(Courtesy photo)
The Music Academy of the West was founded in 1947 by the legendary soprano Lotte Lehmann, with the help and advice of her houseguest at the time, the eminent maestro, Otto Klemperer, as well as many other musical luminaries.
From the outset, the academy aimed to give a free tuition to as many young musicians as it could manage. The first scholarships were funded by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, Jascha Heifetz, and the fearsome co-founder (with Joseph Schenck) of 20th Century Fox studios, Darryl F. Zanuck, among other Southern California movers and shakers.
Arnold Schoenberg served as the Music Academy’s first composer in residence. (You might not care for Schoenberg’s music, but he was acknowledged, even by his enemies, to be a great teacher, who imposed only his standards, never his tastes, upon his students. And he knew when to leave well enough alone.
When his tennis chum, George Gershwin, begged him for lessons, he replied: “That would only turn you into a bad Schoenberg, whereas you are such a very good George Gershwin.”)
He was later succeeded by Ernest Bloch, Darius Milhaud, Roy Harris, and other notable composers. The inimitable cellist Gregor Piatigorsky was a member of the faculty from 1950-53, and returned to teach as a guest until 1975.
Originally housed at the Cate School, the Music Academy moved to its sublime permanent home, Miraflores estate in Montecito, when the owner of the estate donated the villa and surrounding acreage to the academy in 1951.
Maurice Abravanel, under whose baton, the Utah Symphony became the first American orchestra to record all of Mahler‘s symphonies, served as music director at the Academy from 1954-80. What is now called Hahn Hall — the largest performance venue on the Miraflores campus — was opened, as Abravanel Hall, in 1972.
Over the years, the academy has fashioned and filled a unique niche for itself, evolving simultaneously into a first class finishing school for the cream of our young musicians — their last stop before launching into professional careers that are always worthy, and often brilliant — and a world class summer music festival.
The two sides of the Music Academy come together in their signature format, the masterclass, which is both a public performance and a personal appraisal, also made in public.
During the recent public health crisis, when all performance venues had gone dark, the Music Academy, like so many of its sister organizations, went on line to maintain connection with is students, audience and supporters.
Now that the world is opening up again, the Music Academy is delighted to announce its return to real time and real space.
The Music Academy’s 2021 Summer Festival begins Monday, June 28, and will wrap on Saturday, Aug. 7, followed by a week of video content released online through Aug. 14.
The first two weeks, June 28-July 9, will be given over to private lessons. The first public event will be the Opening Night Gala, Saturday, July 10, an all-outdoor event with faculty artist pianists Jeremy Denk and Conor Hanick, the Takács Quartet, plus — one night only — alumnus tenor and Metropolitan Opera star Ben Bliss, in collaboration with alumna faculty artist Nino Sanikidze.
The gala begins at 5:30 p.m. with signature cocktails, followed at 6:30 p.m. by the al fresco dinner and performance. Proceeds from the gala will benefit the academy’s full-scholarship program, community access initiatives, and year-round outreach programs.
The evening’s concert will feature the music of John Adams, Johannes Brahms, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Wolfgang Mozart and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Alumnus Richard O’Neill, viola — known and loved locally as a longtime member of Camerata Pacifica — has become the newest member of the Takács Quartet, and will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award during the gala. (O’Neill won the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.)
Safety being the academy’s top priority, all state and county mask and social distancing guidelines will apply. For more information, call 805-695-7929.
For more information, visit the Academy’s website www.musicacademy.org/. To consult the online edition of the 2021 Festival’s brochure, visit
www.musicacademy.org/press-releases/2021-summer-festival-brochure/.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.