Director Mike Mills releases first film in


six years p. 16


Volume 3, Issue 12 • June 10–23, 2011 • San Diego Uptown News


Mainly Mozart Festival This year’s series observes bicentennial of Franz Liszt


By Charlene Baldridge SDUN Reporter


S


ince 1989, an annual gathering of renowned solo- ists and top orchestral players from around the nation, the 23rd Mainly Mozart Festival, has taken place June 7-18 in two venues. This year, there are four concerts at downtown San Diego’s Balboa The- atre and three at La Jolla’s Neurosciences Institute. Artistic director David Atherton, co-founder (with Nancy Laturno Bojanic) of Mainly Mozart, speaks with particular relish of longtime concert- masters William Preucil and Martin Chalifour. The duo usually sit next to one other (“one, two”) in the violin section of the 37-member Mainly Mo- zart Festival Orchestra, exchanging triumphant, amused glances as they make the kind of snappy transitions for which composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is known.


“That’s one of the joys of Mainly Mozart,” Atherton


says. “The artists on stage are not afraid to smile.” Neither are the audience members, who are accustomed to both the players’ excellence as well as the springy little dance steps Atherton sometimes performs on the podium. It’s a far cry from a stuffy concert chamber music concert. These players, many having missed only one or two years since Mainly Mo- zart’s early concert series at the Old Globe (1989-’90), enjoy playing together, and the feeling is infectious. Lest one think that San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival concerns the music of Mozart alone, this year the festival observes the bicentennial of Franz Liszt as well. Though Mozart and Liszt may predominate, their works are mixed with orchestral and chamber music by J.C. Bach, Edvard Grieg, Franz Joseph Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn, Joaquin Rodrigo, Camille Saint-Saëns, Igor Stravinski, and Antonio Vivaldi. It’s what the maestro describes as a “delightful mix.”


see Mozart, page 14


Modern-day crooner to debut latest CD Gregory Page will share ‘nostalgic masterpiece’ June 17 at Lestat’s


By John Philip Wyllie SDUN Reporter


n June 1965, while still a tod- dler, musician Gregory Page had the rare opportunity to spend an afternoon sitting on Paul Mc- Cartney’s knee.


I Paul and the other Beatles


were attending a bullfight in Ma- drid at the time, and the following day, the group was scheduled to perform in the same bullring with an all-girl band called the Beat Chicks as the opening act. Page’s mother was a member of that short-lived ensemble, and it was through her that the young Page had his chance encounter with Sir Paul. While Page can no longer clearly remember his afternoon with the now legendary Beatle, some of that McCartney magic must have rubbed off, be- cause now, nearly a half century later, Page has more than two dozen solo projects to his credit, in addition to those recorded when he partnered with Steve Poltz in the Rugburns.


Scheduled to debut his latest


CD, “My True Love,” June 17, at Lestat’s Coffee Shop in Normal Heights, Page recalls how his music has taken him throughout Europe and Australia, where he has developed a substantial following, and how his career has yielded many friends and sometime collaborators—such as luminaries Jason Mraz, Jewel and Eddie Vedder. Today regarded as one of San


Diego’s premier singer/songwrit- ers, Page is popular despite the fact that he often writes music in a style that was prevalent more than 70 years ago. “My True Love,” which was recorded at Mraz’s North County studio, car- ries listeners back to an era when music focused predominantly on themes of love and romance. “My past collection of records


[flirted] with the jazz stylings that I grew up with. This particular collection of songs was written for a couple who were getting mar-


ried. I found myself with nothing to play at their wedding,” Page recalls. “Then I met with them, and from that meeting I created ‘My Cherry Pie.’ I never felt so happy writing a song before.”


After rediscovering his cre-


ative groove, one song blossomed into many and, over the course of the next four or five weeks, Page


see Page, page 14 S a n D i e g o S y m p h o n y Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott plays Hayden’s D major Concerto.


13


July 1-September 4


Karson St. John as Emcee.


Photo by Daren Scott


STAR SPANGLED POPS with MARVIN HAMLISCH


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DIRECTED BY SEAN MURRAY


MOTOWN’S GREATEST HITS with Spectrum and Radiance


FRI & SAT, JULY 8 & 9, 7:30pm Motown comes alive with music from The Temptations, The Four Tops, Diana Ross and more!


For complete schedule visit our website.


Financial support is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.


BY THORNTON WILDER


DESIRE


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