Brentano Quartet Perform Ravel, Mozart and Aucoin
Music
The renowned Brentano Quartet — the resident string quartet at Yale School of Music — comes to town tonight to perform three pieces at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla as part of the La Jolla Music Society's current season.
They'll perform a traditional piece by Mozart, "String Quartet in A major, K. 464." This piece is not one of his more popular or frequently performed pieces, but it's part of a series of quartets the young composer had dedicated to Haydn — Mozart credits with showing him that the quartet structure had infinite possibilities.
They're also performing Maurice Ravel's "String Quartet in F major." This piece is really unexpected, which is par for the course for the French composer. It's the only string quartet he ever wrote when he was still a student. The piece is moody, and while the second movement starts out lively and bright, it quickly delves into something more dark and contemplative.
And the La Jolla Music Society co-commissioned new work by Matthew Aucoin for the Brentano Quartet to play. Matthew Aucoin is the brilliant young composer and conductor who guest curated last year's "Hearing the Future" Festival for the San Diego Symphony, so San Diego got a little sense for his style and his work then. This piece, his first string quartet, is about human attention and obsession, and it was written specifically for the Brentano Quartet. Also, it's so new it's only been performed a few times and there are no recordings. So if you want to hear it, you'll have to catch the Brentano Quartet perform tonight.
Details: 8 p.m. Friday. The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla; find tickets here.
San Diego New Music: Visceral Infinities
Music, Dance
On Saturday, the Athenaeum Art Center in the Bread and Salt complex in Barrio Logan is host to a showcase of experimental new compositions, "Visceral Infinities." Curated by Christopher Warren, who will perform new work of his own, there's also work by Joe Garrison for solo bass clarinet and compositions by the duo Kristopher and Dina Apple.
The pieces are loosely themed around time. Christopher Warren's piece, "The Six Perils Of Fractured Time" is a six-movement composition that explores what might happen if you time traveled through space, but returned only to discover you've actually broken time. It sounds a bit terrifying but the music is pastoral and lovely, and a bit spacey.
Joe Garrison is a prolific composer and conductor in San Diego, debuting a selection of new works, also world premieres. Kristopher and Dina Apple have a collaborative composition — Kristopher Apple is a stunning violinist, and Dina, a dancer and choreographer, will also be dancing.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Athenaeum Art Center, 1955 Julian Ave., Barrio Logan; find tickets here.
Alofa La'Nique Gould's 'Stubborn/Dream Loving'
Visual Art, Music
Hill Street Country Club kicks off its first exhibition of 2020 with a solo show by Alofa La'Nique Gould on Saturday. Hill Street is an Oceanside nonprofit arts space — not an actual country club! — that aims to provide space for artists in a way that's free from the restraints of generational wealth, and provides opportunities to show on a curated, institutional level.
Gould is an Oceanside-based artist who draws on her black identity and the folklore of her Samoan heritage in creating comic-inspired illustrations: intricate grids and panels, a lot of self-portraiture and nostalgia. She's also a singer-songwriter— with a timeless, otherworldly voice — and will perform at the opening reception.
Details: 7 p.m. Saturday. Hill Street Country Club, 530 South Coast Hwy, Oceanside; free, more information here.
Closing Soon: 'Abstract Revolution'
Visual Art
It's your last chance to see San Diego Museum Of Art's special exhibition of works by women in the abstract expressionism movement, "Abstract Revolution." The contributions of women have long been overshadowed by the movement's iconic men — Rothko, Pollock — and critics have been working to reframe this movement with a different lens. It was a vibrant time to be an artist in the 30s, but it was a whole different thing to be a woman making art.
This exhibition includes works by the likes of Lee Krasner, who after she established herself as a working artist, married Jackson Pollock. The exhibition also has work by Elaine de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, contemporary artist Mary Heilmann and more. It's a great way to recalibrate who we think of as visionaries of this period and abstract art.
Details: "Abstract Revolution" closes on Sunday. San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park; more information here.
