The
Mount Cross Classical Concert Series was created in 2005 to foster the performance
of high quality classical music in Ventura County and as a community outreach.
Suggested Season Donation for three concerts: $40
Donation at the door single concert ticket: $15
Gifting
Opportunities
In addition to a Season Donation for entrance at all
three concerts, those interested in supporting this endeavor with an additional
gift may do so as follows:
Friend $50
Sponsor $100
Benefactor (will include two Season Tickets) $250
Contributions
are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law and all names of contributors
will appear on the concert programs unless anonymity is preferred. Checks
payable to:
Mount Cross Lutheran Church Concert Series
102 Camino Esplendido Camarillo, CA 93010
Support
of the Concert Series helps to make classical music a regular part of the
cultural life of our community. While Mount Cross Lutheran Church is pleased to
host these presentations of classical music as an outreach to the community, it
is important for you to know that all of the money collected from ticket
donations and from special gifts is used solely to promote and expand the
Concert Series and is separate from church operating income.
Lincoln Mayorga, pianist
Donation: $20
[NOTE: This concert has been
rescheduled from January 22.]
PROGRAM TO BE
ANNOUNCED BY LINCOLN MAYORGA
The Boy in Front of
the Radio
The Four Preps,
Capitol Records. 50's Pop, and Ragtime
The Movies and Disney Studios
George, Fred and
Ginger
Classical Music in the
Movies
-- INTERMISSION --
On Tour
Memorable Hollywood
Composers
The following is an
interview between Lincoln and Nancy Sale for the Berkshire Article.
Lincoln Mayorga has so
many albums on Amazon, he has his own
store. You'll find classical, jazz, movie scores, Broadway -- more
than 80 listings in all. This versatile pianist performed "Rhapsody
in Blue" with the Moscow Philharmonic and the song "Easy For Me"
with Ringo Starr. Visit any Disney park and you'll hear him on the "Small
World" music track. Even the
most rhythmically challenged sway and tap their toes
when he plays in local clubs. It just doesn't seem fair that
one man can have so much musical talent. Oh, and
he produced a film about the Romanian Gulag survivor, pianist Sofia Cosma, too.
Mayorga, 74, was born in
Los Angeles, the son of a Nicaraguan-born lawyer-turned-teacher; his mother,
Nancy Pope Mayorga, is the author of spiritual books. Now a resident of East
Chatham, N.Y., he's married to the singer-composer and choral director Sheri
Bauer-Mayorga; they have two adopted sons from Guatemala, ages 18 and 25. One
daughter from his first marriage manages a copper mine and owns a bar in Utah; another
is a gerontologist in California.
NS: You were a Hollywood
musician and played with John Williams and David Rose on movie and television
music tracks. You spent nearly 20 years with Disney. Did you wear mouse ears?
LM: All the studios had
staff orchestras until 1958. When they went to a freelance policy, Disney was
loyal to his orchestra. I was their first-call pianist. It was a very pleasant
place to work, and Hollywood doesn't have that reputation for being pleasant. You
never heard any four-letter words. Never a damn. On their lunch hour, guys
would play volleyball. All the technical guys in the Imagineering unit wore
white shirts and ties and mouse ears sewn on their shirts. Or maybe it was a
pin.
NS: You feel the music.
It goes from inside you into the piano and out into the audience. Where is that
inside you? How do you find that? How do you express it?
LM: I had an exceptional
teacher who was always going for the emotional truth. I've always felt it very
deeply. And that quality is a mystery itself. There are people who play very
expertly but they may not have rhythm in their body. It's a curious thing I feel
that if you have it in your body, it will affect your audience. They will want
to move. They will want to jump out of their chair. There's a sympathetic
resonance and physical resonance that's placed between the player and the
listener. It can take place or it doesn't.
NS: You've also worked
with many famous singers. Who was the most interesting?
LM: Unquestionably
Barbra Streisand. She was artistically just amazing. She could deliver a
beautiful rehearsal, and then her first take would be better. She
said, "Let's do another take:' That would be nirvana. She'd
say, "Let me do one more" -- and she'd top it. She was very insecure personally, but she delivered
the song with the greatest emotional depth.
NS: How did
you happen to record with
Ringo Starr?
LM: Ringo
was doing a solo album called "Goodnight Vienna:' and the
producer called me and said, "We're doing a sentimental song
called 'Easy For Me' with piano." I found out that the Beatles
had listened to my band, The Piltdown Men, when they were just getting
started.
NS: You moved here from
L.A. in 1989. Did you know it gets cold here?
LM: There
was a technical innovation that changed the whole nature of our business: the introduction
of synthesizers. It was expected
that pianists would master this elaborate electronic instrument.
All of a sudden, you were not very employable as just a
pianist. I came here for the housewarming of a friend
I've known since seventh grade .. I fell
in love with the area.
NS: Many of your
recordings and your concerts include the music of George Gershwin. What is
it about Gershwin that so resonates
with so many people?
LM: He is the great
American melting pot composer. The blues, jazz,
European Romanticism, klezmer, Latin American. Everything
that we are as a country, when we get along, he gets along
in his music in a celebration. It's a celebration
of everything that's in the pot. And it just works.
NS: Why does music have
the ability to so inspire?
LM: It is a spiritual
thing; it comes from a divine source. And the
great composers made no bones about it. They
would tell you music comes straight from God. Beethoven said it. Brahms. That we
would think of taking this out of the schools is criminal. It has
such positive benefits.
Past Concerts
October 2011 – Evan Marshall, mandolin
May 2011 – I Musici D’amore and guest Daryl Tanikawa, clarinet
January 2011 - James Russell Hunley,
guitarist
October
2010 - The Presidio Brass
May
2010 - I Musici D'Amore:
Sharon Cooper, violinist, Pamela De Almeida, Cello, & Barbara D'Addario,
pianist
May
2009 - Sharon Cooper, violin, Tom Turner, viola & Barbara
D'Addario, piano
February
2009 - Pacific Winds Trio: Salpy Kerkonian, flute, Darryl Tanikawa,
clarinet & John Nunez, bassoon
October
2008 - Virginia Kron, cellist &
Althea Waites, pianist
April
2008 - Alison Bjorkedal, harpist & Boglarka Kiss, flutist
January
2008 - Sharon Cooper, violinist & Joyce Cates, pianist
October
2007 - Lincoln Mayorga, pianist
April
2007 - Celine Gietzen, cello, with Barbara
D'Addario, piano
January
2007 - Luba
Sorochkina, piano
October 2006 - Carlos Gonzales, classical guitar
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the latest brochure here.
