September 12, 2024
Pasadena, CA – The Pasadena Symphony Association (PSA) will host their annual Moonlight Sonata Gala on Saturday, September 28, 2024. Held under the iconic dome of Pasadena City Hall, this enchanted evening will celebrate 50 years of enriching the lives of our community’s youth through the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras (PYSO). The festivities will kick off with an elegant courtyard reception, followed by a luxe dinner, live auction and program filled with music and dancing under a starry sky in Centennial Square.
The music-filled soiree will begin at 5:30pm with a PYSO string quartet providing the backdrop for cocktails and a silent auction around the fountain in City Hall’s cloistered courtyard. Guests will then be serenaded by musicians from the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras as they stroll to Centennial Square where acclaimed Classical KUSC host Brian Lauritzen will present the evening’s program. A decadent four-course meal by Ronen Levy Events will be accompanied by a live auction and performance from Pasadena Symphony & POPS’ Concertmaster Aimée Kreston with PYSO musicians. To top off the elegant affair, guests will dance the night away to music provided by a live band, The Mixtape.
This year’s gala will honor the grand success of the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras 50 years of shaping the lives of the future leaders of tomorrow through music education. Over the past five decades, PYSO has grown from one ensemble serving 50 students to 11 ensembles offering weekly instruction to over 700 students in grades 4-12. This past year, the program also provided over 600 hours of Teaching Artist residencies in Pasadena Unified (PUSD) classrooms and launched its inaugural free Summer Camp for PUSD music students.
Individual tickets start at $300 and may be purchased by visiting pasadenasymphony-pops.org or by contacting Kevin Batton, Development Associate at kevin@pasadenasymphony-pops.org or 626-414-2330.
- What: The Pasadena Symphony and POPS 2024 Moonlight Sonata Gala
- When: Saturday, September 28, 2024, 5:30pm – 10:30pm
- Where: Centennial Square | 100 N. Garfield Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101
- Parking: Complimentary valet parking available onsite.
- Cost: Individual tickets $300 each; Patron level: $1,500 includes two VIP tickets and listing in the event program book. Sponsorship and underwriting opportunities are also available at bit.ly/moonlightsonata24.
Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras
The Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras (PYSO) has been training tomorrow’s musical leaders since 1972. PYSO is considered among the finest youth orchestras in the country and is the centerpiece of the Pasadena Symphony Association’s education program.
The PYSO serves over 700 students from 29 cities throughout Los Angeles County and the San Gabriel Valley, 17 school districts and 84 schools in both weekly afterschool ensemble rehearsals and supplemental in-class instruction within the Pasadena Unified School District.
Since its inception, the PYSO has toured internationally on many occasions to perform in some of the world’s greatest concert halls.
PYSO fosters dedication, excellence, fellowship, and passion in the development of those who are not only outstanding young musicians, but also outstanding young individuals. Ensembles include All City Orchestra, Prelude Strings, Wind Ensemble, String Orchestra, Symphony, Sinfonia, and Philharmonic.
Brian Lauritzen
Host
The answer to the question Brian Lauritzen gets most often is no.*
Brian believes that classical music is deeply serious, riotously humorous, and everything in between. He exhibits a healthy respect for this great art, and the great artists who create it, and balances that regard with a tasteful irreverence in his presentations on Classical KUSC.
Ultimately, Brian believes there are few absolutes when it comes to music–only personal taste. If you don’t like something, you’re not wrong. Brian has occasionally been criticized for using words like, “awesome,” “facepalm,” and “dude” on the air…and he’s fine with that. Classical music purists may not fully understand Brian’s love for hip-hop and bluegrass music, but then when he begins to geek out over the intricacies of a Mahler symphony everything begins to make sense again.
Although, he doesn’t count as a passenger for HOV lane restrictions, Brian is happy to ride shotgun with you during your commute home. You can catch him weekdays from 3:00-7:00 p.m. He presides over the celebrated Classical Anti-Road-Rage Melody (CarTune), every day at 5:00, now expanded to a full 20-minute set of soothing selections designed to help you keep calm on the roadways of Southern California.
As the multi-award-winning host of Arts Alive, Brian has had conversations with dozens of top classical musicians and artists. Among them, Gustavo Dudamel, Dawn Upshaw, Frank Gehry, Hilary Hahn, Pierre Boulez, Wynton Marsalis, Sir Simon Rattle, and many others.
More than three million people tune in each season for the internationally-syndicated concert broadcasts of the Los Angeles Philharmonic that Brian produces and hosts. He has traveled to Europe, Asia, and South America with the LA Phil. His choral music program, Soul Music, is consistently one of the most popular programs on Classical KUSC.
While much of his life is spent behind triple-paned glass in a soundproof studio underground in Downtown Los Angeles, Brian does occasionally see the light of day. He is, in fact, one of Southern California’s most sought-after speakers about classical music. His pontifications (rarely boring) bring the music of the past to life, contextualizing it for the present moment, and are just as likely to include deep musical analysis as well as references to a TV show or movie that he saw recently. Brian hosts a series called “Inside the Music” at the LA Phil. He’s also the Resident Host for the Salastina Music Society and makes regular appearances with Los Angeles Opera, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills.
On social media, you can find Brian sharing interesting tidbits about music, life behind the scenes at KUSC, and way fewer food pictures than he used to. His Twitter feed (@BrianKUSC) has been highlighted by National Public Radio and the LA Times. His advocacy for women in classical music has earned him praise from the San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere.
*Brian Lauritzen is not related to composer Morten Lauridsen.
Formed in 1928, the Pasadena Symphony and POPS is an ensemble of Hollywood’s most talented, sought-after musicians. With extensive credits in film, television, recording and the orchestral industry, the artists of the Pasadena Symphony and POPS are some of the most heard in the world.
Brett Mitchell assumed the post of Pasadena Symphony Music Director on April 1, 2024. Michael Feinstein – the multi-platinum-selling, two-time Emmy and five-time Grammy Award-nominated entertainer dubbed “The Ambassador of the Great American Songbook” – leads the POPS as Principal Pops Conductor, succeeding Marvin Hamlisch.
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS performs in two of the most extraordinary venues in the United States: Ambassador Auditorium, known as the Carnegie Hall of the West, and the Los Angeles Arboretum & Botanic Garden.
A hallmark of its robust education programs, the Pasadena Symphony Association has served the youth of the region for over five decades through the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestras (PYSO). PYSO offers supplemental in-class instruction within the Pasadena Unified School District and eleven performance ensembles, serving over 700 4th-12th grade students from all over Southern California. The PYSO has performed at venues across the globe as well as on the television show Glee.
The Pasadena Symphony Association provides people from all walks of life with powerful access points to the world of symphonic music. www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org