St. Matthew’s Music Guild will open its 2007-2008 season on October 19 with an opening night gala, patrons supper and concert featuring a return appearance by Philip Vaiman in Samuel Barber?s lyrical “Violin Concerto.” St. Matthew’s Music Guild is known throughout Los Angeles for presenting the classical music in a stunning architectural and acoustical environment, designed by architect Charles Moore. Programs are offered at a reasonable price and at a convenient location, St. Matthew’s Church, 1031 Bienveneda Ave. All performances begin at 8 p.m. This season consists of eight programs. The second performance, on November 9 will feature a West Coast appearance by the Montreal-based Ensemble Caprice, which has appeared at the Vlaanderen Festival in Bruges, Belgium, the Netwerk-Reihe of the Organisatie voor Oude Muziek in The Netherlands, the International Recorder Symposium in Stuttgart and the Ancient Music Rencontres in Heidelberg. Since taking the 2005 Boston Early Music Festival by storm they have produced several highly acclaimed CDs and been nominated for three Prix Opus awards. Music for the season by J.S. Bach will be performed on December 14 and will feature “Cantata 140–Sleepers, wake!,”Cantata 10–My soul doth magnify the Lord,” “Brandenburg Concerto No. 4” and “Violin Concerto in E Major” performed by violinist Yi-Huan Zhao and The Choir of St. Matthew?s Parish. On January 18, composer-in-residence Dwayne Milburn’s world premiere of a new piece for clarinet and orchestra will be performed, preceded by Debussy?s ?Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun? (arr. Shoenberg), Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” and Vaughan Williams’, “Five Variants of ?Dives and Lazarus.” On February 15, members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic will return for a program to include Brahms? Sextet in B-flat major plus music of Mozart, Tchaikovsky and John Harbison. April 4 brings a West Coast performance of American composer and conductor Murray Sidlin’s suite of arias, duets and instrumental works from Copland’s operatic masterpiece, ?The Tender Land.? Phil Feather, oboe d’amore, Rose Beattie, mezzo-soprano, Richard Bullock, bass trombone and John van Houten, tuba, will perform works of Wagner, Brahms, Angel and Wright on May 2. The season?s final program will be June 6 and will feature solo performances by David Searfoss, trumpet, playing Persichetti’s “The Hollow Men,” and Marda Todd, viola, playing Vaughan Williams? “Flos Campi.” The St. Matthew?s Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1984 by Tom Neenan, who is the music director and conductor of the orchestra. ?We started with four people who wanted to develop a chamber orchestra,? Neenan told the Post in 2004. They hit their stride 10 to 12 years ago, Neenan said, when they got a core group of 20 to 25 musicians playing in the orchestra. Now the 35-member St. Matthew?s Chamber Orchestra is recognized as a fully professional ensemble that has earned critical acclaim and public admiration for more than two decades. To subscribe to the 2007-2008 series call: (310) 573-7787 ext. 127 or visit: www.stmatthews.com/musicguild.

Series Includes New Commission, Redoubtable Icons and Intimate Music Setting

Chamber Music Palisades begins its second decade of concerts in the Palisades on October 23, with a program including Debussy’s familiar ‘Afternoon of a Faune’ for flute and piano, and rediscovered Holocaust composer Ervin Schulhoff’s ‘Concertino’ for flute, viola and bass. ‘Amazingly, we haven’t worked through all the chamber literature,’ co-founder Susan Greenberg says. ‘We really haven’t done most of this music, except for Turina’s piano trio, which audiences loved a few seasons ago. For the most part, Greenberg and co-founder Delores Stevens look for chamber works’some old, some new and some in between–that are challenges for them, but also intended to ‘keep everybody happy.’ Greenberg and Stevens begin to prepare for each upcoming season at the first of the year, when the two banter around ideas, with the hope of beginning to sign up the musicians by spring. ‘This is the hardest part, because these players are so busy and so good,’ Greenberg says. ‘Most of the players, even those with international reputations, like Ida Levin, live in the Los Angeles area.’ A new addition to the concert roster this year is cellist Antonio Lysy, who not only concertizes around the world, but is a professor of cello at UCLA. Over the years, Chamber Music Palisades has presented the finest players in Los Angeles, including artists from the L.A. Philharmonic and the L.A. Chamber Orchestra in the intimate setting at St. Matthew’s Parish. KUSC’s afternoon host Alan Chapman will once again provide commentary on each concert. This year, CMP is introducing a scholarship for a young chamber ensemble and expanding its school outreach programs to five. ‘Thanks to a grant from the Palisades Junior Women’s Club, we will be able to present two concerts in the Palisades, this year at Calvary School,’ Greenberg says. The music series opens with a diverse program featuring a mix of masterworks and rarely performed pieces by Debussy, Mozart, Schulhoff and Schubert on Tuesday, October 23 at 8 p.m., at St. Matthew’s Parish. The artists featured include Susan Greenberg, flute, Roland Kato, viola, Arman Ksajikian, cello, and Josefina Vergara, violin, all of who are members of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, as well as soloist and chamber musician Delores Stevens, piano, and Nico Abondolo, who served as principal bass of San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra for eight years. Stevens and Greenberg launch the program with a rarely performed arrangement for flute and piano of ‘Afternoon of a Faun’ by Impressionistic French composer Claude Debussy. A pastoral and expressive work shaded with delicate and graceful musical overtones, it was inspired by the poem ‘L’Apres-midi d’un faune’ by French symbolist poet Mallarm’. Vergara, Stevens and Ksajikian, take the stage next with W.A. Mozart’s sparkling ‘Trio in B-flat Major’ K. 358 for violin, cello and piano, which is a transcription of one of four piano sonatas that Mozart composed for four hands for his sister Anna Maria and himself. Greenberg, Kato and Abondolo perform Concertino for flute, viola and bass, written by Czech composer Ervin Schulhoff in 1925. Schulhoff, of Jewish-German decent, found inspiration in the rhythms of jazz and the avant-garde cultural movement of Dadaism after World War I, but was blacklisted in the 1930s by the Nazi regime and died of tuberculosis in August 1942 at the W’lzburg concentration camp. The concert concludes with The ‘Trout’ Quintet for piano and strings by prolific Austrian composer Franz Schubert. Written in 1819, when Schubert was 22 years old, the work was not published until 1829, a year after his death, but has become one of his most popular and beloved chamber pieces. Chamber Music Palisades’ season continues with concerts on January 22, March 25, and May 6, which features the world premiere Adrienne Albert’s world premiere quartet for flute and strings. Tickets are $25; students with ID are free. St. Matthew’s Parish, 1031 Bienveneda. For tickets and information, please call (310) 459-2070 or visit www.cmpalisades.org.

As Christians around the globe call for change, for arms, for peace or for loyalty, Catholics at Corpus Christi enjoy a call to reflect on the very foundation of the church for a month every summer. Fleeing the heat of Rome, Augustinian priest and scholar Rev. Angelo di Berardino takes his summer retreat in the Palisades. ‘I like to be as far away from my usual job as possible,’ Fr. Angelo says, contrasting not only the Italian mentality with the American character, but also departing from his rigorous scholarship. Fr. Angelo, who lives and works in the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome, has spent his life reading, researching and writing about ancient Christianity and the fathers of the church. He lives in the general Augustinian headquarters, which, while not technically in Vatican City, is directly across the street from the papal palace. While Fr. Angelo is an ordained Augustinian priest, his ministry, he says, is more behind the scenes, teaching and publishing. Following a career path to the priesthood, which was not so unusual in his day, Fr. Angelo entered the seminary at 15. He studied history and psychology and focused his graduate studies on ancient Christianity, particularly on the heroes of the church in the 4th century, including St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Gregory and St. Nicholas. After ordination in 1962, Fr. Angelo was called by the secretary- general of the order to teach in Rome. He obeyed, but found those early years difficult. ‘I was accustomed to a more active life, and I didn’t feel prepared. A natural extrovert and accepting of everybody, Fr. Angelo began to branch out, meet people and to publish. ‘Life became more enjoyable.’ His prodigious scholarship paid off in his first book published in 1978 on the Fathers of the Church, 4th century. A scholarly encyclopedia of Christian antiquity, the two-volume compendium brings together a cross-section of Christian traditions and authors covering topics such as the personalities of the church, and the relationship between Christianity and the thought and philosophies of the pagan world. Fr. Angelo’s route to Corpus Christi started in Rome. In 1993, he met Judge Lawrence Waddington, a Palisadian and convert to Catholicism, who invited him to come to Los Angeles to visit. He took him up on the offer and came to Corpus Christi, where the pastor, Fr. Mihan, welcomed him with an open-ended invitation. ‘He said just told me to give him two days’ notice before I come,’ Fr. Angelo remembers. In the last couple of years, Fr. Angelo has made his annual foray in August, and parishioners have learned to anticipate his visit. ‘He comes here every summer and you have to get on the list to have dinner or lunch with him,’ Carol Sanborn says. In a church the size of Corpus Christi, Fr. Angelo’s presence is welcome. Although he says ‘the way you teach is different from the way you preach,’ his sermons focus on the history of the church. His topic may be women in the early church, who were more involved before the development of a hierarchy of clergy curtained their activities. On the topic of how Christian values were implemented in pagan society, he offers a number of precedents. ‘The separation of church and state was implemented by the Christians. In pagan world, the high priest was emperor. The Christian calendar was introduced and the concept of the week, with Sunday, the day of the Lord, becoming the day of worship.’ Fr. Angelo stresses the importance for Christians of knowing the history and theology in keeping focus on the fundamentals of the faith, but also to better prepare for reform. The reforms instituted by Pope John XXIII included a number of changes that would have been quite familiar to early Christians, such as the involvement of the community. ‘In the first century, there were more people involved in the church community, before everything ended up in the hands of the priests.’ Fr. Angelo departed for Rome on September 11, but he’ll be back next summer ready for more of ‘The American Freedom.’

Jorge Ochoa, horticulturalist with the city of Los Angeles and lecturer, will present a talk on the unusual trees of Los Angeles at the first meeting of the Palisades Garden Club on Monday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Woman’s Club, 901 Haverford. In 1994, Ochoa spearheaded a Department of Recreation and Parks inventory of the estimated one million trees in city parks, that provides information on each species, characteristics in relation to active and passive recreation, cooling/shading effects and the ecological and financial benefits of each. Using Global Positioning System (GPS), the department identified each park tree and its location in the park. Ochoa said the species are divided into five categories, which are intended to help the laymen discover the rich variety of trees in city parks. The categories include dedicated trees, such as the pine in Griffith Park named for Beatle George Harrison; L.A. ordinance native oaks, of which there are an estimated 670 in city parks; trees with horticultural significance, such as the giant dioon cycad’the largest in the city’in Rustic Canyon Park; historic trees, such as the eucalyptus grove in Rustic Canyon and special habitat trees. Ochoa will also identify some of the heritage trees and their location. These individual trees of any size or species are specially designated because of their historical, commemorative or horticultural significance. Several of these species are growing in the Palisades, including the spider gum (Eucalyptus lehmanii) at Palisades Recreation Center. Unlike other eucalyptus trees, the spider gum flowers are fused together forming a large inflorescence, resembling a powder puff brush. In its native Australia, the flowers are pollinated by many species of honeyeaters. To assist these birds in sipping the nectar, the tree produces along the stem or on woody branches to provide the thirsty birds with a land platform to perch while they sip. Ochoa is currently involved in the city’s million-tree initiative; launched by Mayor Villaragoisa last year to help cool down the cityscape and set in motion other environmental changes. Ochoa is selecting appropriate trees for each of the designated public areas. For example, to plant around a play area, Ochoa chooses evergreen trees with strong branch attachment for their low-maintenance and safety. Choices may include the strawberry tree (arbutus), Catalina ironwood, fruitless olive, and the New Zealand chaste tree.

Perhaps the Thursday holiday matinee crowd at the Ahmanson Theatre was not the best group of people for me to watch the musical ‘Avenue Q.’ The Tony Award-winning musical, wrought with political incorrectness, was highly entertaining, but seemingly did not sit well with the older crowd. That’s not to say that laughter was in short supply, but disapproving faces weren’t either, as puppets onstage poked fun at racism, sang about porn and simulated sex. ‘Avenue Q,’ which opened off-Broadway in March 2003, before moving to Broadway in July 2003, opened in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre on September 7 and will run through October 14. The musical, which received three Tony’s in 2004, including one for Best Musical, features puppet characters (operated by actors onstage) that are largely inspired by’and in some cases parodies of’characters from ‘Sesame Street.’ They live in a run-down street in an outer borough of New York City. The story begins with the Princeton (voiced and operated by Robert McClure) moving onto Avenue Q, just after college graduation. He meets his neighbors, some are puppets, some are people, and begins to learn some of life’s most difficult lessons. The plot is driven by Princeton’s search for a purpose, but he encounters several obstacles along the way. The musical is wonderfully tongue-in-cheek, poking fun at current social issues, like homosexuality, racism, interracial marriage and homelessness. Highlights include the songs, ‘Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,’ and ‘The Internet is for Porn.’ Although song titles sounds perhaps a little bit offensive, the musical is indeed funny and actually quite mainstream as far as its level of offense goes, especially to anyone who has ever watched cable. Basically it’s a clever concept, puppets dealing with adult situations; at times it’s hilarious, at times it’s off-color, but for the most part, it’s no more insulting than an episode of ‘South Park.’ Gary Coleman (Carla Renata), who lives on Avenue Q and works as the building superintendent, is the most amusing character in the entire production. Portraying the former child-star, Renata’s character is pretty much the most pathetic guy on the block. No matter how much everyone else’s life sucks (‘It Sucks to Be Me’ they sing, as if it were a competition), at least they’re not Gary Coleman. Still, the most outstanding element of ‘Avenue Q’ is the incredible cast, several of whom play multiple characters. Kelli Sawyer, who plays both Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut, stands out as the production’s best voice. However, that is not to say that anyone else’s voice was sub-par or even par for that matter. But Sawyer really anchors the show with her strong, beautiful soprano. Additionally, in playing two characters, she must alternate between voices, which she does flawlessly, creating the illusion that Lucy and Kate are two entirely different people (She also played both parts on Broadway and at the Wynn in Las Vegas). Christian Anderson is another standout cast member, playing Nicky, a parody of Ernie from ‘Sesame Street,’ Trekkie Monster and others. He operates his puppets impeccably and lends comical cartoon-type voices to his characters, providing the audience with many opportunities for laughter. Second only to the cast is the production itself. New York City really comes alive on the stage at the Ahmanson, with a brilliant set, so simple, yet surprisingly versatile. For tickets, call Center Theatre Group at (213) 628-2772 or visit www.centertheatregroup.org.