Peter Marsh

Violinist Peter Marsh, who was passed over last month for a tenure-track position in the music department at Cal State Fullerton, has accepted a full professorship at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. Marsh, 58, has been a guest lecturer at Cal State Fullerton for the past three years, but he was not recommended by a five-member faculty search committee in March to fill the position when it was upgraded to a tenure-track job.

It was the day after Christmas, and Eric Castro, a lawyer who also sings professionally, was warming up his baritone by running through trills and hums. After working hard right up to the holiday, wasn't he eager to have a day off? "To tell you the truth, it's a complete pleasure and honor to do this," said Castro as he prepared to sing arias inside a crowded living room where "jam session" took on a whole new meaning. Each Boxing Day since 1998, the Spanish Colonial Revival house at the end of a cul-de-sac off Los Feliz Boulevard has vibrated with the sounds of Handel's "Messiah," performed by as many as 125 choristers and orchestral musicians.

It has taken 66 years, but it has finally happened. Someone has performed Ernst Krenek's Sonata for Violin, Opus 33, before an American audience. It's about time. On the other hand, it's almost understandable. Krenek, now 90 and living in Palm Springs, pulled no punches when writing this piece in 1924-25. It is fiercely atonal. It is technically intimidating. It is long and complicated, four movements of unaccompanied violin music stretching the endurance of violinist and listener alike.

It has taken 66 years, but it has finally happened. Someone has performed Ernst Krenek's Sonata for Violin, Opus 33, before an American audience. It's about time. On the other hand, it's almost understandable. Krenek, now 90 and living in Palm Springs, pulled no punches when writing this piece in 1924-25. It is fiercely atonal. It is technically intimidating. It is long and complicated, four movements of unaccompanied violin music stretching the endurance of violinist and listener alike.

It was the day after Christmas, and Eric Castro, a lawyer who also sings professionally, was warming up his baritone by running through trills and hums. After working hard right up to the holiday, wasn't he eager to have a day off? "To tell you the truth, it's a complete pleasure and honor to do this," said Castro as he prepared to sing arias inside a crowded living room where "jam session" took on a whole new meaning. Each Boxing Day since 1998, the Spanish Colonial Revival house at the end of a cul-de-sac off Los Feliz Boulevard has vibrated with the sounds of Handel's "Messiah," performed by as many as 125 choristers and orchestral musicians.

Talk about quiet entrances. On Wednesday night Bonnie Hampton makes her first appearance as the newest member of the locally based but nationally respected Sequoia String Quartet. Will that be treated as a big-deal debut for the cellist? Hardly. For one thing, the program, presented at the Bing Theater of the County Art Museum, is really the domain of Czech guitarist Martin Mastik; the Sequoians' sole contributions will be in chamber works for guitar by Vivaldi and Boccherini.

'I can make any student violin sound like a Stradivarius.' --Alfredo Galea Alfredo Galea has a subversive idea. In the world of violins, he says, older is not necessarily better. When one listens to a truly great instrument, he says, "what they hear is . . . not the age" but the varnish. It is a simple concept, yet one that has made the spectacled, balding gentleman a controversial figure among area musicians and the recipient of both lavish praise and bitter scorn.

Six weeks ago I heard a recording session, in preparation for a CD, of the Southwest Quartet in two late works of Ernst Krenek, Op. 216 and 227. These works are technically much more demanding than the Beethoven quartets that were played by this ensemble Nov. 8 at the L.A. County Museum of Art. We (myself, the tone-meister, and the engineer) with scores in hand, found Peter Marsh's interpretation and intonation of these pieces absolutely superb. I can't believe that his technique in just these last six weeks has sunk to the level described on Nov. 11 by Herbert Glass ("Southwest Quartet Begins Beethoven Cycle")

The eight-player Oasis Chamber Ensemble will make its debut appearance tonight at 8 in the Gerald R. Daniel Recital Hall at Cal State Long Beach. The players are violinist Peter Marsh, flutist Rachel Rudich, clarinetist Gary Bovyer, cellist Aram Talalian, soprano Anita Protich, and pianists Edith Hirshtal, Antoinette Perry and Mark Uranker. For its first concert, the ensemble has chosen W.F. Bach's Sonata for Two Pianos in F, Copland's 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson, Adriana Verdie's "Flute 3.2.

Location, location, location! In real estate it's said to be what ultimately determines the value of the property. And in respect to location--at least during the summer--the Southwest Chamber Music Society's concerts certainly have it at the Loggia of the Huntington Library's main gallery: magnificent visually and less predictable, considering its open-air exposure, acoustically.

Violinist Peter Marsh, who was passed over last month for a tenure-track position in the music department at Cal State Fullerton, has accepted a full professorship at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. Marsh, 58, has been a guest lecturer at Cal State Fullerton for the past three years, but he was not recommended by a five-member faculty search committee in March to fill the position when it was upgraded to a tenure-track job.

Talk about quiet entrances. On Wednesday night Bonnie Hampton makes her first appearance as the newest member of the locally based but nationally respected Sequoia String Quartet. Will that be treated as a big-deal debut for the cellist? Hardly. For one thing, the program, presented at the Bing Theater of the County Art Museum, is really the domain of Czech guitarist Martin Mastik; the Sequoians' sole contributions will be in chamber works for guitar by Vivaldi and Boccherini.

Location, location, location! In real estate it's said to be what ultimately determines the value of the property. And in respect to location--at least during the summer--the Southwest Chamber Music Society's concerts certainly have it, the Loggia of the Huntington Library's main gallery: magnificent visually and less predictable, considering its open-air exposure, acoustically.

Elliott Carter. The mere mention of the name strikes dread into the ears of some listeners, complete, enthusiastic admiration into others. Probably no other living composer can boast such a disparate range of reaction, with very little in between. Dreaders and admirers alike could come together for the latest of several recent local Carter tributes, put on Saturday at Pasadena Presbyterian Church (repeated Sunday at Chapman University in Orange) by the Southwest Chamber Music Society.