Beginning with the 2020-2021 season, ProtoStar teamed up with La Jolla Music Society to launch the ProtoStar Innovative Series. As its title suggests, this series will feature innovative forms of “cross-disciplinary, collaborative, and multimedia art.” Such groundbreaking works may be a novel art form, an inventive style, or even a completely new genre that is yet to be imagined. The performances may include a blend of classical music with a contemporary flair, a mix of sound and visual arts, or even the use of new technology.
“I am delighted to collaborate with La Jolla Music Society on this Innovative Series,” said Gary P. Poon, President of ProtoStar. “We hope to inspire artists all over the world to push the artistic envelope and cross boundaries. We are already seeing some experimentation among young performers. By creating this Innovative Series, ProtoStar wants to give these artists a forum to share their imagination.”
ProtoStar’s Introductory Remarks
2022-2023 Season
The upcoming 2022-2023 season will kick off on January 18, 2023, with world-renowned mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDinato performing her groundbreaking program EDEN. “Fusing music, movement, and theater, EDEN is a breathtaking tour-de-force from Joyce DiDonato, with Il Pomo d’Oro orchestra and Maxim Emelyanychev. By traveling seamlessly through four centuries of music—including a new commission by Academy Award-winning composer Rachel Portman—EDEN is a searing and singular experience of hope and connection that celebrates the majesty, might, and mystery of nature. DiDonato invites audiences to explore whether we are connecting to the pure essence of our being to create a new EDEN from within and plant seeds of hope for the future.”
Thereafter, on March 14, 2023, the ProtoStar Innovative Series will feature famed cellist Alisa Weilerstein performing FRAGMENTS. “FRAGMENTS is a groundbreaking project for solo cello that weaves together the 36 movements of Bach’s Solo Cello Suites with 27 newly commissioned works creating a musical space that is at once physically intimate and philosophically expansive. Enhanced by responsive lighting and scenic architecture, the music is performed without pause and without a program, making for a wholly original and immersive audience experience.”
The third performance in the ProtoStar Innovative Series will take place on May 6, 2023, with Brooklyn Rider & Magos Herrera’s DREAMERS. “In society, poets and songwriters play the essential role of dreamers, opening up avenues of hope for others. Despite the oppressive regimes which prevailed throughout much of Latin America and Spain in the twentieth century, what persevered from the dreamers was an unending love for beauty and humanity. Mexican-born songstress Magos Herrera and the omnivorous string quartet Brooklyn Rider join forces for an unforgettable musical journey, reinterpreting classics of the era from Mexico, Cuba, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Spain, and celebrating such luminaries as Octavio Paz, Federico García Lorca, and Rubén Darío.”
“Magos Herrera is regarded as one of the most expressive, beautiful voices and most active vocalists in the contemporary Latin American jazz scene. She is best known for her eloquent vocal improvisation and bold style that elegantly blends and surpasses language boundaries.”
To subscribe to the ProtoStar Innovative Series, please click here. To purchase individual performances, go to Events and Tickets.
Past Performances
2020-2021 Season
The first performance in the ProtoStar Innovative Series premiered on November 7, 2020, with Third Coast Percussion, a four-person ensemble based in Chicago. The group played a wide variety of percussion instruments, including marimba, vibraphone, drums, gongs, cymbals, and even such objects as “junk metal” and “mutant drum set.” For this inaugural performance of the ProtoStar Innovative Series, Third Coast Percussion collaborated with two movement artists, Ron Myles and Quentin Robinson, dancing to the choreography by Movement Art Is (Jon Boogz and Lil Buck). Together, the ensemble and dancers presented a world premiere of “Metamorphosis.” The title was intended by the artists to evoke the “transformation of music,” which was consistent with the concept behind the ProtoStar Innovative Series.
The second performance, “Charlie Chaplin’s Smile: A Musical Tribute to Charlie Chaplin,” featured renowned violinist Philippe Quint playing Charlie Chaplin’s original compositions.
It’s not well known that Charlie Chaplin composed almost all of the music in his films. This unique program juxtaposes the music of Chaplin with works by the great composers who influenced him most, including Debussy, Stravinsky, Brahms, and Gershwin. Chaplin’s relationships with these compositional masters [are] explored through music and story with screen clips of Chaplin’s silent era films, musical accompaniment by Philippe Quint, and rare video footage of Chaplin conducting his orchestras in recording sessions![1]
2021-2022 Season
The Series resumed on February 4, 2022, with famed pianist/composer Conrad Tao and tap dancer/choreographer Caleb Teicher in “Counterpoint.” Mr. Tao is recognized as an extraordinary classical pianist. According to his biography, he has been hailed as “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music by New York Magazine and an artist of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times.[2] He has received accolades for his original compositions and improvisations with other artists. Mr. Teicher is a “NYC-based dancer and choreographer specializing in musically-driven dance traditions and interdisciplinary collaborations.”[3] The New Yorker dubbed him “one of the brightest lights in taps today.”[4] Together, the two artists have garnered critical acclaim and awards for their collaborations on several works.
The second performance in the ProtoStar Innovative Series took place on April 3, 2022, with Silk Road Ensemble’s “A Home Within.” It featured original music by Syrian composer and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and performances by Syrian Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad. The program was particularly relevant to our times, as it is “an emotional accounting of home in a time of conflict.”
[T]he result is an impressionistic reflection on the unity of loss, longing, and the impact of tragedy on our sense of ‘home.’ Rather than follow a narrative, the artists document ‘home’ within specific moments in Syrian’s recent history, using the counterpoint between image and sound to establish a sense of sustained urgency and continued hope for both their homeland and communities around the world.[5]
For the third and final performance in the 2021-2022 Season, the Series presented on May 26, 2022, Spektral Quartet’s program “Something to Write Home About.” The uniquely innovative feature of this program is that it invited the audience to “join the creative process by writing five postcards across the evening with stimulating visuals and provocative writing prompts from the quartet. For each piece, the listener is drawn closer to the composition, using the music as the leaping-off point for audience members to pen a short message to someone special in their own life. Writing on custom-made postcards featuring the alluring work of visual artists, concertgoers become creators right alongside the Quartet … and reconnect with loved ones in unexpected ways.”[6] Sadly, the Quartet announced that this season was to be its last one together, as the group members were pursuing separate interests.
COVID-19
ProtoStar is, of course, mindful that the current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in live performances being postponed or cancelled altogether. For example, the second performance in the 2020-2021 Season featuring “The Queen’s Cartoonist,” a jazz and animation show, which was originally scheduled for January 30, 2021, had to be cancelled. In light of these uncertainties, adjustments will be made as changing circumstances warrant based on science and data.
ProtoStar is also keenly aware that the pandemic has caused untold suffering — from serious illnesses and the loss of precious lives to high unemployment and business closings. That is why we set up the ProtoStar COVID-19 Relief Fund for Nonprofits and have made grants from that fund for such immediate needs as: (1) medical supplies and equipment for a government hospital in Nepal (Combating COVID-19 in Nepal); (2) food for families in need (Fallbrook Food Pantry); and (3) grocery delivery service for seniors (Foundation for Senior Care).
At the same time, we believe that music and the arts can play an important role in comforting, inspiring, elevating, and transforming us, especially during these difficult times. As a result, ProtoStar has also provided financial assistance to artists through iPalpiti Artists International and has commissioned world-class cellist Joshua Roman to compose a Musical Journal to capture our collective emotions during this pandemic.
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