Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Community, Diversity, Sustainability and other Overused Words
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 26
The Verdi Chorus pulled out all of their "Hidden Gems" for their Spring performances at the acoustically-sound First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica. In their 32nd year, the chorus continues to be one of the jewels of the Los Angeles opera scene and showed the audience why as they presented two flawless performances. Over the years, the chorus has grown and developed to a level of professionalism led by Music Director Anne Marie Ketchum and her accomplished, Julliard-trained pianist, Lar...
The Verdi Chorus takes great pride in announcing the continuation of its 32nd year with their spring concert entitled Hidden Gems. On April 25 and 26 they will present a gala recital of some wonderful, but infrequently done works, along with a few familiar favorites at the First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica. Hidden Gems is an apt title for their latest program because they'll be performing pieces that have been popularized by other media, mostly from film and television, but aren't...
It was the final regular season game for the Los Angeles Kings, a team that was eliminated from playoff contention, but they came out and ended the season with a bang by beating the San Jose Sharks, 4-1, in front of a sold-out Staples Center at noon on Saturday...the NBC nationally-televised game-of-the-week. The Kings became the first defending Cup champion to fail to qualify for the playoffs since the 2006-07 Carolina Hurricanes. And the Sharks ended its 10-year postseason run. But not that...
Former Dodger Matt Kemp drove in all three of the Padres runs, but it was the former Philly, Jimmy Rollins, and his three-run blast in the eighth that would out-shadow Kemp and help the Dodgers to victory, 6-3, in the home-opener Monday. Howie Kendrick, former Angels great, also contributed for the Dodgers with two hits, one run and one RBI, while mainstay Adrian Gonzalez hit a solo blast in the fourth. Putting the icing on the cake was pitcher Chris Hatcher filling in as the closer in the...
Yusuf, formerly known as the incomparable Cat Stevens, made a stop on his "Peace Train" on December 14 during his five-city swing of America to present his "U.S. Peace Train...Late Again Tour 2014." Late again because it's been 35 years since the British singer-songwriter has played a concert in front of a live audience due to a decision he made in 1979, after 10 years of pop-stardom, to exit the music business to raise a family and explore his conversion to Islam. On this final stop of his...
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) opened its “Baroque Conversations” series on Thursday at Zipper Concert Hall at The Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles. It was a special affair honoring James Arkatov, artistic founder of LACO and original member of the cello section. There was a champagne toast for him at the pre-concert reception attended by musical director/conductor Jeffrey Kahane and then Arkatov kicked things off by saying a few words of thanks on stage before the concert. And that’s when the magic began. Kahane chose the c...
Grant Gershon, esteemed Artistic Director/Conductor of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC), filled the Walt Disney Concert Hall with his passion and joy as they presented their annual holiday concerts. He channeled his un-rivaled enthusiasm during the LAMC’s presentation of “Festival of Carols” on December 13 and Handel’s Messiah on December 21. The LAMC rung in the holiday season with a concert of favorite carols sung by one of the greatest chorales in the world. Sprinkled with new arrangements (three by composer in residence Shawn Kirchne...
The Verdi Chorus triumphed in their presentation of their fall concerts titled “Distant Lands” this past weekend at the acoustically-sound First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica. The chorus is one of the jewels of the Los Angeles opera scene and showed the audience why as they presented two flawless performances. The concerts honored Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s retirement after 40 years of service to Southern California. Musical director/conductor Anne Marie Ketchum had Yaroslavsky, a big lover and supporter of opera, take the stage...
The Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks "faced-off" in the always much-anticipated "Freeway" rivalry at Staples Center on Saturday. The Ducks were playing without an injured Corey Perry, one of their premiere players and also missing was a retired Teemu Selanne. The game took on a strange feel without Selanne out there on the ice. He was such a force for many years and one of the greatest poster-boys that the NHL ever had. Selanne retired after the Ducks lost to the Kings in the playoffs last...
The stage was finally set for the Los Angeles Clippers home opener on the day before Halloween. The NBA strategically chose the Oklahoma City Thunder, a great rival who eliminated the Clippers in the second round of the playoffs last season, to kick things off. Commissioner Adam Silver was in attendance...maybe to make sure that former banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling didn't crash the party. Sterling's former wife and co-owner, Shelly, was sitting courtside in her usual seat, and so was new...
It was a big day for the Los Angeles Kings last Wednesday. They opened up the 2014-15 NHL season, received their long-awaited championship rings the day before, and finally got to raise their second Stanley Cup championship banner to the rafters at Staples Center in front of a standing-room only crowd of 18,514. All while the coveted Lord Stanley’s Cup was on display at center ice during the pre-game ceremony hosted by Bob Miller, Kings long-time play-by-play announcer. There was a general feeling of giddiness inside Staples Center as all of t...
By Steven Lieberman Observer Reporter Steve Ballmer, Clippers new owner, approached the stage at Staples Center today like a boxer making his way to the ring as all of his adoring fans lavished him with praise and high-fives. It's his first-ever Fan Fest, but you wouldn't have known it – he handled it like a champ. The only thing missing was the "Rocky" theme. After subtracting his bank account by $2 billion in order to buy the team from Donald and Shelly Sterling, the former Microsoft CEO a...
Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw got off to a rocky start in the second game of the two-game homestand against their “I-5” rival Angels, but thanks to closer Kenley Jansen striking out all three batters he faced in the ninth, and then pinch-hitter Andre Ethier sealing the deal with a walk-off hit, the Dodgers got the win, 5-4. It was Ethier’s 12th career walk-off hit and the Dodgers fifth of the season. With five Angel players defending the infield, Either hit a slow-roller to third base scoring Juan Uribe from third base on a throwing error by Da...
Every July, there is summer excitement brewing at the Toyota Sports Center, the Lakers headquarters and practice facility in El Segundo. No, it wasn't the news that Jeremy Lin was just traded to the Lakers from the Rockets. There were over 450 capable young women trying out to become a dancer for next season's Laker Girls dance team. And one capable male was even in the mix this time. It was an open audition, a cattle call. The only requirements - be 18 years of age, have eight years of dance...
Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers pitching ace and arguably "the best pitcher in the world" according to teammate Matt Kemp, finished off the Cardinals on Sunday by hurling 13 strikeouts in seven innings en-route to a 6-0 shutout and helped the Dodgers win the four-game series, 3-1. This was his third straight scoreless start, capping off a career month in June -- six wins, a no-hitter, a 0.82 ERA, and a streak of 28 scoreless innings. It's the longest scoreless streak by any pitcher in the Majors this...
By Steven Lieberman Observer Reporter No team in the history of the National Hockey League (NHL) has ever won the Stanley Cup by winning three seventh games on the road in the first three playoff series leading up to the finals, but the Los Angeles Kings did just that, and then beat the New York Rangers, four games to one, to then hoist the prized trophy at Staples Center. And the Kings completed their run for the Cup on Friday, the 13th, which proved to be their "lucky" day. And the fans felt...
After a recording of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist remarks was released in April, he was fined $2.5 million, banned from NBA games for life, and forced to sell the team along with all of his ownership rights in the franchise by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Sterling's inflammatory remarks to girlfriend V. Stiviano spawned outrage among NBA fans, players and executives -- especially Clippers players, who at one game, as a sign of protest, took off their jerseys during p...
By Steven Lieberman Observer Reporter It has been a miraculous run for the Los Angeles Kings so far in the playoffs. In round one, they managed to pull off a reverse sweep of the San Jose Sharks, winning that series 4-3 after losing the first three games, and then finishing off the Anaheim Ducks, 6-2, at the Honda Center in the seventh game of the second round -- an away-game in a hostile environment. This is the first time the freeway rivals met in the playoffs. Ducks superstar Teemu Selänne...
It was a heated four-game series battle between the Dodgers and Giants this past weekend at Dodger Stadium -- one of the best rivalries in sports history. The Giants put forth a "Giant" effort as they managed to win three out of four games, culminating in a 7-4 victory on Mother's Day. Even Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez and his heroic two-run, game-tying homer off closer Sergio Romo with two outs in the bottom of the ninth wasn't enough on Sunday. The Dodgers' usually-solid closer Kenley...
Anne Marie Ketchum, Music Director and Founding Artistic Director for The Verdi Chorus (now Frank and Merle Strauss Artistic Director), pulled out all the stops for their Spring performances this past Saturday and Sunday at First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica. To kick-off their 31st season of presenting glorious choruses, arias and ensembles from grand opera, Ms. Ketchum decided on an all Italian program entitled AMORE ITALIANO and chose selections from some of the greatest works ever...
The Los Angeles Master Chorale, a cultural icon heralded around the globe for its exceptional artistry, pulled out the stops for their 50th anniversary weekend celebration. The program featured two performances of Bach’s B Minor Mass - the choral masterpiece that founding music director Roger Wagner inaugurated in 1965 at the just-opened Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Chorale’s home for 37 years. This time, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the residence of the Master Chorale since 2003, was the venue where the composition – considered one of the g...
The NHL's 2014 Coors Light Stadium Series made a stop at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night which featured the Southland rival Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks in the first-ever regular season outdoor hockey game in league history on the West Coast. Even though the Ducks shut out the Kings 3-0 in front of a sellout crowd of 54,099, it was the experience that mattered most. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman summed it up best after the historic game when he said "hockey in California won this game."...
An injury-depleted Lakers team was dominated by the Clippers, their intra-Staples Center rivals, being blown-out, 123-87, on Friday. The 36-point victory margin was the Clippers’ largest ever against the Lakers, besting a 125-94 victory in 1992 at the Sports Arena, then the Clippers’ home. Some might say that an asterisk needs to be printed next to this game in the record book since both teams were playing without their injured superstar guards, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul. The Lakers were also playing without Steve Nash, Steve Blake and Jor...
The Arizona State Sun Devils will be playing in their first Pac-12 Championship, game as they defeated UCLA at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, 38-33. The Sun Devils got off to a quick start, running the ball six times for 67 yards on their first possession. QB Taylor Kelly scored the first touchdown in three minutes as he ran the ball in from the three-yard line to give his team a 7-0 advantage. On the Bruins first possession, they outdid the Sun Devils as QB Brett Hundley tossed a 42-yard bomb to Devin Lucien on the team’s first play to tie the s...
I know that Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi is smiling with pleasure from the beyond as The Verdi Chorus presented their fall gala concerts this past weekend in honor of his 200th birthday at First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica. The program, titled Viva Verdi, was dedicated solely to his works and included scenes and arias from many of his masterpieces. The night kicked-off with President Thelma Sherman and chorus consultant and musicologist Dr. Aurelio de la Vega welcoming the audience and then bringing the chorus out on stage to...
