Events | Lecture and Concert: Schönberg and Hollywood

Los Angeles | May 26, 2018 | 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Arnold Schönberg | Photo: Man Ray

With Kenneth Marcus, Larry Schoenberg, Movses Pogossian, Jocelyn Ho, and David Newman

Arnold Schönberg’s connections to Hollywood were vital to his American career, and he left a lasting impact on many American and exile composers who studied and worked with him. Among his American friends in Hollywood were George Gershwin, Alfred Newman, and David Raksin, who all feature prominently in this lecture-concert at the Villa Aurora on Saturday, May 26, from 4 to 7 pm. Professor Kenneth Marcus (University of La Verne) will highlight aspects of his recent book, Schönberg and Hollywood Modernism (hardback 2016, paperback 2018), in which he demonstrates the fascinating ties between Schönberg, the Hollywood entertainment industry, and the modernist movement in southern California.

Even before moving to the West Coast from New York in 1934, Schönberg saw the entertainment industry as his main source for students, and he hoped to teach theory and harmony to film composers and studio musicians. Hollywood figures also commissioned works, performed in concerts of Schönberg’s music, and even tried to persuade him to write a film score, for which sketches survive. And when Schönberg first referred to himself as a “California composer,” Alfred Newman had just arranged the first complete recording of the Four String Quartets on a Hollywood sound stage.


Supported by the Austrian Consulate General as part of the new series "Vienna in Hollywood”, highlighting the major impact of Austrians on the U.S. film industry from the Golden Age of Hollywood to the present.


PROGRAM

Introduction
by Kenneth Marcus: Schönberg and Hollywood

Presentation
by Larry Schoenberg: Arnold Schönberg's Friendship with Alfred Newman

Performance
Schönberg’s Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, Op. 47, featuring UCLA professors of music, violinist Movses Pogossian and pianist Jocelyn Ho

World Premiere
Performance of the transcription of Alfred Newman’s Academy Award-winning score to The Song of Bernadette for string quintet and piano by David Newman (in person)

Reception and Book Signing

Film Screening
String Trio, Los Angeles 1946 by David Starobin


Location
Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272  
 
Tickets
General $15
Members $10
 
Street Parking is available on Los Liones Drive. Shuttle service starts at 3 p.m. from Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard two blocks North East of Pacific Coast Highway. Please do not park on the Topanga State Park Lot!

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