Southwest Chamber Music

Southwest Chamber Music, founded in 1987, is one of the most active chamber music ensembles in the United States, presenting concert series at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles and a celebrated summer festival at The Huntington in San Marino. Southwest Chamber Music is a recipient of a 2003 Grammy Award.

A Musical Nature Journey
As part of The Tender Land Festival, Southwest Chamber Music observes humanity's relationship to nature through music from around the world; past and present. This relationship will be highlighted by performances of John Cage’s Ryoanji, an evocation of the Zen rock garden in Kyoto, Japan. Carlos Chávez and his primal percussion works Toccata, Tambuco, Xochipilli and Four Traditional Songs of Ecuadorian Indians will be featured later in October with a collaboration between Southwest Chamber Music and the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble from Mexico City. December will juxtapose the modern percussion work, In November, we celebrate the giant redwoods of California with Songs in the Forest by the late Lou Harrison. December will juxtapose the modern percussion work, The Four Seasons by Toru Takemitsu, and Thea Musgrave’s From Spring to Spring, with the beloved The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi. The series concludes with Reflections on Tao by Altadena resident Joan Huang, a haunting evocation on Chinese landscape paintings.

Musical Reflections
Find out what the music of Mexico sounded like long ago at our Music Unwrapped Family Series with Mexico City’s Tambuco percussion ensemble, whose four musicians will perform on unique pre-Columbian instruments.

A Link to Our Partners
Visit Pacific Asia’s exhibition Landscapes of the Mind. While there, imagine what sort of music would accompany these paintings.