Vijay Gupta plays musical works by Reena Esmail celebrating traditions of India and the West

The Wallis Presents Los Angeles artists VIJAY GUPTA and REENA ESMAIL as well as PETER MYERS  and SUZANA BARTAL in INDIA & THE WEST: COMPOSITIONS & CONVERSATIONS, an evening of chamber music and cross-culture dialogue centered on the great musical traditions of India and the West on Saturday, February 15, 2020, 7:30 pm, in The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater. The concert features original works by Indian-American composer Reena Esmail performed by violinist Vijay Gupta, cellist Peter Myers and pianist Suzana Bartal, including DARSHAN for solo violin, movement 3; JHULA JHULE for violin and piano; SAANS for piano trio; VARSHA for solo cello and PIANO TRIO.

According to Esmail, “My mission involves joining communities with one another through music by creating spaces where cross-cultural dialogue can begin. As I grew up bilingual in English and Gujarati, I felt drawn to explore the connection between these two sides of myself through the lens of music which occupies different areas of the same musical space, coexists beautifully and overlaps without detracting from one another.”

MacArthur "Genius" Gupta, an esteemed performer, communicator, and citizen-artist, is a leading advocate for the role of the arts and music to heal, inspire, provoke change, and foster social connection. After joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 19 and serving as a member of the first violin section through 2018, he founded Street Symphony and serves as Artistic Director of the non-profit organization, which provides musical engagement, dialogue and teaching artistry for homeless and incarcerated communities in Los Angeles. New Yorker critic Alex Ross has described Gupta as "one of the most radical thinkers in the unradical world of American classical music” and Time magazine selected Gupta as one of their Time 100 NEXT list of rising stars who are shaping the future of business, entertainment, sports, politics, science, health and more.

"Vijay Gupta and Reena Esmail are two L.A.-based, but internationally acclaimed, artists who have collaborated to create a unique evening of work for us at The Wallis that beautifully connects two cross-cultural musical languages," says The Wallis’ Artistic Director, Paul Crewes. "I am very excited to be working alongside these two wonderful, game-changing artists.”

Tickets, $29 to $59 (prices subject to change), are available at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills. To purchase tickets and for more information, please call 310-746-4000 or visit TheWallis.org/IndiaAndTheWest.

About the Artists:

VIJAY GUPTA (Violin), an esteemed violinist, speaker and educator, is a leading advocate for the power of music to foster social connection. A 2018 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow, Gupta is the founder and Artistic Director of Street Symphony, a non-profit organization providing musical engagement, dialogue and teaching artistry for homeless and incarcerated communities in Los Angeles. Gupta joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 19, and served as a member of the first violin section through 2018. He has appeared as a guest concertmaster with the Los Angeles Opera and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and is an active recitalist, soloist and chamber musician. Gupta teaches, performs, and speaks nationally on the intersection of music and education, mental health, and social issues, and serves on the faculty of The Colburn School. Vijay Gupta plays a 2010 violin made by Los Angeles luthier Eric Benning.

REENA ESMAIL (Composer) works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music to bring communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. Esmail holds degrees from The Juilliard School (BM’05) and the Yale School of Music (MM’11, MMA’14, DMA’18). Esmail's work has been commissioned by ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Kronos Quartet, Imani Winds, Richmond Symphony, Town Music Seattle, Albany Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Girls Choir, the Elora Festival, Juilliard415 and Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Upcoming seasons include new work for Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Amherst College Choir and Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and Conspirare. In addition, Esmail is Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting musical traditions of India and the West.

SUZANA BARTAL (Piano), winner of the New York Concert Artists Concerto Competition in 2013, has performed extensively in Europe, the US and Asia, in prestigious venues such as the Philharmonie, Le Louvre, Salle Pleyel and Radio France in Paris, the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Merkin Hall in New York as well as Milton Court in London. Her recording of the complete Liszt Années de pèlerinage will be released in March 2020 on the label Naïve. As a chamber musician, Bartal has performed with violinist Josef Spacek, Kristóf Baráti, Alina Pogostkina, Rosanne Philippens, Alexandra Conunova, violist Lise Berthaud, cellists István Várdai and Claudio Bohorquez. Born in Timisoara, Romania into a Hungarian family, she started her musical education in her hometown. Starting 2005 she resumed her studies in Paris and Lyon, France at the CNSMD and at the Yale School of Music with Peter Frankl where she earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts in 2018.

PETER MYERS (Cello), praised for the warmth of his sound and range of color, has performed internationally as a chamber musician, and since 2017 has held the position of Assistant Principal Cellist with the San Francisco Opera. A founding member of the Saguaro Piano Trio, which won first prize in the 2009 International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg, as well as SAKURA, a unique and innovative quintet of cellos, Myers has appeared at the Marlboro, La Jolla, and Mozaic festivals, on tour with musicians from Marlboro, and abroad in Germany, Italy, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Mongolia, Laos, and Pakistan. He has also performed as guest principal cellist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. His mentors have included Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Conservatory and Ralph Kirshbaum at the University of Southern California. The American cellist lives in San Francisco and plays an 1876 cello by Claude-Augustin Miremont.

About the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts: 

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is a dynamic cultural hub and community resource where local, national and international artists share their artistry with ever-expanding audiences. The campus, located in the heart of Beverly Hills, CA, is committed to robust and distinctive presentations and education programs curated with both creativity and social impact in mind. Distinguished by its eclectic programming that mirrors the diverse landscape of Los Angeles and its location in the entertainment capital of the world, The Wallis has produced and presented more than 275 dance, theater, opera, classical music, cinema and family programs since its doors opened in October 2013. Hailed as “au courant” (LaLa Magazine), The Wallis was lauded by Culture Vulture, which proclaims, “If you love expecting the unexpected in the performing arts, you have to love The Wallis.” Its programming has been nominated for 57 Ovation Awards and seven L.A. Drama Critic's Circle Awards. The campus itself, a breathtaking 70,000-square-foot facility, celebrating the classic and the modern, has garnered six architectural awards. Designed by acclaimed architect Zoltan E. Pali (SPF:architects), the restored building features the original 1933 Beverly Hills Post Office (on the National Register of Historic Places), which serves as the theater's dramatic yet welcoming lobby, and includes the contemporary 500-seat, state-of-the-art Bram Goldsmith Theater; the 150-seat Lovelace Studio Theater; an inviting open-air plaza for family, community and other performances; and GRoW @ The Wallis: A Space for Arts Education, where learning opportunities for all ages and backgrounds abound. Together, these elements embrace the city's history and its future, creating a performing arts destination for L.A.-area visitors and residents alike. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is led by Chairman of the Board Michael Nemeroff, Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer Rachel Fine and Artistic Director Paul Crewes.

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