These incredible musicians, led by Matt Catingub, provide great entertainment, top-flight guest stars, and truly enjoyable shows. Smooth Jazz Magazine’s review calls the orchestra “full service entertainment. It has all the friendliness suggested by the idea of ‘Pops’ with music that includes the Great American Songbook, Swing, Big Band, The Movies, and Latin, even including Christmas.” A bonus appearance by the Glendale Pops Youth Orchestra is sponsored by Kiwanis Club of Glendale.

HolidayPop show tickets make great gifts for family, friends, employees, and colleagues. Everyone can enjoy a great concert. Tickets don’t require space on a shelf, they don’t need to be kept beyond the show date, and they don’t have to fit or be the right color. Another advantage: they are a great way to express support and keep excellent arts programming right here in Glendale.

Get tickets to the concert, give tickets to the concert, go to the concert. Get the holiday season off to a great start. Put the Alex Theatre box office, or the Glendale Arts website, on your shopping itinerary this weekend!

Season tickets for 2011-2012 Glendale Pops concerts are on sale now via this link; the next performance is June 30, outdoors at The Americana on Brand (season ticket holders receive VIP seating at this free event).

Reviews of the show published this week, following this blog’s brief writeup:

Catingub, Glendale Pops dazzle in “Premiere”, Crescenta Valley Weekly, May 19, 2011. Excerpt: “Matt Catingub, the GPO’s new artistic director, emceed the concert with a sly charm and warmth that had the audience feeling as if they were being welcomed at the home of an old friend…Each number performed by the GPO was played with aplomb and immaculate finish. It’s little wonder that Glendale Arts and the GPO’s many supporters were beaming with pride when Catingub was named its artistic director.”

Glendale Pops rocks the house, Glendale News-Press, May 20, 2011. Excerpt: “The excitement generated by the conductor, orchestra and special guests Kenny Loggins, David Benoit and Monica Mancini was nothing short of electrifying and possibly the best show this reporter has seen to date at the Alex.”

Glendale Pops can’t be missed, Letter from Eric Johnston to the Glendale News-Press, May 20, 2011. Excerpt: “I would argue the Glendale Pops, led by its incomparable conductor Matt Catingub, is every bit if not more talented than any pops orchestra in the country. I am gratified that we have such a world-class orchestra in our very own backyard…How many other cities in Southern California can claim this? Kudos to the Glendale Arts organization for helping bring this exceptional entertainment to our city…Glendale aspires to be a world-class cultural arts city, and our officials are doing what they can to achieve this. However, being known as a city of the arts requires that its citizens actually support the arts.”

Wednesday, June 30, 6:30 PM
1480 Melwood Drive
Glendale, CA 91207

Residents concerned about neighborhood crime trends can learn about local National Night Out events as well as how to set up a neighborhood watch at a North Area Command Block Captain’s Training session. Residents of all sections of the city are welcome to hear about the mechanics of neighborhood watch groups.

Wednesday, June 30, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m .
Neighborhood Watch, Quarterly Block Captain’s Training
Sparr Height Community Center
1613 Glencoe Way
Glendale, CA 91208

The meeting will focus on participation in National Night Out, with additional information on:

Quarterly North Command Crime Statistics
Home Security
Glendale Fire CERT

Please RSVP to Officer Matt Zakarian
MZakarian@ci.glendale.ca.us

Leading Hoover High’s jazz band to more national awards than any other high school jazz program, Director Craig Kupka is retiring this year after leading the 2009-2010 class in great community concerts, as well as packed performances at the Puerta Vallarta Jazz Festival, where they were the youngest group invited.

The program begins at 6:30 with the Hoover rock band as opening act; Kupka’s own jazz band, which appeared for one number in the very first (1993) Hooverstock, will return for a farewell performance. Jazz program alumni are also invited to attend and all join in on the last piece of the evening.

Tomorrow, June 12, 6:30 p.m., Hoover High School Auditorium, 651 Glenwood Road, Glendale. Tickets $5.

Regular hours will be Monday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Address: 1731 W. Glenoaks Blvd., Glendale, 91201. RSVPs for the reception are appreciated; call (818) 662-7070 or email info@SilvanaGallery.com.

The social satire pits child hero Tiny Tim against celebrity nemesis Oliver Twist, and both against another enemy, and looks like a great deal of fun for the performers. It was certainly a lot of fun to watch.

Congratulations to Hoover’s drama department on the debut last night. Upcoming performances at Hoover Auditorium (651 Glenwood Rd., Glendale) are April 17 and 18, and May 1, at 7 p.m. Tickets $8.

The Arts Tune-Up will cover various aspects of arts organization management. Although the event is free, participants are asked to register via SurveyMonkey:

The three-hour, fast-paced format will feature 25 minute sessions and rotations from table to table, with a total of 5 sessions. Sponsors of the event are Arts for LA, the City of Glendale, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the LA Stage Alliance, and the Center for Cultural Innovation.

Written in 1900 by Austrian Arthur Schnitzler, and the most well-known of his plays, the work explores approaches to sex, love and gratification by static characters of the time (The Soldier, the Parlor-maid, The Young Gentleman, The Married Lady, etc.).

The work was considered pornographic at the time, although the performance has no explicit sex or nudity. It also has no resolution, and no message, although it certainly does not promote free love. Each act shows a set of lovers, the following act featuring one of the pair with a new partner, with each character throughout the play using partners for their own ends. Cigars and herbal cigarettes are smoked onstage during the play.

Luna Playhouse Theatre Director Aramazd Stepanian, currently a Glendale city council candidate, has operated the theatre in Glendale for the past three years. He and a group of Luna Playhouse supporters recently asked the Glendale City Council and the Glendale Redevelopment Agency for funds to help the theatre pay its current lease. This past week, he withdrew the request, saying among other things that city staff had not asked the theatre for a business plan during their discussions, although the Redevelopment Agency and City Council members subsequently did ask for just that.

Luna Playhouse is located in a tall commercial space on the north side of San Fernando Road just west of Brand Blvd. Parking across the street at the Harley Davidson lot/Rally’s was easy. The theatre itself featured a comfortable three-row crescent seating arrangement, and Stepanian and theatre staff treated playgoers to coffee and sweets during intermission.

La Ronde will continue to play on these dates:

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm
March 6,7; 12,13,14; 19,20,21; 2009

LUNA PLAYHOUSE (818) 500-7200
3706 San Fernando Road
Glendale, CA 91204

This is great news for the city of Glendale, and arts organizations in the area should take note of Glendale Arts successful strategies, including a focus on programming and marketing. A Wall Street journal feature just cited an Americans for the Arts estimate that the recession could “kill off at least 10,000 arts organizations in 2009.” The article focused on a free consulting program – Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative – for troubled arts organizations offered by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The online consulting service is staffed by 12 Kennedy Center employees and a number of “mentors.”

Avoiding self-defeating cuts in programming and marketing are critical, according to Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser:

“When there are economic challenges, the first things that staffs and boards cut are programming and marketing, and that’s the worst thing you can do,” he says. “You’re guaranteeing yourself you’ll have less revenue next year, and that’s how sick organizations get really sick. That’s why I’m so nervous right now and why I’m doing this.”
Cutting budget is obviously necessary, “but where you cut is crucial,” he continues. “I cut the free coffee for staff here. It saved us $30,000 a year. I’ve also cut back on staff travel, including my own. I’ve never met a budget I couldn’t cut, in any organization, no matter how small. But if you start by cutting the programming, rather than everything in the back of the house, you’re signing a warrant that everything will just get worse, worse, worse.”

Arts advocates are following events closely. ArtsJournal.com commented that while laudable, the Center initiative “doesn’t have the capacity to engage the tidal wave of cultural leaders who need help.”

Another resource for arts organizations is Project Grantsmanship, sponsored by the Annenberg Foundation and the California Community Foundation. So far this project has trained 100 local nonprofit leaders to plan more effective programs and write more compelling proposals. Another 200 localnonprofit leaders can apply to receive the training at a fraction of its cost through eight worshops: five in 2009 and three in 2010, with the foundations underwriting up to 90 percent of the class costs. 2009 workshops start in March, so consult the website for information ASAP.

Recent articles and posts on the crisis, and making the case for investment in the arts:

Arts funding for the 21st century – Flyover: Art in the American Outback
California is last in arts funding – as usual – LATimes blog CultureMonster
Stimulus Bill Compromise Will Help Save Thousands of Arts Workers Jobs – Artsblog – Americans for the Arts
Food for the soul? Arts funding takes a beating in ugly economic times – WalletPop
Can the Arts Survive the Economic Crisis? – Burk’s Blog (although I don’t agree that arts enrichment is what makes a life worth saving!)
Why arts funding matters – FayObserver.com (a perspective from the Fayetteville Museum of Art

Many of us are happy to window shop along rows of funky storefronts offering unique and possibly useful objects. The problem is that people in this community and the surrounding cities are shopped out. Glendale won’t draw more people with another retail district.

The key to success of Friedman’s vision would be in drawing businesses to the area. Toward the end of her proposal, she mentions that the San Fernando Corridor “has funky old buildings correctly zoned for film production, photography studios, rehearsal and performance space, recording studios, artists lofts, decorative arts manufacturing and other arts-related businesses.”

As more entertainment businesses locate in Glendale, their employees will shop in Glendale. If a revitalized business district also offers storefront-lined streets full of local flavor, it would be one great step out of the big box import goods economy for Glendale. A local job and locally produced goods – these are concepts that will make Glendale, and our nation, more prosperous.