Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, led by Music Director Jaime Martín, features violin soloist Kelly Hall-Tompkins on the West Coast premiere of five-time Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal’s “Body in Motion” for Violin and Orchestra on Saturday, November 2, 7:30 pm, at Glendale’s Alex Theatre, and Sunday, November 3, 2024, 4 pm, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills.
LACO also traces the Austrian lineage of the classical symphony with Haydn’s brilliant Symphony No. 7 in C major, “Le midi,” the second in a trilogy of early Haydn symphonies portraying the times of day, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, a landmark work in Beethoven’s singular musical voice that reflects the influence of his predecessors, Haydn and Mozart. Martín opens the program with Beethoven’s heroic Overture to Egmont.
Hall-Tompkins, winner of a Naumburg International Violin Competition Honorarium Prize and featured in the Smithsonian Museum for African-American History, is a violin soloist entrepreneur who has been acclaimed by the New York Times as “the versatile violinist who makes the music come alive,” for her “tonal mastery” (BBC Music Magazine) and as New York Times “New Yorker of the Year.” She has appeared as co-soloist in Carnegie Hall with Glenn Dicterow and conductor Leonard Slatkin, in London at Queen Elizabeth Hall, at Lincoln Center and with the Symphonies of Dallas, Jacksonville, and Oakland, recitals in Paris, New York, Toronto, Washington, Chicago, and festivals of Tanglewood, Ravinia, Santa Fe, France, Germany and Italy. She was “Fiddler”/Violin Soloist for the Grammy and Tony-nominated Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof. Inspired by her experience, she commissioned and developed the first ever Fiddler solo disc of all new arrangements, “The Fiddler Expanding Tradition,” which is featured in the documentary “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles” about the 55-year history of the musical. As founder of Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul, Hall-Tompkins is a pioneer of social justice in classical music, bringing top artists in over 100 concerts in homeless shelters coast to coast from New York to Los Angeles, and, internationally, in Paris, France.
Beal is known for compositions that are “infused with a deep understanding of improvisation, rhythm and spontaneity” (Wise Music Classical). His improvisatory method, sense of timing, and sophistication have made him a favorite of directors including Ed Harris (POLLOCK and APPALOOSA), David Fincher (HOUSE OF CARDS), Oliver Stone (JFK REVISITED, THE PUTIN INTERVIEWS), Lauren Greenfeld (THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES, GENERATION WEALTH), and Rob Reiner (SHOCK AND AWE). His work on documentaries BLACKFISH, THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM, Al Gore’s AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL, ATHLETE A, Frank Marshall’s RATHER and dramatic scores for HBO’s ROME, CARNIVÀLE, THE NEWSROOM, USA’s MONK, AppleTV+’s RAYMOND & RAY have shown him to be one of the most distinctive and recognizable composers working today. In addition to his distinguished scoring career, Beal is a prolific composer of concert music. Recent commissioned works include “The Paper-Lined Shack” for Leonard Slatkin, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and soprano Hila Plitmann, “Sunrise” for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, a flute concerto for Sharon Bezaly/Minnesota Orchestra, and “Body in Motion,” a violin concerto for Kelly Hall-Tompkins.
Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Alex Theatre is located at 216 N. Brand Boulevard, Glendale, CA 91203.