Salastina Announces 2021-22 Season

Salastina Artistic Directors Kevin Kumar and Maia Jasper White today announced the ensemble's 2021-2022 season, celebrating a return to live performance, the continuation of its successful virtual Happy Hours, and an integration of the two. Signature in-person programs such as Sounds Delicious, Sounds Genius, and Sounds Mysterious inject a sense of fun, mystery, and discovery into the chamber music experience, and several previous Happy Hour guests are featured throughout the main in-person concert series. Postponed due to the pandemic, Salastina will also finally present its first-ever chamber opera, Vid Guerrerio's OC fan tutte, an English modernization of Mozart's Così fan tutte.

Salastina's virtual Happy Hour series, launched in April 2020, will continue indefinitely. Guests from L.A. and throughout the world have participated, including Alan Menken, Hilary Hahn, Caroline Shaw, Lindsey Stirling, Chris Thile, and many more. A pandemic success story, the Happy Hours increased Salastina's viewership by over 1000%, welcomed over 6,400 new first-time audience members, and increased Salastina membership by 243% during the 2020-21 season.

Maia Jasper White, Co-Artistic and Executive Director, said, "The 2021-22 season reflects what so many of us are experiencing - craving the familiar while embracing the new. The pandemic period has inspired us to be ever more inventive about integrating virtual and live music-making, connecting audiences to chamber music and the musicians who make it all the deeper. We're especially focused on how online content can enrich the in-person experience for those who live locally while maintaining our connections to newly-acquired fans around the country and the world."

Kevin Kumar, Co-Artistic Director and Executive Producer, said, "Salastina was in the midst of its 10th anniversary season when the world shut down due to the pandemic. The launch of our 2021-22 season celebrates a new beginning and long-awaited reunion with our live audiences, as well as the continuation of our virtual Happy Hours, which has grown into a wonderful united global music community. We are so grateful for everyone's support during this ever-evolving period."

Salastina's 2021-22 season will be presented at The Bowers Museum Courtyard (Santa Ana, CA), Fowler Museum Courtyard at UCLA, USC Pacific Asia Museum Courtyard, and Ambassador Auditorium Lobby (Pasadena, CA). Salastina members may live-stream the Sunday Main Series performances for free, including exclusive digital hosting and interactive participation. Non-members can stream or re-watch a live performance for $10 per concert.

Please visit http://www.salastina.org/concerts for program information and additional details, and for information about how to access Salastina's live streams via the members-only portal.

Season at a glance:

Main Series Concert No. 1: Season Opener

Fri. Sept. 24, 2021 - The Bowers Museum Courtyard

Sat. Sept. 25, 2021 - Fowler Museum Courtyard, UCLA

Sun. Sept. 26, 2021 - USC Pacific Asia Museum Courtyard

This season's opening concert features works by previous favorite Happy Hour guest composers Michi and Paul Wiancko, Kenji Bunch, and Judd Greenstein, in a program centered around the theme of transfiguration.

Michi Wiancko: To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores

Kenji Bunch: Work for Viola and Piano TBD

Judd Greenstein: City Boy

Paul Wiancko: Lift - Part III

Arnold Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht

Main Series Concert No. 2: Sounds Genius

Sat. Oct. 30, 2021 - Fowler Museum Courtyard, UCLA

Sun. Oct. 31, 2021 - USC Pacific Asia Museum Courtyard

Salastina resident artists HyeJin Kim, piano, and Benjamin Smolen, flute, are spotlighted in this program of Chopin and other programming to be announced.

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1

Flute Concerto, to be announced

Sounds Delicious
Salastina's contemporary take on the salon tradition artfully pairs gourmet meals, with intimate, live performances. This season offers three specially themed events: Día de los Muertos (Nov. 1, 2021), Outlander (Jan. 21 - 23, 2022), and Bridgerton (May 5 & 6, 2022).

Main Series Concert No. 3: Sounds Mysterious with guest harpist Charles Overton

Fri. Nov. 19, 2021 - The Bowers Museum Courtyard

Sat. Nov. 20, 2021 - Fowler Museum Courtyard, UCLA

Sun. Nov. 21, 2021 - Lobby of the Ambassador Auditorium - LIVESTREAM

Back by popular demand! Salastina's signature Sounds Mysterious series is the musical equivalent of a blind wine-tasting. This time, an advance hint is offered: all the music is French, from the earlier part of the 20th century.

Salastina's Artistic Partner and Resident Host, KUSC's Brian Lauritzen, assigns Salastina musicians a piece unknown to them, having redacted the composer's name and title of the work. The musicians will participate in the guessing game along with the audience to solve the mystery.

Main series Concert No. 4: Salastina.calm

Sat. Mar. 26, 2022 - Fowler Museum Courtyard, UCLA

Sun. Mar. 27, 2022 - Lobby of the Ambassador Auditorium - LIVESTREAM

A little R&R. Some deep breaths. A cathartic ugly-cry. Join Salastina for a slow-movement orgy of heart-wrenchingly gorgeous works, to be announced.

Main Series Concert No. 5: Here Be Dragons

Fri. Apr. 22, 2022 - The Bowers Museum Courtyard

Sat. Apr. 23, 2022 - Fowler Museum Courtyard, UCLA

Sun. Apr. 24, 2022 - Lobby of the Ambassador Auditorium - LIVESTREAM

The phrase "Here Be Dragons" means "dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of a medieval practice of putting illustrations of dragons, sea monsters and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps where potential dangers were thought to exist." Join Salastina for music reflecting a poetic idea that's been very front-of-mind for us all.

Mikhail Gnessin: Songs of a Knight Errant

Carolina Eyck: Fantasias for String Quartet and Theremin

Joaquin Turina: I. Las cuevas del Dragón

Richard Einhorn: As-yet-untitled Salastina Commission and World Premiere

Derrick Skye: World premiere for viola and electronics

Charles Ives: The Unanswered Question

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 for Piano Trio

Special 10th Anniversary event: Vid Guerrerio's OC fan tutte

Fri. May 27 - Sun. Jun. 5, 2022 - venues to be announced

Salastina's first-ever chamber opera: Vid Guerrerio's OC fan tutte, an English re-imagining of Mozart's Così fan tutte, brings the music and hilarity of the original into the 21st century by replacing the tired, dated misogyny of the original with issues of gender equality, gay marriage, and the friction between the religious right and the liberal left. Of his previous adaptation of Le Nozze de Figaro, Figaro 90210!, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and many others praised Vid's ability to "cleverly bring up... contentious political themes, but cushion them in humor."

Single tickets, subscriptions, and additional information are available now at salastina.org, or 323.332.6874.

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