Friday May 6, 8:00pm, Music for the Great Outdoors

• Elgar: Serenade for Strings
• Brahms: Serenade No. 1
• O’Reilly: Chautauqua Suite (world premiere performance)
• Brown: Afterimage (world premiere performance, made possible by the St. Matthew’s Music Guild and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission)

Music at St. Matthew’s continues its 31st season of concerts in Pacific Palisades with a concert featuring the critically acclaimed Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s, Friday, May 6, at 8:00pm.

“Music for the Great Outdoors” brings together works with associations of outdoor life or specific places. Included on the program will be Brahms’s Serenade No. 1 in D major for small orchestra and Elgar’s youthful String Serenade in C. The concert will also include two world premieres: John O’Reilly’s “Chautauqua West” and Matthew Brown’s “Afterimage,” commissioned by St. Matthew’s Music Guild with support from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Brahms wrote the first Serenade in 1858 when he was completing work on his First Piano Concerto. The piece was originally scored for wind and string octet and later reworked for small orchestra. It builds on the tradition of the many serenades by Mozart and Beethoven, intended for outdoor performance, and featuring a succession of larger and smaller movements, including several minuets, rondos and scherzi.

Elgar’s Serenade for Strings was composed in 1892 and given its premiere by the Worcester Ladies’ Orchestral Class, with Elgar conducting. The slow movement has been compared to the famous “Nimrod” from the “Enigma Variations.”

Matthew Brown was born in Southern California and studied at USC with Donald Crockett, Morten Lauridsen and Randy Newman. He received the Salter Endowed Music Award in 2003 and has won numerous other prizes for his innovative musical style. His music has been performed by the LA Master Chorale, LA Chamber Singers, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and Antioch Chamber Ensemble. “Afterimage” was commissioned by the Music Guildin 2015 and is the latest in a series of works that explore the intersection between Western classical music and non-Western musical styles.

John O’Reilly is one of America’s most published composers. He is a resident of Pacific Palisades and grew up in upstate New York where he attended the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. He is co-author of “Accent on Achievement,” “Strictly Strings,” and other instructional series designed for middle school and high school music education. His works have been performed by hundreds of ensembles throughout the world. John and his wife Judy maintain a vacation home in upstate New York and for many years have been interested in Chautauqua, an adult education movement that was prominent in the U.S. during the late 19th and early 20th century. “Chautauqua West” is a three-movement work scored for 15 winds and 2 percussionists. It traces the Chautauqua movement from its New York roots to its 1922 western expansion that ended in Pacific Palisades.

Single tickets: $35 ($10 students with valid I.D.) Children under 16 are free. Call for group discounts: (310) 573-7422
Hot cider and baked goods free at intermission.Doors open at 7:30pm.
Free parking.
map: http://goo.gl/maps/zr2KU
.4 miles north of Sunset Blvd

tickets: http://musicguildonline.org/program.shtml#May
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Matthews-Music-Guild/150982731607756
info: music-info@stmatthews.com
Fred Doering 310-573-7422