Matthias Pintscher Curates SESSION, LA Chamber Orchestra’s Innovative Performance Experience

Prolific composer/conductor Matthias Pintscher curates Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s (LACO) SESSION, an innovative performance experience, in collaboration with Four Larks, on Thursday February 28, 8 pm, at Mack Sennett Studios in Silverlake. Designed to explore classical music's cutting-edge sounds and challenge traditional concert-going expectations, the evening features two works by Pintscher, Study II for Treatise on the Veil, a string trio inspired by painter Cy Twombly’s art works, and Uriel, for cello and piano, the third part of his “Profiles of Light” cycle. Also on the program are three-time Grammy Award-winning soprano Michelle DeYoung and LACO artists performing Ravel’s Three Poemes de Stéphane Mallarmé; Berg’s Four pieces for clarinet and piano; Grisey’s surreal Stèle for two percussionists and Xenakis’s Rebonds A, a tour-de-force for solo percussion. SESSION includes a "hang" with the artists, and premium tickets include parking and one drink as well. Mack Sennett Studios, where artists like Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Lady Gaga, John Legend, Donna Summer and Jay-Z have performed, is a historic facility that serves as a soundstage, event space and a hub for a variety of cultural producers.

“SESSION provides an ideal platform for spotlighting Matthias Pintscher’s remarkably eclectic and compelling musical aesthetic,” says LACO Executive Director Scott Harrison. “A forward-thinking artist who is highly regarded in new music circles globally, he imbues his work with meticulous detail and an element of surprise. And Mack Sennett Studios, a decidedly unexpected setting for chamber music, offers a unique backdrop for his creative vision.”

In addition to curating SESSION, Pintscher guest conducts on LACO’s Orchestra Series, leading his own work, Transir for Flute & Orchestra, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth), featuring DeYoung and tenor Sean Panikkar, star of Philip Glass’s most recent opera, Satyagraha, on March 2, 8 pm, at the Alex Theatre, and March 3, 2019, 7 pm, at Royce Hall.

Pintscher, who made his LACO debut in 2016 and will serve as music director of the Ojai Music Festival in 2020, is one of today’s most prominent and prolific composers and has an active conducting career. He is the music director of the acclaimed Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra and Artist-in-Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Heralded “for making the creative process behind music come to life” (Ottawa Citizen), Pintscher, who makes his home in New York and Paris, has created significant works for the world’s leading orchestras. He joined the composition faculty at The Juilliard School in 2014.

DeYoung, hailed for a voice that is “sheer magic” (Dallas Morning News), has established herself as one of the most exciting artists of her generation. She appears frequently with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Met Orchestra (in Carnegie Hall), the Met Chamber Ensemble, Vienna Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper Orchestra, Berliner Staatskapelle, Sao Paulo Symphony, and the Concertgebouworkest. She has also appeared in the prestigious festivals of Ravinia, Tanglewood, Aspen, Cincinnati, Saito Kinen, Edinburgh, Salzburg, St Denis, and Lucerne.

Four Larks, creative producers and art directors of SESSION, is noted for blurring the lines between dance, theater and opera. The organization, based in in downtown L.A., works variously as chamber-pop band, physical theatre ensemble and immersive space-makers. Four Larks has garnered acclaim for its award-winning "junkyard operas" that combine large-scale immersive design with innovative orchestration and dynamic physical theatre. Composer/Director Mat Sweeney and Creative Producer Sebastian Peters-Lazaro have been creating original work as Four Larks since 2008 alongside an international collective of collaborators.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) ranks among the world’s top musical ensembles. Beloved by audiences and praised by critics, the Orchestra is known as a champion of contemporary composers, with eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, as well as a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks. Headquartered in the heart of the country's cultural capital, LACO has been proclaimed “America’s finest chamber orchestra” (Public Radio International), “LA’s most unintimidating chamber music experience” (Los Angeles magazine), “resplendent” (Los Angeles Times) and “one of the world's great chamber orchestras"(KUSC Classical FM). Performing throughout greater Los Angeles, the Orchestra presents orchestral, Baroque and chamber concerts, as well as salon evenings in private spaces and unique experiences that explore classical music's cutting-edge sounds. Jaime Martín, praised as "a visionary conductor, discerning and meticulous" (Platea Magazine), is LACO’s Music Director Designate and takes the podium as Music Director in the 2019-20 season.

Steinway is the official piano of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

SESSION, whose programs fit the unique properties of unconventional spaces and test ideas about the relationship between performers and audiences, continues on April 4 with conductor/composer and wild Up director Christopher Rountree, whose work stands at the intersection of classical music, new music, performance art and pop. (Location to be announced.)

SESSION is made possible by Ruth Eliel & Bill Cooney, Howard & Judith Jelinek, Leslie Lassiter, Clare Baren & David Dwiggins, Nancy Bell Coe & William Burke and Fariba Ghaffari.

Single tickets are $25, and premium tickets, which include parking and drink ticket, are $45 and may be purchased online at laco.org or by calling LACO at 213 622 7001 x 1. Mack Sennett Studios is located at 1215 Bates Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90029.