Shaham Contreras

(Los Angeles, CA – November 8, 2022) Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Jaime Martín, presents Gil Shaham, “among the most inspired violinists of his generation” (The Guardian), on Dvorák’s dazzling Violin Concerto in A minor, colored with the folk music of the composer’s Czech roots, on Sunday, December 11, 2022, 7 pm, at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. The Grammy-winning violinist made his LACO debut in 2021, appearing on one of the highly regarded “LACO Close Quarters” digital episodes, melding music and the visual arts. 

The concert opens with the world premiere of Juan Pablo Contreras’ Lucha Libre!, a LACO Sound Investment commission that pays tribute to Mexican masked wrestling, the unique cultural phenomenon watched by the composer while growing up in Guadalajara. Subtitled Sinfonia Concertante for Chamber Orchestra, the piece, which LACO initially slated to premiere in March 2020 but was postponed due to the global pandemic, focuses on a "battle" among LACO’s master musicians, whose instruments represent Contreras' favorites of the iconic Lucha Libre characters. Six featured Orchestra soloists will wear custom masks created by the San Diego-based artists renowned for producing them for wrestlers. Contreras, who served as LACO's 2019-20 Sound Investment composer, won the 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise in Music, and received a Latin Grammy Best Arrangement nomination for the title track of his debut orchestral album, Mariachitlán, is “one of the most prominent young composers of Latin America" (Milenio). His music “masterfully portrays the Mexican identity" and is "colorfully orchestrated, emotionally intense and rhythmically vibrant” (El Informador). Sound Investment is a groundbreaking program LACO established in 2001 that engages audience members in developing new classical works.

Additionally, the program – the second and final installment of LACO’s celebration of Ligeti's 100th birthday – features three other works that evoke the vibrant texture and diversity of folk music traditions: Ligeti’s Concert Românesc and Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances for Winds, both influenced by Romanian folk music, and Kodály’s Dances of Galánta, reflecting the music of the composer’s childhood in Slovakia.

LACO recognizes the generous support of the Colburn Foundation and the Andrew W. 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. 

Ambassador Auditorium is located at 131 S. St. John Ave, Pasadena, CA 91105. For tickets ($29 - $133) and information, please visit www.laco.org or call 213 221 3920.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

JUAN PABLO CONTRERAS is recognized for combining Western classical and Mexican folk music in a single soundscape. His works have been performed by 30 major orchestras in the United States, Mexico, Spain, Austria, Slovakia, Colombia, Argentina, and Venezuela. Contreras has received commissions from Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, The Riverside Choir, Carlos Prieto, and the Onix Ensamble. He has won numerous awards, including the BMI William Schuman Prize, the Presser Music Award, the Jalisco Orchestral Composition Prize, the Brian Israel Prize, the Pi Kappa Lambda Award, the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the Dutch Harp Composition Contest, and the Young Artist Fellowship of Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and the Arts, among others.  Contreras has served as Composer-in-Residence with LACO, the soundON Festival of Modern Music in San Diego, the Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio, and at the Turtle Bay Music School and Concerts on the Slope in New York. He holds degrees in composition from the University of Southern California (DMA), the Manhattan School of Music (MM), and the California Institute of the Arts (BFA). Contreras’ work was introduced to LACO audiences at the 2018 SESSION concert curated by Derrick Skye, which featured the US premiere of A´ngel Mestizo, followed by the February 2019 world premiere of his LACO-commissioned Musas Mexicanas as part of LACO’s chamber series. Musas Mexicanas paid homage to women who played important roles in Mexico, including artist and icon Frida Kahlo, 17th century poet Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, and La Malinche, the Aztec woman who translated for Herna´n Corte´s during the Spanish Conquest. 

GIL SHAHAM’s flawless technique combined with his inimitable warmth and generosity of spirit has solidified his renown as an American master. The Grammy Award-winner, also named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year,” is sought after throughout the world for concerto appearances with leading orchestras and conductors, and regularly gives recitals and appears with ensembles on the world’s great concert stages and at the most prestigious festivals. Highlights of recent years include the acclaimed recording and performances of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas for solo violin. In 2020, he released his first solo recording in several years, which includes his first-ever recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto as well as the Brahms concerto. He has previously recorded more than two dozen concerto and solo CDs, earning multiple GRAMMY Awards, a Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or and Gramophone Editor’s Choice, among other accolades. The Illinois-born, Israel-raised violinist, who plays a 1719 Stradivarius, has been hailed for drawing “a veritable feast of tone coloring from his violin” (The Baltimore Sun), he was awarded an Avery Fischer Career Grant in 1990, received the coveted Avery Fisher Prize in 2008, and was named Musical America’s “Instrumentalist of the Year” in 2012.

LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (LACO) ranks among the world’s top musical ensembles. Beloved by audiences and praised by critics, the Orchestra is a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks and, with eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, a champion of contemporary composers. 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 has made 32 recordings, including, most recently, a 2019 BIS Records release of works for violin and chamber orchestra that features Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and the world premiere recording of Pierre Jalbert’s Violin Concerto (a LACO co-commission). In 2020, due to the global pandemic, LACO pivoted from presenting live performances to producing the groundbreaking CLOSE QUARTERS interdisciplinary digital series melding musical and visual arts, which has garnered more than 1.8 million views across social media platforms since its debut in November 2020. The “digitally native” programs, created specifically for streaming and applauded as “musically and artistically compelling” (Los Angeles Times) have “redefined how classical music can be presented in the 21st century (Cultural Attaché). LACO, with offices located in downtown Los Angeles, has toured Europe, South America and Japan, and performed across North America. www.laco.org.

JAIME MARTÍN assumed his LACO post and also became Chief Conductor of Ireland’s RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in September 2019. In LACO concert reviews, the Los Angeles Times has hailed Martín’s “infectious music making,” noting “the musicians seem to be having a blast. The audience is invited to the party.” Overseas, he has been praised as "a visionary conductor, discerning and meticulous" (Platea Magazine), and London's The Telegraph said, "his infectious enjoyment of the music communicated to the orchestra and audience alike.” He has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Gävle Symphony Orchestra since 2013 and is the Artistic Advisor of the Santander Festival.  He was also a founding member of the Orquestra de Cadaqués, where he was Chief Conductor from 2012 to 2019. Having spent many years as a highly regarded flautist, Martín turned to conducting full-time in 2013, and very quickly became sought after at the highest level.  Recent engagements include appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Antwerp Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony and Gulbenkian orchestras, as well as a nine-city European tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Martín has recorded a series of highly acclaimed Brahms discs for Ondine Records with the Gävle Symphony and various discs with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra for Tritó Records. He has also commissioned multiple world and regional premieres of works by composers including Ellen Reid, Andrew Norman, Missy Mazzoli, Derrick Spiva, Albert Schnelzer and Juan Pablo Contreras. As a flautist, Martín was principal flute of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, English National Opera, Academy of St Martin the Fields and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Jaime Martín is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, London, where he was a flute professor.

WHAT/WHO:

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra: Shaham Contreras

Jaime Martín, conductor

Gil Shaham, violin

WHEN:

Sunday, December 11, 2022, 7 pm

WHERE:

Ambassador Auditorium, 131 S. St. John Ave, Pasadena, CA 91105

PROGRAM:

JUAN PABLO CONTRERAS Lucha Libre! (LACO Sound Investment Commission, World Premiere)
DVORÁK Violin Concerto in A minor
LIGETI Concert Românesc
BARTÓK Romanian Folk Dances for Winds
KODÁLY Dances of Galánta

TICKETS/INFORMATION:
$29 - $133
www.laco.org 

213 221 3920

Artists, program, ticket prices, date and venue subject to change.