WINTER @ THE WALLIS

FEB 2-5

Dahlak Brathwaite: Try/Step/Trip

FEB 12

SUNDAY FUNDAY: Parker Bent, Broadway Babies, Dance Sunday with Debbie Allen & Friends: Flamenco

FEB 17-18

Luminario Ballet of Los Angeles

FEB 23

Anthony McGill & The Pacifica Quartet

FEB 25

Santa Cecilia Orchestra

2022/2023

Season

GET YOUR TICKETS! TheWallis.org musicians also set up shop here, including (to name only a few) violinist Jascha Heifetz (from Lithuania), and pianist Vladimir Horowitz and cellist Igor Piatigorsky, both born in Ukraine.

By the time he settled in LA, Rachmaninoff had been in emigration for nearly 25 years and was in the twilight of his career. His production of new works declined drastically after he fled Bolshevik Russia in 1918, but he had become wealthy and celebrated from his extensive tours as a piano virtuoso. At first, he lived in Europe, but moved to Long Island in 1939 to escape the coming war, then finally to California. At age 69, he was seriously ill, suffering from a variety of ailments: sclerosis, lumbago, neuralgia, high blood pressure, and headaches. He leased a house on Tower Road in

Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills, complete with swimming pool, garden, sweeping views, and a music room that could accommodate two grand pianos. There he loved to play twopiano works and adaptations with his friend Vladimir Horowitz.

On occasion, the two keyboard titans hosted domestic recitals. Rachmaninoff’s friend Sergei Bertensson attended a particularly memorable one on June 15, 1942, featuring a program of works by Mozart and Rachmaninoff (the Second Suite for two pianos). “After the last note, no one spoke— time seemed to have stopped.

I, for one, forgot that I was living in Hollywood, where the word ‘art’ has a habit of slipping from one’s memory.”

Rachmaninoff and his guests also did lots of talking, especially about the worsening situation in Europe and its impact on their family and friends. “Over dinner with the Horowitzes and other expatriate friends, the composer would talk about his feelings of guilt that he should be living in such luxury,” Bertensson later recalled. A few months later, Rachmaninoff bought a small house on Elm Drive in Beverly Hills, where he continued to host musical evenings. Around the same time, he was offered the position of music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, but turned it down, owing to his precarious health and dislike of the routine of conducting. (The position had been vacant since 1939, when Otto Klemperer departed for health reasons.) Sadly, Rachmaninoff

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For 50 years, California Institute of the Arts has been a place where creative individuals come together to experiment, practice, teach, and learn as a community of artists. Their impact and influence have transformed the cultural landscape of Los Angeles and beyond.

As we celebrate this milestone anniversary, we look to our artists to challenge what has come before and show us what could be for generations to come.