather than maintaining an insular focus and simply assuming that an audience for classical music will always exist, he wants to actively create that audience, to persuade and seduce others into enjoying a type of music as passionately as he does."

More about Grand Avenue

The late Eli Broad said in a 2019 special section of the Los Angeles Times about Grand Avenue
[https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-grand-avenue-project-2019-htmlstory.html]

In 1963, when my wife, Edye, and I moved here from Detroit, Los Angeles did not have what I thought of as a true downtown. As we flew into LAX, the ground below us called to mind the old saying "Los Angeles is 100 suburbs in search of a city." The urban renewal efforts were slow-going, but not long after we moved to Los Angeles, something interesting started to rise: the Music Center, which turned out to be a beautiful performance space with classical yet modern architecture. A great city needs a vibrant center where people come to enjoy cultural riches like museums, dance, opera, theater and the symphony, or to take part in civic life at parades, protests and celebrations.

Wikipedia notes that, Originally called Charity Street (or Calle de la Caridad in Spanish), it is located just east of Hope Street, but contrary to myth, there was never a corresponding Faith Street, representing the trinity of virtue - Faith, Hope, and Charity. Olive Street (or Calle de Aceituna in Spanish) is situated to the east of Grand Street instead. Charity Street was renamed Grand by the Los Angeles City Council on February 15, 1887.

The Los Angeles Times said, In the 18th and 19th centuries, the area was sparsely populated. Starting in the mid-19th century, Bunker Hill started to attract the attention of developers who worked to transform it into a fashionable neighborhood. Later, it transformed again - into a vibrant area that was home for thousands of working-class Angelenos in need of moderate or low-income housing.

Grand Avenue is [now] home to a cluster of architectural and artistic achievements that attract millions of people a year, locals and tourists whose energy carries the promise of a vibrant urban center on Bunker Hill. Much of what we have come to associate with Grand Avenue and the surrounding neighborhood is relatively recent history. the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion opened in 1964; MOCA was founded in 1979; and Walt Disney Concert Hall opened its doors in 2003, followed 12 years later by the Broad.

In 2001 a committee was created called the Grand Avenue Committee. The Larchmont Chronicle said, "Some observers say the idea of vitalizing the vacant parking lots of Grand Avenue goes back to the walkabout taken up and down the street by Mayor Richard Riordan, Cardinal Roger Mahony and others in 1996. It wasn't until 2003 [after Walt Disney Concert Hall opened] when the Grand Avenue Committee expressed its desired outcome, "which consisted of uniting the separate government entities that often were at odds - the City and the County of Los Angeles - by bringing their representatives together in a joint powers authority focused on just one issue - reimagining Grand Avenue."

Grand Park opening in 2012 is a 12-acre park starting at Los Angeles City Hall west to the Music Center. It was first developed in 1966 as the 'Civic Center Mall' with plazas, fountains and a Court of Flags. Then, Frank Gehry, who designed Walt Disney Concert Hall was hired in 2005 to design an entertainment area along with a shopping complex. The Hollywood Reporter recently reported on July 1, 2022, "Now, the 93-year-old architect's new The Grand LA complex - a $1 billion, 15-years-in-the-making, two-tower mix of retail, a hotel and luxury residences located just across the street - offers a different, fresh perspective on Walt Disney Concert Hall the iconic home of the L.A. Philharmonic."

ADMISSIONS FOR THE SONGS AND THE STORIES OF GRAND AVENUE

Thursday, October 6 at 7:30pm | The Huntington, The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Rd, San Marino, CA 91108

Sunday, October 9 at 7:30pm | The Skirball, 2701 N Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90049

To learn more, please visit https://www.muse-ique.com/become-a-member

MUSE/IQUE membership begins at $225 and MUSE/IQUE members receive complimentary admission to all MUSE/IQUE events.

Admission for non-members starts at $75, and includes a trial membership, and admission to MUSE/IQUE's next three events.

About MUSE/IQUE

Over the past decade, MUSE/IQUE has curated and presented unexpected live music adventures that shake loose the customs, norms and barriers of the traditional concert-going experience. MUSE/IQUE has never had a formal concert hall - the city is the venue - and no set genres or styles of performance are emphasized. Instead, cross-genre, multidisciplinary performances are placed in iconic community locales.

Led by Founder and Artistic Director Rachael Worby, MUSE/IQUE is a member-supported, nonprofit performing arts organization making radically engaging live music experiences accessible for all. Built on a tradition of community and collaboration, we create events that feature an eclectic mix of artists and artistic disciplines in unconventional locations - spaces where art typically does not happen. MUSE/IQUE was founded by Artistic Director Rachael Worby to upend the misconception that the performing arts are elitist, unapproachable, and, frankly, dull! MUSE/IQUE's mission is to build empathy and expand imaginations through transformative live events and strong partnerships with fellow nonprofit organizations in Pasadena and the greater Los Angeles area.

In addition to its live public performances, MUSE/IQUE'S OFF STAGE brings intimate, interactive events for 18 community partner organizations. Each on-site event gives participants a curated experience based on programmatic themes of our upcoming performances, and features guest artists direct from the MUSE/IQUE stage. Led by MUSE/IQUE staff, these events explore self-expression, encourage self-confidence and engage imaginations through music. Partners include Ability First, Academy of Music for the Blind, California School of the Arts - San Gabriel Valley, Five Acres, Hathaway/Sycamores, Hillsides, Jazz Hands for Autism, Learning Works, Mindful Veterans Project, Pasadena Senior Center, Performing Arts For All, Professional Child Development Center, Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, Union Station Homeless Services, Urban Compass, Villa Esperanza School, Villa Esperanza Adult Day Program, and Youth Emerging Stronger.

Presenting performances at landmark locations, MUSE/IQUE goes beyond the concert hall and into the community with spectacularly intimate performances that combine music, movement, and ideas from a diverse range of genres. MUSE/IQUE's artistic collective consists of top musicians from the worlds of jazz, rock, blues, gospel, and more, along with today's best singers, dancers, and thinkers. Together with an enthusiastic and growing audience base, these artists reimagine the possibilities for the live music experience. Founded in 2011, MUSE/IQUE is a membership driven organization presenting nine major public events each year as well as a wide range of education and community engagement programs. Please visit http://www.muse-ique.com/ for more information

L.A. COMPOSED: A FESTIVAL OF LOS ANGELES MUSIC Final Event SUNSET ON SUNSET
November 12, 2022 and November 13, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. at Union Station

Every musical movement in Los Angeles finds its roots on Sunset Boulevard. With this sweeping season-ending performance, MUSE/IQUE traces Sunset Boulevard's musical mystique, from film noir to the glam of the famed "Sunset Strip."

To post a comment, you must register and login.