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Dr. Wyant Morton is Professor of Music at California Lutheran University and is in his 31st year as conductor of the Cal Lutheran Choral Ensembles, which includes the Cal Lutheran Choir, Cielo (treble choir), and Areté Vocal Ensemble--a chamber choir he founded in...

When Natasha Kislenko sits at the piano on April 15 and 16 to perform two selections by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with New West Symphony, she will be in her element --- even if that element is a bit more stress-laden than others.“You can talk for hours on Mozart,” says...

There is, says Joshua Ranz, a key to playing Mozart well. It’s called singing. “There is a grace and a nuance to Mozart,” says Josh, principal clarinet for New West Symphony who will perform Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto during NWS’ “Binging on Mozart” concerts April 15...

Cedric Berry has sung everything from classic opera to modern opera, and sung it well. But regardless of what he’s singing, this Midwest-raised, Los Angeles-based baritone keeps one thought at the front of his mind: Enjoy what you’re doing.“That’s what I share with...

“The orchestra,” declares Mason Bates, “is one of mankind’s greatest creations.” Spoken, you might say, like a true composer of symphonies and operas --- a Grammy-winning composer at that. But for Bates, creator of “Philharmonia Fantastique” which will be presented by...

At age 6, Enluis Montes Olivar attended his first concert in his native Venezuela and was immediately enthralled, particularly by the percussion instruments — tympani, cymbals, all of it.
But when he was asked, “What instrument would you like to play?”, Enluis had a much different answer: “I want to conduct!”

As one who holds a Master’s in Music from Westminster Choir College, one of the nation’s leading choral institutions, it stands to reason that Dr. Ryan Board — at some point in his career as an internationally acclaimed conductor and singer — would have performed one of classical music’s milestone choral works, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

To conclude its Oct. 21, 1994 opening night concert, the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza presented the rousing finale to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, featuring the Conejo Valley Symphony and local choirs conducted by Elmer Ramsey.

The years around 1850 that brought California into the Union were also a time of burgeoning American musical identity. The “melting pot effect” that permeated most aspects of American life had an equally powerful impact on the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic qualities of American Song. The emergence of ragtime, the blues and jazz in the late 1800s into the twentieth century became national obsessions and forever changed America’s musical landscape.