Chamber music coming to town

OUR LAGUNA

Chamber music returns to Laguna Beach April 6 to 13 with a

weeklong festival of performances and events throughout the city.

The festival will feature concert pianist Claude Frank, the Calder

Quartet and Trio Movado performing the music of Brahms and Schumann

in weekend concerts April 11 through 13 at Laguna Beach High School

Artists Theatre, the former home of the Laguna Beach Chamber Music

Society.

“Chamber music was popular in Laguna for many years, and we know

our supporters will be happy to have it back, as we are happy to

return to Laguna,” said Heather Goss, society president.

The society and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County present

a series of chamber music at the Barclay Theatre. The two groups will

join with Laguna Beach Live! to present the festival.

Laguna Beach residents Joan Halvajian and John Arnold will chair

the volunteer festival committee. The committee includes locals Diane

Arnold, John Benecke, Joe Bryne, Sam Goldstein, Judith Jelinek and

Dick Schwarzstein.

Goss, Jacki Hanson, Alex Maradudin and Nancy Posch will represent

the chamber music society on the committee.

Laguna Beach Live!, a nonprofit organization, began presenting

free chamber music concerts in the “First Sundays” program at Laguna

College of Art and Design in 2001, sponsored in part by the

Philharmonic Society.

The logo for the festival was designed by Nic Banda and Kelly

Zeimet, recent graduates of the Laguna College of Art and Design. It

was the first project of a new company, GLU, which the college

created to connect graduates with businesses that need design

services.

Hotel Laguna will host pianist Frank and provide the site for

teaching sessions and many of the special events, including a gourmet

fund-raising gala dinner before the first concert.

The college will host an opening reception on April 6, after a

First Sundays concert by harpsichordist Eric Kinsley at 3 p.m. It is

open to the public. Admission is free.

The Chamber Music concert tickets are available through the

Philharmonic Society at 553-2422, online at

www.philharmonicsociety.org or at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna

Canyon Road. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $45 for three

concerts; and $10 for full-time students.

Winter Fantasy

closes on a high note

Fantastic show, said the artists in the Sawdust Festival’s Winter

Fantasy.

“We have fun doing the show, and that makes it fun for the

customers,” exhibitor and committee member Dennis Junka said. “And we

saw a lot of people.”

Attendance was up 10%, according to Sawdust publicist Rebecca

Meekma. Sales are not reported to the Sawdust management, but the

word on the grounds was good.

“People who came to the show were buying,” Meekma said.

Nikki Grant had her second best year ever, said her husband, Jay,

who manages the festival sales booth. Photographer, violinist and

painter Doug Miller reported selling about 45 of his small paintings.

“On the fourth day, I had already surpassed the previous two

years,” Kristin Martin said. “I worked night and day to keep up.”

Martin sent out 700 announcements of the show.

“People came from as far away as Auburn and Novato,” she said. “I

no longer live in Laguna, so I can’t be in the summer show, but this

was wonderful.”

This was the first year that Cindy Stalnaker exhibited in the

Winter Fantasy. Stones are the focus of her jewelry, but she recently

expanded her repertoire to include fired glass and precious metal

clay.

Stalnaker was advised to produce moderately priced pieces for the

show

“So I added $25 to $35 items to my inventory and I have sold

nearly all of them,” Stalnaker said.

But the show was not all about sales.

“We had a wishing well on the festival’s Town Square and all the

coins tossed in there were for Joey Marsella,” Meekma said.

Joey, 10, was born with epidermolysis bullosa. EB is a rare,

incurable disease that covers his body inside and out with blisters.

The blisters don’t heal. They just keep coming back until they are

replaced by scar tissue that fuses fingers and toes and closes the

throat. Severe EB wounds resemble serious burns. Joe’s case is

severe, and he faces it with remarkable aplomb.

“Donations totaled almost $450,” Meekma said.

The 12th annual Winter Fantasy was held weekends between Nov. 23

and Dec. 15 on the Sawdust Festival Grounds.

David Nelson chaired the Winter Fantasy to develop the sign

program committee, which included Barbara Barnett, Eleanor Henry,

Elfi LaFargue, Karen Petty, Sherry Bullard, Mary Hurlbut, Katherine

Kiss, Gerard Stripling, Debra Covern, Karen Joy, James Koch, Ket

Youngstead, Miller and Junka.

Signs of the times

Signs painted by Laguna Beach Plein Air Painters Assn. members

Saim Caglayan, Ken Auster, John Cosby, Jacob Bass, Jeff Horn and

Cynthia Britain to direct visitors in the Laguna Coast Wilderness

Park were honored by the National Assn. of Interpretation.

The panel signs are easel-supported reproductions of original

plein air paintings of current access trails and include text about

the site and an appropriate verse. They can be seen at Laurel Canyon,

Dilley Preserve, Barbara’s Lake, Little Sycamore Canyon, Big Bend and

at a Bommer Ridge access point between the park and Crystal Cove

State Park

Each of the artists selected a site and created a new work. They

were unveiled at the Laguna Canyon Foundation’s 2001 Celebrate Laguna

Coast Wilderness Park Ceremony. The signs reproduced from the

paintings won second place in the in the Wayside Exhibit Category of

the Interpretive Media Award presented by the National Assn. for

Interpretation.

“The collaboration of the artists and the foundation illustrates

the symbiotic relationship between art and the preservation of

nature,” said Michael Pinto, founder and president of the foundation.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652, hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22;

call 494-4321 or fax 494-8979.