Pacific Serenades, one of the nation’s foremost chamber music ensembles, has announced its latest program to unveil it’s 105th commissioned and premiered work.
The concert series will feature the world premiere of Los Angeles native and resident, Duane Tatro. The work is titled Scatterings, with instrumentation for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. The new piece will be played in three movements alongside Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49; and Poulenc’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, providing for an interesting juxtaposition of chamber works, past and present.
The program will be performed at the UCLA Faculty Center on April 17 at 8 p.m. It will be the third performance of the concert series, continuing a long tradition of Pacific Serenades performances at the Faculty Center, which was under threat of demolition until recently. The Premiere concert will be on a Saturday afternoon, April 14, at the historic Greene & Greene home in Pasadena, the Cordelia Culbertson House , and will receive a second performance at the Pasadena Neighborhood Church April 15.
Tatro is most well known for his compositions for television, including scores for “Dynasty,” “M*A*S*H,” “Mission Impossible,” and “Loveboat,” among many others, as well as his compositions for many “movies of the week”. He is also known for his West Coast Jazz effort, Jazz for Moderns, released in 1956, which is Tatro’s only released recording as a band leader.
Duane Tatro entered the professional world of music at the end of the Big Band era when, as a sax and clarinet player, he joined the Stan Kenton Orchestra as it crisscrossed the country. Touring with Bob Hope’s show, the orchestra did radio broadcasts every Tuesday, and on the other days of the week, they performed at military bases. World War II was in full swing, and Duane was 16.
Turning 85 this year, Tatro has been retired from Hollywood for about 20 years—yet he is still enthusiastic about writing new music. “I am so pleased, so blessed that I get up every morning and want to write”—and that’s a good thing, since he keeps receiving commissions for new pieces!
Tickets to UCLA and Neighborhood Church concerts are $34 each, $5 for full time students. Private home tickets are $59 each. Tickets may be ordered by phone at 213.534.3434 or online at www.pacser.org.
