Pittance Chamber Music Announces 2019-20 Season

Pittance Chamber Music, known for featuring the extraordinary resident artists of the Los Angeles Opera pit and stage, announces its 2019-20 Season with three exciting programs taking place in Barrett Hall at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. The season consists of Nate's World on September 15, at 3:00 p.m.; Liv a Little on February 9, 2020 at 3:00 p.m.; and Modern Beauty on April 5, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.

Nate's World launches Pittance Chamber Music's 2019-20 Season with Los Angeles Opera Orchestra Principal Bass, Nathan Farrington, taking the audience on a musical safari ranging from Haydn to Hank Williams. Nate will be joined on piano by best buddy Teddy Abrams, Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra, and Los Angeles Opera Orchestra Concertmaster Roberto Cani. Going on safari into Nate's World requires no particular advance preparation, however we do recommend bringing a few different sets of ears!

Nathan Farrington has performed in the bass sections of America's finest orchestras, among them the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony. As a soloist and chamber music collaborator, Nathan has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Olympic Music Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, and Da Camera Society. A versatile man of many talents, Nathan often travels with his guitar as well as his bass, singing and playing operatic arias and folk songs. In addition to his musical pursuits, Nathan is deeply interested in cinema. His Los Angeles-based audio company, Hazard Audio, connects top creative minds in music with those in motion picture and television production, resulting in many interesting projects.

Teddy Abrams is the widely acclaimed Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra and Music Director and Conductor of the Britt Orchestra, as well as an established pianist, clarinetist and composer. A tireless advocate for the power of music, Abrams continues to foster interdisciplinary collaboration with organizations such as the Louisville Ballet, the Center for Interfaith Relations, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Speed Art Museum and the Folger Shakespeare Library. He has conducted orchestras across the United States including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, The Florida Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the Indianapolis Symphony, recently conducting them with Time for Three in a PBS special broadcast. As a pianist and clarinetist, Abrams has appeared as a soloist with orchestras and has performed chamber music with the Saint Petersburg String Quartet, Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, Time for Three and John Adams. He continues to make annual appearances at the Olympic Music Festival. Abrams studied conducting with Michael Tilson Thomas, Otto-Werner Mueller and Ford Lallerstedt at the Curtis Institute of Music, and with David Zinman at the Aspen Music Festival; he was the youngest conducting student ever accepted at both institutions. An award-winning composer and passionate educator, Abrams has taught at numerous schools throughout the United States.

Violinist Roberto Cani has established himself as a versatile and respected artist worldwide. He is currently the Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, working closely with Music Director James Conlon and Placido Domingo. He has been a first and grand prize winner of numerous international competitions, and has performed as a soloist throughout the United States and Europe. Actively involved in chamber music, Cani has toured with conductor and pianist Justus Frantz, and has also performed with Lynn Harrell, Jeffrey Swann, and Jason Vieaux. His discography includes the Vivaldi "Four Seasons", sonatas by Respighi and Busoni with pianist Jeffrey Swann, and the solo sonatas of Bartok, Ysaye, Bloch, and Prokofiev under the Arkadia and Agora labels. Other recordings include the Tchaikovsky violin concerto, and a CD of favorite encores. Cani is a graduate of the Milan Conservatory, the Gnessin Institute in Moscow and the University of Southern California, and was a pupil of world-renowned violinists Viktor Tretiakov and Abram Shtern.

The second concert of the season, Liv a Little!, taking place on February 9, 2020 at 3 p.m., features an afternoon of exquisite song and chamber music with soprano Liv Redpath and members of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. Hailed by the press as "luminous", "stunning" and "a revelation", Redpath is a radiant new presence on the opera and concert stage. Don't miss this opportunity to hear her perform Schubert's sublime Shepherd on the Rock with Los Angeles Opera Orchestra Principal Clarinet Stuart Clark. The program also includes Reimann's Song Cycle after Mendelssohn and the Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115 by Johannes Brahms.

Modern Beauty, the third program of the 2019-20 season, takes place on Sunday, April 5, 2020 at 7:30 p.m. and features Grammy-winning pianist Gloria Cheng with members of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. One of today's most respected and revered interpreters of contemporary repertoire, Cheng has been lauded in the press for her "breathtaking", exhilarating" and "broadly expressive" performances. For this concert, Cheng teams up with members of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra to perform a selection of favorite chamber music pieces by composers with whom she has collaborated, among them Billy Childs, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Steven Stucky and Gernot Wolfgang. Join us for what promises to be a transcendent evening of music.

Among the most extraordinary musicians in the world are those you seldom see - the musicians of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. Founder and Artistic Director Lisa Sutton, who also happens to be the Assistant Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, formed Pittance Chamber Music in 2013 to shine the spotlight on these remarkable yet invisible artists, bringing them from the pit to the stage to perform in small ensembles, hence the name Pittance. Pittance Chamber Music utilizes a roster of artists drawn from a large pool of talent including members of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra as well as Los Angeles Opera resident vocalists, resulting in a unique variety of repertoire not often heard together in one program.

Single tickets are $35; Seniors $20; Student Rush $10 (at the door only) and Series subscription to all three concerts are $90; Seniors Series $50. Tickets are available online at PittanceChamberMusic.org or at the venue on the day of the concert if tickets remain. The Pasadena Conservatory of Music is located at 100 North Hill Avenue in Pasadena, California 91106.

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