This weekend marks a first for the La Jolla Music Society, there’s a chance to catch a beloved animated musical, drive-in style, and two wildly different and striking works of art are ready for COVID-style appointment viewings. Take the edge off this scorching hot weekend with a little art and culture, whether it’s in-person or broadcast from an empty concert hall. Here's all the details.
Mary Corse | Light Painting - Grid Series
Visual art
I fully gasped when I heard there's a Mary Corse work at Quint Gallery's new Girard Ave location. Corse's work hums with light and an energy you can practically feel, and it's definitely not the stuff of virtual exhibitions. If you've been waiting for a must-go viewing to try out some appointment-only galleries, this is it. The gloriously refractive "Light Painting - Grid Series," described as a "monumental canvas," is a study of the substance of light, using her signature glass microspheres and a series of monochromatic lines and strokes. This piece was included in the Guggenheim's 1971 "Ten Young Artists" show.
Quint's new ONE gallery, which is dedicated to showing one significant work at a time, is open by appointment only for socially distanced, masked visits, and you can catch the Mary Corse piece now through Monday.
Details: On display Aug. 12-24. 7722 Girard Ave. By appointment.
SummerFest 2020
Music
The La Jolla Music Society almost canceled their annual summer series this year. For their 35th annual chamber-music program, they decided to go virtual. But not in that hazy Zoom sort of way. Musicians perform and stream live on stage at the sparkling, still-new Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center. The festival's music director Inon Barnaton told Midday Edition this week that despite the heartache of not being able to bring audiences to the year-old space, it is equipped with plenty of fancy cameras, primo acoustics and lighting. So while we may be stuck at home, it will feel (kinda) like we're right there.
The series features a wide variety of chamber pieces and musicians, like Grammy-nominated violinist Tessa Lark and bassist Michael Thurber. They'll perform a striking Ives composition, "The Unanswered Question," and Lark — alongside James Ehnes, Yura Lee, Clive Greensmith and Alisa Weilerstein — will also perform a Schubert String Quintet on Friday, opening night. I'm especially looking forward to seeing Barnatan perform a solo piano arrangement of Rachmaninoff's enchanting "Symphonic Dances" on Saturday, plus a Beethoven trio with Lark and cellist Greensmith. Performances continue with a Sunday matinee and more through the coming week, with a jam-packed finale on Aug. 29.
For those of us who can't commit to the $90-200 ticket subscription cost: the program will host several discussions and dress rehearsal livestreams of select pieces on YouTube. Friday at 2 p.m. you can sound check the Beethoven, and Saturday at 2 p.m. catch a rehearsal of a Mendelssohn trio.
Details: Six ticketed online programs run Friday Aug. 21 through Aug. 29, $90+. Free events this weekend take place Friday and Saturday at 2 p.m.
Walls: Cross Border Urban Art — Carlos Galindo
Visual art
For "Walls – Cross Border Urban Art / Muros – Arte Urbano Interfronterizo," a partnership between San Ysidro's The Front Arte & Cultura gallery and Tijuana's Municipal Institute of Art and Culture (Cartelera Cultural IMAC), seven new murals will be created by regional artists, including Mr. B Baby, Carlos Galindo/Grvr, Fifí Martinez, Alfonso Delgadillo and more. The murals will be placed inside and outside the galleries on both sides of the border, which will be available for public viewing.
Inside The Front, Carlos Galindo's "mural intervention" kicked off the project this week, with a virtual opening reception and exhibition tour that can still be streamed via IGTV. The mural is mostly visible from outside the gallery, and can be visited by appointment. The remaining murals will be finished in early September.
Details: By appointment or on IGTV. 147 San Ysidro Blvd. Free.
Drive-In at The Westfield: 'The Princess and the Frog'
Film
The popular 2009 animated musical, "The Princess and the Frog," will show at a new pop-up drive-in theater at the Escondido Westfield location parking lot, hosted by California Center for the Arts.
Fresh off the recent news that Disneyland will revamp Splash Mountain into a Princess and the Frog ride, here's your chance to brush up on the movie — set in early 1900s New Orleans — and get ready to sing along. The California Center for the Arts has a full schedule of drive-in movies and performances, and you can read KPBS reporter Beth Accomando’s story about the programming here.
Details: Friday at 8 p.m. 272 E. Via Rancho Parkway, Escondido. $50 per vehicle.
