Topanga Symphony Free Winter Concert, Sunday, Nov. 4

 

PHOTO COURTESY OF EMILY FRANCES LAWYER Trumpet soloist Emily Frances Lawyer will perform with the Topanga Symphony on Nov. 4 at the Community Club.

In the second concert of its 30th season, the Topanga Symphony features trumpet player Emily Frances Lawyer as soloist.”

Music director and conductor Jerome Kessler will present an afternoon of beautiful music with the talented musicians of the orchestra, who come together to express the emotional, serious and sometimes enigmatic music from the classical masters.

“Symphony No. 5 in B Flat,” by Franz Schubert is first on the program. It was written from September to October 3, 1816. Schubert was infatuated with Mozart at the time he composed it, writing in his diary in the year of composition, “O Mozart! Immortal Mozart! What countless impressions of a brighter, better life hast thou stamped upon our souls!” Many passages from the piece reflect the classic style of Mozart.

Soloist Emily Frances Lawyer will perform Hayden’s “Trumpet Concerto in E flat Major.” It was written in 1796, when he was 64 years old.

Previous trumpet concertos could only play melodies at very high pitches due to the instrument being valveless, but a new trumpet design that, for the first time featured valves, was introduced around this time, and Haydn includes melodies in the lower register that exploited the capabilities of the new instrument. The modern valved trumpets used today started to appear in the 1830s.

Lawyer is a freelance trumpet player in Los Angeles. She has played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Valley Symphony Orchestra, American Youth Symphony and has had the honor to perform in venues such as The Hollywood Bowl, Walt Disney Concert Hall, UCLA’s Royce Hall, The Kennedy Center and The Mondavi Center.

In 2011, she was a soloist with the New Valley Symphony and a select solo performer in 2009 at the Chosen Vale Trumpet Seminar.

Originally from Davis, California, Lawyer received a Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College and Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles to earn her Master of Music at the USC Thornton School of Music.

She is an active chamber musician and currently a member of the Vista Brass Quintet, a group with whom she was a finalist in the Chicago Brass Festival Competition.

Around town, Lawyer plays in the pit for The Full Monty at Third Street Theater, and recently finished a run of The Color Purple at Celebration Theater.

“The Enigma Variations” is also on the program. It is a theme and fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. It is Elgar's best-known, large-scale composition, for both the music itself and the enigmas behind it. Elgar dedicated the piece to “my friends pictured within,” each variation being an affectionate portrayal of one of his circle of close acquaintances.

After its 1899 London premiere, the piece achieved popularity and was given international performances. The people portrayed in the variations include his wife Alice and Elgar himself.

The enigma is a hidden theme that is, in Elgar’s words, “not played.” This hidden theme has been the subject of much speculation, and various musicians have proposed theories for what melody it could be, although Elgar did not say that it was a melody. Elgar accepted none of the solutions that were put forward in his lifetime, and, pleased with his little joke, took the secret with him to the grave. More than sixty recordings of “The Enigma Variations” have been made since 1924.

BECOME A FRIEND

Friends of the Topanga Symphony is a group that helps to financially support these free concerts and, even though the Topanga Symphony concerts are free, there are many costs involved in producing these amazing performances. Many local Topanga residents volunteer their time to see that Topanga keeps its wonderful classical concerts.

If you are interested in donating time or money to the Topanga Symphony, please visit topangasymphony.com. Come to the concert with your family, neighbors and friends. Life is too short, enjoy as much classical music as you can.

The concert begins at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 4 at the Topanga Community House, 1440 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, CA 90290.