From Top Clockwise: Maksim Velichkin, Dr. Polli Chambers-Salazar, Greg Reitan, California String Quartet, Vicki Ray and The Odeum Guitar Duo. Photo courtesy Norton Simon Museum

The Norton Simon Museum is pleased to announce its 2016 Summer Concert Series. Featuring musical performances held in the Museum’s theater on select Saturday evenings at 5:00 p.m., the series includes favorite performers such as Polli Chambers-Salazar and the California String Quartet, as well as new musicians. Performances are free with Museum admission and no reservations are required. Stickers for ensured seating are distributed in the Main Entrance gallery starting at 4:00 p.m. Members enjoy early seating between 4:30 and 4:45 p.m.; general admission seating begins at 4:45 p.m.

The series includes:

Baroque Music for Solo Cello: Gabrielli and Bach Maksim Velichkin Saturday, July 9, 5:00–6:00 p.m. Maksim Velichkin returns to the Museum to continue a survey of works for the cello, performing ricercari by Domenico Gabrielli and suites by J. S. Bach. Gabrielli composed some of the earliest attested works for solo cello, among which are his ricercari for unaccompanied cello. Bach’s cello suites are crowning masterpieces of the instrument’s solo repertoire.

Harmony = Blue and Orange: Paul Klee in Art and Music Dr. Polli Chambers-Salazar Saturday, July 16, 5:00–6:00 p.m. Paul Klee was also a musician for most of his life, often practicing the violin before picking up his paintbrush to work. He noticed many correspondences between music and art, such as the expressive power of color being similar to the evocative impact of musical sound. Pianist Polli Chambers-Salazar presents a program focusing on the works of Klee and on piano works from the same time period.

Collective Inspiration: An Evening of Jazz Greg Reitan Trio Saturday, August 6, 5:00–6:00 p.m. Pianist Greg Reitan, bassist Jack Daro and drummer Dean Koba present an evening of original jazz compositions and selected works by Miles Davis, Bill Evans and Denny Zeitlin. These pieces share common themes with and invite new insights into the innovations of such 20th-century artists as Pablo Picasso, Barbara Hepworth, John McLaughlin, Josef Albers, Sam Francis, Constantin Brancusi and Vasily Kandinsky.

Tchaikovsky and Taneyev: From Teacher to Student California String Quartet Saturday, August 20, 5:00–6:00 p.m. The California String Quartet returns to perform a tour de force of works by Tchaikovsky and Taneyev, a teacher and his brilliant student. The performance begins with the finale Allegro giusto–Allegro vivace from String Quartet no. 1 in D major by Tchaikovsky, and it concludes with Taneyev’s String Quartet no. 6.

Longitude with Latitude Vicki Ray Saturday, August 27, 5:00–6:00 p.m. Pianist Vicki Ray presents a program of modern works for solo piano. Five Baroque Settings from the Norton Simon by Joseph Pereira and Seven Mirrors by the Cambodian composer Chinary Ung underscore the Museum’s early European and Asian collections, while John Cage’s Music for Marcel Duchamp and Jacob TV’s The Body of Your Dreams musically illustrate the Duchamp to Pop exhibition.

Many Centuries of Two Guitars The Odeum Guitar Duo Saturday, September 17, 5:00–6:00 p.m. The Odeum Guitar Duo returns to the Museum to project a multitude of tonal colors that mirror in sound the myriad hues employed by great painters in their masterpieces. Fred Benedetti and Robert Wetzel perform duo and solo guitar works drawn from across the centuries.
About the Norton Simon Museum

The Norton Simon Museum is known around the world as one of the most remarkable private art collections ever assembled. Over a 30-year period, industrialist Norton Simon (1907–1993) amassed an astonishing collection of European art from the Renaissance to the 20th century, and a stellar collection of South and Southeast Asian art spanning 2,000 years. Modern and Contemporary Art from Europe and the United States, acquired by the former Pasadena Art Museum, also occupies an important place in the Museum’s collections. The Museum houses more than 12,000 objects, roughly 1,000 of which are on view in the galleries and gardens. Two temporary exhibition spaces feature rotating installations of artworks not on permanent display. http://www.nortonsimon.org/

The Norton Simon Museum is located at 411 W. Colorado Blvd. at Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena, at the intersection of the Foothill (210) and Ventura (134) freeways. For general Museum information, please call (626) 449-6840 or visit www.nortonsimon.org. Hours: The Museum is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Tuesday. Admission: General admission is $12 for adults and $9 for seniors. Members, students with I.D., and patrons age 18 and under are admitted free of charge. Admission is free for everyone on the first Friday of every month from 5 to 8 p.m. All public programs, unless stated otherwise, are free with admission. The Museum is wheelchair accessible. Parking: Parking is free, and no reservations are necessary. Public Transportation: Pasadena Transit stops directly in front of the Museum. Please visit http://pasadenatransit.net for schedules. The MTA bus line #180/181 stops in front of the Museum. The Memorial Park Station on the MTA Gold Line, the closest Metro Rail station to the Museum, is located at 125 E. Holly St. at Arroyo Parkway. Please visit www.metro.net for schedules.