San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘Community’ unites
La Jolla Symphony & Chorus pairs Beethoven with contemporary composer Anahita Abbasi for virtual concert Friday
The La Jolla Symphony & Chorus will focus on two works Friday that may seem disparate: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and contemporary composer Anahita Abbasi’s “why the trees were murmuring.”
“I love these kinds of pairings,” said Steven Schick, the symphony’s music director. “Works that sound utterly unlike each other on the surface but have deep commonalties.”
A part of the symphony’s “Stay Home With Us” series of virtual concerts, Friday’s program is called “Music in Community.” The title makes perfect sense to Abbasi, an accomplished composer and doctoral student at the University of California San Diego.
She was the 2020 recipient of the annual Brenda and Steven Schick Commission, which supports symphonic music embracing social and environmental optimism.
“That theme shaped the piece into a celebration of diversity and community,” Abbasi said. “Musicians in La Jolla Symphony love what they do. They volunteer, it’s not their job. That is community.”
Since coming to UC San Diego in 2014, Abbasi has been grateful for the support she’s received. At that time — and while a student at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria — the Iranian-born Abbasi traveled all over Europe, collaborating on her compositions with orchestras and at festivals.
But all her trips came to an abrupt halt in early 2017, when the Trump administration banned foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iran.
“I was in a huge shock,” Abbasi said. “Half of my life was in Europe, aside from my family in Iran. Every piece I write, I work closely with musicians. I need to have close contact with performers, and this travel ban prohibited me from that. I was very depressed.
“Those past four years have been the hardest of my life. And, with the epidemic, it’s been four plus one for me.”
Having since received her green card, the Hillcrest resident considers San Diego home. As co-founder of the Iranian Female Composers Association and an in-demand writer, she has ties with musicians all over the world. As she finishes up at UC San Diego this quarter, Abbasi hopes to be able to travel this summer.
A video conversation between her and conductor Schick will accompany Friday’s airing of “why the trees were murmuring.” The piece is well-suited to a virtual concert because of the interplay among the musicians.
“At the end of the piece, the musicians are improvising,” Abbasi explained. “Each of the musicians are alive and producing sounds. They’re listening to each other as Steve is listening and guiding them. That’s an appreciation of the orchestral community.”
Sublime moments
For violinist David Bowlin, the guest artist for the symphony’s performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, that’s one commonality between the two works, composed centuries apart.
“The concerto is really a dialogue with the orchestra,” Bowlin said from his home studio in Oberlin, Ohio. “The violin part is sewn into the fabric of the piece, and the ensemble provides the meat of it.
“It has some sublime and celestial moments that rise above even some of Beethoven’s other great works. It’s somehow regal, but down to earth.”
On Oberlin Conservatory’s faculty since 2007, Bowlin now teaches students violin half online and half live, some on campus. He taught online-only courses from last March through the summer.
He recalled the first time a student came to his studio — in September — to play in person.
“It was just overwhelming to hear the violin from somebody else,” he said. “My student played well. It was powerful in a wonderful way.”
Bowlin said he felt honored that the Beethoven concerto he performed with the La Jolla Symphony in 2017 is included in the virtual program. He will be interviewed by Schick for Friday’s event.
“The concert will be highquality,” Bowlin said. “Do you get the energy that is so special from live performance? No. But since we can’t meet for concerts right now, this is the next best thing and can be a medium for having a lively discussion.”
Also on the program is an unusual set of short virtual performances by the La Jolla Symphony’s principal trumpeter, Ken Fitzgerald. He recorded himself playing the parts of a few Bach chorales that he arranged and edited. The result is lovely music by a one-man quartet.
Two more of the “Stay Home With Us” virtual concerts are planned. On May 14, La Jolla Symphony choral director Ruben Valenzuela will play keyboards with Schick on percussion. A June 18 concert will offer a musical potluck of solos and ensembles by the symphony’s musicians.
Whether community is in the program title or not, it’s a thread through much of what the symphony does.
“For me, the classical concerto is the model for civilized interactions in the democratic world,” Schick said. “The individual is given free rein of expression, the group thrives through common cause and there is care taken in the balance between the two.”
“I love these kinds of pairings. Works that sound utterly unlike each other on the surface but have deep commonalties.”
Steven Schick • La Jolla Symphony’s music director