“Strawberry Water Park in Pasadena seems like an unlikely place for an orchestral concert,” writes Chris Gray in Sunday’s (12/8) Houston Chronicle. “Yet in October, the Pasadena Philharmonic drew about 1,000 people for a concert of nearly all Mexican composers, followed by a screening of ‘Coco.’ … James Park, the orchestra’s music director, [chose] 20th-century names such as Arturo Marquez and Maria Grever…. Overall, the evening represented a triumph for an organization that, barely a half-decade ago, was on the verge of going under.… Pasadena [has] an estimated 153,528 residents [but] Pasadena’s image as an entity of its own seems to have melted into the metropolitan melange that is Greater Houston. Not the case, Park insists. The Pasadena Philharmonic is Exhibit A that the area’s largest suburb … has ‘its own homegrown musical arts scene.’ … The Pasadena Philharmonic was founded in 1982.… [It has an] all-volunteer board of directors and … musicians…. In July 2017, the orchestra played at incoming Pasadena Mayor Jeff Wagner’s inauguration…. Park lost count of the number of people who told him, ‘I didn’t even know we had an orchestra.’ ‘We’re in our 34th year,’ he replied.’ ”
Posted December 12, 2019
In photo: Pasadena Philharmonic Music Director James Park
