Dear friends,
Thank you for enriching our intimate musical salon with your presence so far this season. For those joining us mid-season: welcome!
Each year, Salastina selects up to 10 young composers worldwide to take part in its Sounds Promising Young Composers Program. The program is zero-cost for all participants, and has resulted in “life-changing” (their words, not ours!) professional development – and even high-profile commissions.
Last year, we pledged to commission one participant from each year’s cohort. This concert includes world premieres by 2021 Sounds Promising Young Composer Kian Ravaei and 2023 participant Celina Anna Kintscher.
Stick around after the concert for a wine and munchies reception with the artists.
Feel free to take photos and videos and share them on social media, tagging @salastinala (so that we can share them, too!).
Thank you as always for your generosity of spirit. Enjoy today’s concert, which it is our true privilege to provide.
Program
Johann Sebastian Bach, arr. Ferrucio Busoni: Chaconne
Instrumentation: solo piano
“I have to thank my father for the good fortune that he kept me strictly to the study of Bach in my childhood,” Busoni once wrote.
Length: 00:14:25
Celina Anna Kintscher: Darkness, and an Angel (World Premiere)
Instrumentation: 2 violins, viola, cello, piano, flute
Celina Anna Kintscher is a 2023 Sounds Promising Young Composer
Length: 00:16:00
Kian Ravaei: One Flesh (World Premiere)
First Invocation
Grotesque: Loki & Sigyn
Second Invocation
Romance: Layla & Majnun
Third Invocation
Canon: Bacchus & Ampelus
Instrumentation: 2 violins, viola, cello, flute, piano
Kian Ravaei is a 2020-2021 Sounds Promising Young Composer
Length: 00:17:00
About the Artists
Click on the artists’ names below to learn more about them.
Kevin Kumar and Maia Jasper White, Co-Artistic Directors and Violinists
Meredith Crawford, Resident Violist
Yoshika Masuda, Resident Cellist
HyeJin Kim, Resident Pianist
Benjamin Smolen, Resident Flutist
Brian Lauritzen, Resident Host
About Salastina
Salastina is a visionary chamber ensemble and presenting organization based in Los Angeles. Winner of San Francisco Classical Voice’s Audience Choice Award for “Best Chamber Ensemble” and “Best Streaming Series,” Salastina is a 21st-century reimagining of the chamber music salon: a place where musicians and audience members gather to share in the beauty of the art form through performance and conversation, whether in-person for intimate, local audiences or online for tens of thousands around the world.
Salastina presents up to 25 public performances per year, most of which are live-streamed online. Integral to Salastina’s live concerts: context and storytelling, dynamically provided by Resident Host and Artistic Partner Brian Lauritzen (a popular KUSC DJ), as well as ample opportunities for audience members and musicians to engage in conversation. As one audience member put it: “Where else can audiences have a personal conversation with a 'famous musician' who might have been a role model and inspiration? People oftentimes can't even pay money to talk to their favorite performers backstage. Yet Salastina has created an arena where musicians and audiences can connect.”
In keeping with Gustav Mahler’s definition of tradition as “not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire,” Salastina invests equally in the Classics and the generation of new music. Salastina’s work in this area has been broadcast dozens of times nationally on Performance Today. Its tuition-free, highly-competitive Sounds Promising Young Composers Program has provided dozens of composers from Italy to Singapore with mentorship and world-class audio-video recordings of their work. With these recordings in their portfolio, alumni have gone on to secure professional commissions. Salastina has also given presentations on career development to students at USC’s Thornton School of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
In May of 2020, Salastina partnered with Project: Music Heals Us and UCLA Medical Center to create Vital Sounds, a program bringing the healing power of music to patients in UCLA’s Intensive Care Unit. Since then, Salastina has provided over 51,000 minutes of one-on-one virtual bedside concerts to over 2,500 patients.
To support Salastina’s work and learn more about upcoming concerts, visit salastina.org. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @salastinala.
Coming Up At Salastina
Main Series No. 5: Schubert and the Pummel of Hummel
Friday, June 14, 2024 @ 8 PM - West LA
Edye Second Space at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center (map)
Saturday, June 15, 2024 @ 8 PM - Pasadena
Barrett Hall at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music (map)
+ Livestream
Sunday, June 16, 2024 @ 3 PM - Lake Forest, CA
Weinstein Performance Space at Chamber Music | OC
If you love dead, white, male German composers as much as we do – and are not (yet!) familiar with the greatness of Johann Nepomuk Hummel – this concert exploring the arbitrariness of fame is for you.
In 1819, Hummel organized a concert to celebrate the world premiere performance of one of his works; for the occasion, Schubert wrote the Trout Quintet for the same combination of instruments. Guess which piece is all anyone remembers?
Salastina recreates this concert so that you can judge whether or not posterity was fair in jettisoning a composer with a name as awesome as “Nepomuk.”
Wine and sachertorte reception to follow.
Program:
Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Piano Quintet Op. 87
Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet D 667 “The Trout”
And more…
Artists:
Kevin Kumar and Maia Jasper White, Co-Artistic Directors and Violinists
Meredith Crawford, Resident Violist
Yoshika Masuda, Resident Cellist
Ted Botsford, Guest Bassist
HyeJin Kim, Resident Pianist
Benjamin Smolen, Resident Flutist
Brian Lauritzen, Resident Host
Salastina Members may watch the livestream for free in our Members-Only Lounge.
Salastina Takes Los Olivos
Friday, June 21, 2024 through Sunday, June 23, 2024
Music, wine, food, wine, good company, wine, a beautiful natural setting… and also wine. Savor worlds Old and New at this first-of-its-kind exclusive weekend away with Salastina.
Ticket sales for the full weekend package, including lodging at Fess Parker Wine Country Inn, are now closed.
However, you may now purchase tickets to each day’s itinerary "a la carte.”
Limited spots remain each day. Read on for each day’s activities and to purchase tickets by Monday, June 17.
Friday, June 21
Our friend and colleague Natalie Leggett, a wonderful violinist — and winner of the 2022 California Wine Institute Award — hosts private tastings for us with her winemaker friends at Holus Bolus and Dragonette.
Walk to Fess Parker Wine Country Inn for dinner at its in-house restaurant, Nella — plus a private performance with Salastina musicians.
Saturday, June 22
At noon, a bus takes us from Fess Parker Wine Country Inn to Brander Château Estate for a private wine tasting. While there, we’ll enjoy a picnic lunch from Coast Range — and visit Brander’s unique Folk Art Museum, including a concert in the gallery.
We’ll head back to Fess Parker to rest for an hour or so.
At 4:00, hop back on the bus to Lumen’s Warner Henry Vineyard for an exclusive winemaker tour with Will Henry.
At the conclusion of the tour, we’ll enjoy dinner at Lumen’s fabulous Pico Restaurant in charming Los Alamos.
Sunday, June 23
Head to Roblar Winery for the area’s best brunch under the big oak tree.
Check out of Fess Parker and meet us in Solvang for a farewell concert at the historic Old Mission Santa Ines.
FAQ
Q: Do I have to drive myself anywhere?
A: We are renting a bus on Saturday, June 22 only. If you have purchased the complete weekend package, you are responsible for getting yourself to Los Olivos on Friday, June 21. Upon arrival that day, driving anywhere else will not be necessary. You are also responsible for driving yourself to Sunday’s activities and back to Los Angeles.
Q: How much walking will be involved?
A: On Friday, the tasting rooms are just around the corner from our hotel — only 0.1 miles away. The winemaker tour at Lumen will involve some light walking (a maximum of half a mile).
Q: What can I do with the downtime on Saturday?
A: You can book a massage or spa treatment at Fess Parker at your own expense, or explore the charming town of Los Olivos, its shopping, and tasting rooms freely. This is your time to relax and indulge in the local offerings in your own way and at your own pace.
Q: Is there a Member discount?
A: No. Our 20% Member discount applies only to Main Series and Happy Hour concerts.
Q: Are tickets refundable?
A: No. We are on the hook for the hotel and several meals 90 days before the trip. If you cancel and we can’t resell, we are short those funds. If you buy tickets and are ultimately unable to attend, the full value of your ticket(s) will be turned into a fully tax-deductible donation—with all the applicable Member benefits.
Q: Is the trip tax-deductible?
A: Those who purchased the full weekend package receive a $500 tax deduction and the corresponding Friend-Level Member Benefits. Those purchasing each day’s activities receive a $240 tax deduction and the corresponding Digital-Level Member Benefits. The rest of the ticket price is is not tax-deductible, as plenty of goods and services will be exchanged throughout the weekend.
Tagged Classical, Baroque, Romantic, Contemporary, 20th Century, Film, Folk, World
Like What You’ve Heard?
Our music does more.
Our music heals
Our music teaches and inspires
Our music connects you to incredible and diverse art and artists
… And there’s more in it for you, too.
Deepen your connection to chamber music — and your connection to Salastina’s IRL and virtual community — by joining our Membership program. Membership begins at $20/month and is fully tax-deductible.
As a token of our gratitude, we are pleased to offer Members the following benefits:
free access to Salastina’s complete archive of live recordings
exclusive access to free Members-only events for close interaction with Salastina’s outstanding and personable Resident Artists
Salastina swag, like shot glasses and tote bags
recognition on Salastina’s website
20% off all concert tickets
guest passes to share with friends and family
priority seating
… and more! Click below to learn more about levels of Membership — and to join.
How to Support our Work
Not in a position to become a Member? Donations of any amount — and simply spreading the word about Salastina — go an incredibly long way towards helping us fulfill our mission.
Concert ticket revenue covers only 11% of Salastina’s total annual operating costs. Put another way: for ticket prices to cover the cost of producing a single Main Series concert (like this one!), we’d have to more than double the cost. Worse still, we’d have to eliminate $10 student tickets altogether.
Need some ideas for how you can support our work?
donate $0; it’s FREE to tell your friends about Salastina and follow us on YouTube
donate $5, the cost of a single appetizer bite served to in-person attendees
donate $10, the equivalent of a livestream ticket
donate $20, the equivalent of a ticket to attend Happy Hour
donate $40, the equivalent of a ticket to attend one of our Main Series concerts
donate $100 to sponsor a musician's performance for one Vital Sounds private virtual bedside concert
donate $600 to sponsor a Resident Artist's performance on a single concert
donate $1,500 to cover the cost of a concert venue rental
donate $4,000 to sponsor the full operating cost of one Sounds Promising Young Composer's participation
donate $5,000 - $10,000 to cover the cost of a commission from a living composer
Donations over $240 per year automatically qualify you for Member Benefits.
Your support makes the entirety of our work in the world possible. Whether that means spreading the word about Salastina or making a donation in any amount: thank you.
Salastina is a 501(c)3 charitable organization, Tax ID 83-4248512.
All donations are fully tax-deductible.
From Our Friends at CMLA
Check out the many stellar offerings of our friends in CMLA here.