Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Led by Music Director Jaime Martín, Concludes Season with LACO-Commissioned World Premiere by Marc Lowenstein and LACO Debut of Sitarist Anoushka Shankar Performing Concerto No. 3 for Sitar Composed by Her Legendary Father, the Late Ravi Shankar

Saturday, May 20 2023, 8 pm, at Glendale’s Alex Theatre

Sunday, May 21, 2023, 7 pm, at UCLA’s Royce Hall

(Los Angeles, CA – April 25, 2023) Family and tradition figure prominently in Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s season finale when sitarist Anoushka Shankar makes her LACO debut, under Music Director Jaime Martín’s baton, with a performance of Concerto No. 3 for Sitar composed by her legendary father, the late Ravi Shankar, who brought the sitar into the mainstream through his pop music collaborations with The Beatles and others. Anoushka, heralded for her “lush mediations…dazzling runs and leaps,” has forged a “Grammy-nominated career (that) has carried the family business to new cross-cultural heights” (New York Classical Review). The concerts are Saturday, May 20, 2023, 8 pm, at Glendale’s Alex Theatre, and Sunday, May 21, 2023, 7 pm, at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

The Orchestra also performs the world premiere of HaZ’màn HaZèh (translation: “this present time”) by 2022-23 LACO Sound Investment composer Marc Lowenstein, the founding music director of The Industry, Los Angeles’ groundbreaking and widely acclaimed experimental opera company, whose music is infused with a searching sense of narrative and mysticism. LACO Sound Investment is a groundbreaking program the Orchestra established in 2001 that engages audience members in developing new classical works. De Falla’s colorful The Three-Cornered Hat Suite No.1, opens the program, which wraps with Bizet’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, written when the composer was just 17-years-old.

Lowenstein explains that HaZ’man HaZeh, refers to the Shehecheyanu, a common Hebrew prayer that is recited at momentous occasions and is translated “Blessed are You, God, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this present time.” According to Lowenstein his work “is about the search for the sense of presence-in-the-moment that lies somewhere above nostalgia, regret, hope, and worry.” His rich and varied career includes organizing operas in limousines and train stations, writing operas in the spirit of Bugs Bunny, singing whispering premieres, and teaching young songwriters at CalArts.

Shankar’s list of accomplishments reads as many life stories in one: masterful sitarist; film composer; impassioned activist; the youngest and first female recipient of a British House of Commons Shield; the first Indian musician to perform live or to serve as presenter at the Grammy Awards with seven nominations under her belt, and the first Indian woman to be nominated; one of the first five female composers to have been added onto the UK A-level music syllabus. Immersed from a young age on the world stage, with over a quarter-century’s performing behind her, she is a singular, genre-defying artist across realms – classical and contemporary, acoustic and electronic.

The appearance of Anoushka Shankar is made possible, in part, with support from Shaheen + Anil Nanji.

Shankar Plays Shankar is made possible, in part, from a generous contribution from Ray + Ann Lowe.

Sound Investment sponsors are: Barry + Nancy Sanders, Anne-Marie Spataru and Anna Butturini. Additional support is from Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Foundation, Elizabeth + J Schlichting, Robert + Kerry Shuman and Gregory Soukup + Mary Jo Carr.

LACO recognizes the generous support of the Colburn Foundation and the Mellon Foundation. The Orchestra also receives public funding via grants from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. LACO gratefully acknowledges Hogan Lovells US LLP for generous pro bono support. Steinway is the official piano of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

The Alex Theatre is located at 216 North Brand Boulevard, Glendale, CA 91203. Royce Hall is located at 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095. For tickets ($32 – $142) and information, please visit www.laco.org or call 213 221 3920.

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