Saturday (3/20) on the Los Angeles Times blog Culture Monster, Mike Boehm writes, “The Pasadena Symphony is leaving its longtime home, making a small-is-beautiful switch from the 3,029-seat Pasadena Civic Auditorium to the 1,262-seat Ambassador Auditorium for the 2010-11 concert season announced Friday. Meanwhile, its sister orchestra, the Pasadena Pops, is going in the opposite direction. As previously announced, it will play this summer on a lawn outside the Rose Bowl that affords expanded seating of up to 4,000 compared to the previous venue, Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge.” According to Boehm, Executive Director Paul Jan Zdunek says “the orchestras’ improving—though still deficit-plagued—financial situation allows for some departures from the ultra-familiar: Phillip Glass’ Symphony No. 3 will lead off a Feb. 19, 2011, program that also includes Schumann and Mozart; sandwiched between excerpts from Mendelssohn’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 on March 12, 2011, will be the 20th century Armenian composer Khachatur Avetisyan’s concerto for the kanun, a Middle Eastern lap harp with 72 nylon strings.”
Posted March 22, 2010
