Villa Aurora Events Archive
May 2018
Lecture and Concert: Schönberg and Hollywood
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Information
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.
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
Partners
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.
Welcoming Reception
Villa Aurora (520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272)
Participants
Onur Burçak Belli is a Turkish-Syrian journalist mainly covering political conflicts as
well as its far-reaching outcomes both in Turkey, Middle East and the broader region.
She has 11 years of experience as a journalist working for both national and international mainstream media outlets. She started her career as a journalist at Hurriyet Daily News of Turkey's leading media conglomerate Dogan Group. She successively worked for Newsweek Turkey, HaberTurk TV, RTL, BBC World Service, Channel 4 News, Fairfax Media, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, and more.
She has closely followed the war in Syria and the recent military operations against the Kurdish minority in Turkey. She was based in Damascus researching Syria's reform plans and the Sunni-Alawite conflicts amongst the ruling elite regarding these plans, when the uprising started in March 2011.
Burcak's main focus recently has been the unrest and the authoritarian transformation of the state in Turkey. She is now working on her book about her testimony as a journalist, a human and an ordinary citizen to the milestone incidents of transformation through state crack down, unrest and violent attacks.
Berlin-based composer Stefan Beyer, recipient of the 2017 Toru Takemitsu Award, resides at Villa Aurora from April through June. He has studied composition in Leipzig, Germany and Gothenburg, Sweden. Past fellowships include Cité des Arts Paris, France, Beethoven House Bonn, Germany, and Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf, Germany. He received grants and scholarships i. e. by the Berlin Senate, the State of Saxony, the Else Heiliger Fonds at Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes).
Stefan will be talking about his past works as well as his current artistic activities.
Maria Schrader is one of Germany's most acclaimed actresses, she is a two-time winner of the German Film Award and three-time winner of the Bavarian Film Award. She has worked with directors such as Margarethe von Trotta, Doris Dörrie, Peter Greenaway and Agnieszka Holland ("In Darkness"). She was awarded the Berlinale's Silver Bear as Best Actress in "Aimée & Jaguar" by Max Färberböck, nominated for the Golden Globes in 2000.
Her debut as a director, "Love Life" was shot in Israel and premiered at the Festa del Cinema in Rome in 2007. "Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe" screened at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival and had theatrical releases in more than 15 countries. It was Austria's 2017 Oscar submission and opened in the US shortly after. It won the People's Choice Award for Best European Movie at the 2017 European Film Awards.
As an actress Maria Schrader recently appeared in the renowned series "Deutschland 83" (International Emmy for Best Series in 2016). She completed the second season during the last year as well as the BBC mini "The City and The City", which screened at the Series Mania Festival in Lille, France, just last month.
She will use her time at the Villa Aurora to work on new directing projects.