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View Winners → Pittance Chamber Music Presents Evensong With James Onstad
Arts Mar 12, 2019
Tenor James Onstad. – Courtesy photo / Pittance Chamber Music
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Tenor James Onstad. – Courtesy photo / Pittance Chamber Music
Pittance Chamber Music, known for featuring the extraordinary resident artists of the Los Angeles Opera pit and stage, presents “Evensong with James Onstad,” an evening offering of beloved works by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Johannes Brahms, as part of Pittance Chamber Music’s fifth anniversary season. The concert is set to take place in Barrett Hall at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music on March 31 at 7:30 p.m.
The program features American tenor James Onstad, pianist Paul Floyd and members of the Grammy-winning LA Opera Orchestra: violinists Ana Landauer and Grace Oh, violists Shawn Mann and Alma Fernandez, and cellist Rowena Hammill. The program will include Vaughan Williams’ “Phantasy Quintet and Four Hymns for Tenor, Viola and Piano” and Brahms’ String Quintet in G major, Op. 111.
Hailed as “sensitive and precise” and “hauntingly beautiful” by New Classic Los Angeles (LA), American tenor James Onstad is an exciting new presence on the concert and operatic stage. Recent performances include debuts with the Chicago Symphony (in Bernstein’s Mass) and the LA Philharmonic (in John Cage’s sprawling operatic epic “Europeras” – a co-production of the LA Philharmonic and The Industry). In August and September of 2018 Onstad appeared in title role of Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” in a co-production with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and the Clarence Brown Theater, described by Hedy Weiss of WTTW Chicago as “beautifully sung, emotionally true.”
A versatile artist, Onstad enjoys performing a wide range of repertoire from classical masters to modern-day innovators. An ardent advocate of new music, he is a regular performer with The Industry, and has collaborated closely with MacArthur Genius Award recipient Matthew Aucoin, singing in Aucoin’s opera “Crossing” with the American Repertory Theater (in 2015) and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (in 2017), as well as premiering the role of Jake in Aucoin’s “Second Nature” with Chicago Lyric Opera Unlimited.
A native of Santa Fe, Onstad graduated cum laude from Harvard University where he majored in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology with a minor in French. He holds a Master of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music.
Single tickets for “Evensong with James Onstad” are $35, $20 for seniors, and $10 for student rush (at the door only). Tickets are available online at PittanceChamberMusic.org or at the venue on the day of the concert, if tickets remain. The Pasadena Conservatory of Music is located at 100 N. Hill Ave.
