In its 20th season of bringing high-level chamber music to the Tri-City area, Music at the Mission has shifted the focus of their February Community Outreach Concert to raising funds for victims of the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area. To this end, they will present a free concert and emergency benefit on Feb. 8 at the Niles Discovery Church in Fremont.
“We are so grateful to the Fremont Bank Foundation and Washington Hospital Healthcare Services for making this concert possible and free to the public,” says executive director Aileen Chanco. “We are also grateful to partner with the Niles Discovery Church for the first time. They are donating the performance space so that all money received goes straight to relief efforts.
“Like everyone, we were shocked by the recent events in Los Angeles,” continues Chanco. “We felt this concert could be an opportunity to help and rally our community to participate.” Donations received at this concert will go to helping wildfire victims in partnership with the Red Cross, Los Angeles Region.
The program presented will feature cellist Robert Howard and pianist Aileen Chanco in works by Frederick Chopin, Alberto Ginastera, Arvo Pärt, Erich Korngold and Charlie Chaplin. “Part of this program, since we are raising money for Los Angeles, highlights the intersections between classical music and Hollywood,” says artistic director Bill Everett.
“With the rise of Naziism in the 1930s, many classical composers migrated to the United States, including many who settled in Los Angeles,” adds Everett. “While some continued to compose primarily for the concert hall, including Stravinsky and Schoenberg, others saw opportunity in the new art form of motion picture soundtrack.”
Music at the Mission is also proud to feature tenor Alex Taite in a performance of traditional Negro spirituals in commemoration of Black History Month. “If there is any root of music that is truly American, it is the Spiritual,” Everett says. “Virtually all popular music to come after this descended from the spirituals of the Pre-Civil War South to jazz, rock, hip hop and even Broadway.”
While anyone will immediately think of Los Angeles and Hollywood when they think of the film industry in this country, Fremont’s own Niles neighborhood holds an important part in early cinema in California.
Among the actors who worked for Essanay Studio on Niles Boulevard was a young Charlie Chaplin. While known most for his comedic acting, Chaplin involved himself in many aspects of film production, including composing music.
“The song ‘Smile’, from Chaplin’s Modern Times, feels like the perfect work for this concert.” Everett says. “What better to represent a connection between Fremont and Los Angeles, and the hope of recovery, than this Chaplin masterpiece.”
Program
“Oh Freedom!” – Spiritual
“Wade in the Water” – Spiritual
“Go Down Moses” – Spiritual, arr. Steve Huber
Ol’ Man River” from Showboat – Rogers & Hammerstein
“Spiegel im Spiegel” – Arvo Part
Introduction and Polonaise Brillante op. 3 – Frederic Chopin
Pampeana no. 2 – Alberto Ginastera
Gardenscene from “Much Ado About Nothing Suite – Erich Korngold
“Smile” – Charlie Chaplin
‘From the Bay Area with Love…’
Saturday, Feb. 8
3pm
Niles Discovery Church
36600 Niles Blvd, Fremont
Register online at: www.musicatmsj.org
Free Admission; All donations will benefit the Red Cross of Los Angeles