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Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Performs World Premiere by Hannah Lash

Los Angeles
Chamber Orchestra's (LACO) Music Director Jeffrey Kahane conducts the world
premiere of This Ease by composer
Hannah Lash as well as the LACO debut of Natasha Paremski, proclaimed a “spectacular pianist” (American Record Guide), performing
Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21, on Saturday, April 26, 8 pm, at Glendale’s Alex
Theatre, and Sunday, April 27, 2014, 7 pm, at UCLA’s Royce Hall.  Also on the program is Haydn’s buoyant Symphony No. 102 in B-flat major.  USC Thornton School of Music violin performance major Kenneth Liao, winner
of the annual LACO-Thornton Strings Mentorship Audition, joins LACO's violin section for these
concerts.



 



Lash, whose work is hailed as “striking” and “handsomely
brooding” (The New York Times), says, "This Ease is meant to suggest the
feeling of familiarity with what we are hearing, yet invoke the underlying
unease that allows for the piece's forward motion and unique fingerprint.  The musical material at its most elemental is
comprised of major and minor thirds chained and stacked together in various
ways, which gradually mutate to highlight different harmonic colors and create
the piece's dramatic formal shape."

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This Ease is presented as part of the LACO’s unique “Sound Investment” commissioning
program, initiated 13 years ago to engage audiences in developing new
works.  The program gives members the
rare opportunity to create a legacy in music and to observe first-hand the
development of a new work from the composer’s earliest ideas to the finished
composition.  Participants invest $150 or
more for a membership, which includes intimate salons throughout the season
featuring in-depth discussions with the composer about his or her creative
process and previews of the final work.

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Paremski, praised for her “beautifully atmospheric interpretations” (The New York Times) is a 26-year-old
Russian-born virtuoso who made her Los Angeles Philharmonic debut at age
15.  Critics have hailed dynamic performances and flawless technique.



 



As part of the LACO-Thornton
Strings Mentorship Program in a 2013 mock orchestral audition for strings,
Thornton School strings undergraduate Kenneth Liao, a violinist, won the
opportunity to play alongside LACO veterans at LACO’s April concerts.  He will perform as part of LACO’s first violin
section and is being mentored for this opportunity by LACO Concertmaster
Margaret Batjer.  The program, a unique
collaboration now in its fourth year between USC’s Thornton School of Music and
the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, underscores the importance of preparedness
of strings students for professional auditions. 
Liao competed against violists, cellists, double bass players and fellow
violinists before an esteemed panel of judges including LACO Concertmaster
Margaret Batjer, LACO Principal Viola Roland Kato and LACO Associate Principal
Cello Armen Ksajikian.



 



Concert Preludes, pre-concert
talks held one hour before curtain and free for ticket holders, provide
insights into the music and artists with Kahane interviewing Lash about her new
piece.  



 



Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is considered one of the world’s premier
chamber orchestras as well as a leader in presenting wide-ranging repertoire
and adventurous commissions.  Its 2013-14
season, the Orchestra's 45th, features a compelling mix of beloved masterpieces
and genre-defying premieres from firmly established as well as notable
up-and-coming composers programmed by Jeffrey Kahane, one of the world’s
foremost conductors and pianists, who marks his 17th season as LACO’s music
director. 



 



Tickets, starting at
$25, are on sale now and may be purchased online at laco.org, by calling LACO at 213 622 7001.  Discounted tickets are also
available by phone for seniors 65 years of age and older and groups of 12 or
more.  College students may purchase
student rush tickets ($10), based on availability, at the box office the day of
the concert.  Also
available for college students is the $25 “Campus to Concert Hall All Access
Pass” – good for all seven of LACO’s Orchestral series concerts, Discover
Beethoven’s Eroica and three Westside
Connections concerts.






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