By Ted AYALA “Nationalist music,” writes José Antonio Alcaraz in his “Reflexiones sobre el nacionalismo musical mexicano” (Reflections on Mexican Musical Nationalism), “[carries] with it echoes of the sectarian, the limiting, the ensnaring. National music, however, consists of the most essential traits that make up the identity of a person.” “To describe Tchaikovsky as a […]
By Ted AYALA Reeling from an unusually dry rainy season, California has been hoping for a powerful storm system or two to quench its parched reservoirs and rivers. But did last week’s rain make a dent in the historic lows for precipitation and snow pack across the state? “Not really,” said Stuart Seto of the […]
By Ted AYALA The shadow cast over Russian Late Romantic music by the somber, larger-than-life figure of Rachmaninoff is difficult to escape. Not only for audiences –how many other Russian Late Romantics can you name besides Rachmaninoff? – but also for those Russian composers unlucky enough to be born around the same time as the […]
By Ted AYALA The music of composer Arturo Márquez has, over the 40 years spanning his career, earned the distinction conferred to his forebears – Silvestre Revueltas, Carlos Chávez, José Pablo Moncayo – of being the most often performed outside of his homeland of Mexico. Though saying “homeland” may be putting things too simply. Márquez […]
By Ted AYALA Residents of the foothills communities may be feeling anxious in the wake of Gov. Jerry Brown’s declaration of a statewide drought emergency last week. California has been exceptionally parched this past year, with levels of rainfalls dropping to historic lows. Gov. Brown called the drought “perhaps the worst ever since records began […]
By Ted AYALA Years of research into reducing the levels of hexavalent chromium, better known as chromium 6, are nearly wrapped up, declared Glendale Water & Power (GWP) staff during Tuesday’s Glendale City Council meeting. “We have reached a seminal point here in the research and study of chromium 6 in water,” said City Manager […]
By Ted AYALA Massage businesses working within the City of Glendale will be coming under tightening regulations in the near future if a proposed ordinance that Glendale City Council discussed Tuesday night is enacted. The ordinance would allow the city to impose regulations on massage business owners who aren’t certified by the California Massage Therapy […]
By Ted AYALA Local composer George N. Gianopoulos is already a busy man, but on Wednesday, Feb. 5 he will be busier still. At noon his “Hatzlacha Rabbah!!!” will form part of the program at the next installment of the Glendale Noon Concerts held at the First Baptist Church on Louise Street. Later that evening […]
By Ted AYALA A tax measure that was passed by an overwhelming two-thirds majority of voters in 2009 may find itself a target in the forthcoming special election. Three Glendale area residents – William Taliaferro, Kenneth Landon, and Jon Voors – submitted to the office of the Glendale City Clerk earlier this month a notice […]
By Ted AYALA Taking sorrow and pain, clothing it in acceptance, in affirmation of the triumph of life and truth – the music of Tigran Mansurian is something rare in today’s world jaded by commercialism and lucre; a world engrossed in itself, always hurrying to promote itself, always absorbed in its own ostentatiousness, always unable […]