Chamber music from LA Baroque at the Redlands Bowl on August 6

The elegant strains of 17th and 18th century baroque music will
waft through the summer evening when the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra presents its program at the Redlands Bowl on Tuesday, August 6, at 8:15 p.m.
Playing music that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson might have danced to, the orchestra will perform on period instruments, creating a sound subtlely different from contemporary instruments. Violinist and Music Director Gregory Maldonado founded the orchestra in 1985, and since then, the orchestra has collaborated with numerous prestigious organizations including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Los Angeles Music Center Education Division, the Los Angeles County Arts
Commission's "Summer Nights at the Ford" program, and the Long Beach Opera. Maldonado has studied and worked with many world-renowned period-instrument specialists including Christopher Hogwood, Ton Koopman, and Monica Huggett. While a student at UCLA, he studied with Alexander Treger, principal first violin with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and he began playing the baroque violin. Currently, he is a member of the
Music Department faculty at California State University, Long Beach, where he is the director of the Collegium Musicum.
Lawrence Vittes of Los Angeles Reader described Maldonado as "a
vivacious, splendid soloist", adding that he "is an outstanding musician whose sense of grace and proportion has the potential to make every one of his concerts a miracle."
"Baroque music is beautiful for its diversity and its many colors,"
explained Maldonado, whose own period instrument is only twenty years old, modeled after instruments of the baroque era. "The instruments have shorter necks and the baroque bow is shorter," he said, "so the pitch of the instrument is one half step lower than that of modern violins." Many of the orchestra's 23 members have modern-made instruments, but some have originals. The principal cellist's instrument was made in 1750 and the principal second violin's instrument is from 1733.
Maldonado and the orchestra, which performs without a conductor, have been featured on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" and have performed in the Berkeley Early Music Festival and major festivals in England and Germany. They have received significant grant awards from The National Endowment for the Arts, the James Irvine Foundation, The Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the California Arts Council.
At 3:00 p.m. before the concert, the Los Angeles Orchestra will
present "Go for Baroque!", a free workshop in the Summer Music Festival Children's Workshop series. The workshop, partially underwritten by the Redlands Knights of the Round Table and Redlands Community Hospital, will be held at the First Congregational Church, 2 W. Olive Avenue in Redlands. Children ages 5 through 12 are welcomed.
This concert will begin at 8:15 p.m., preceded at 7:20 with the
Community Sing led by Curtiss Allen, Sr. Intermission ushers will be representatives of the Zonta Club of Redlands; Christ the King Lutheran Church; and the California Women of Agriculture. Intermission speaker will be Robin Cochran.
Continuing the tradition begun in 1924, this and all concerts are
free of charge, and a free-will offering will be collected at intermission. For more information about this concert, call the Redlands Bowl office at 909/793-7316 or visit the web site at www.redlandsbowl.org. The Redlands Bowl is located between Grant and Eureka Streets in Redlands, off of Brookside Avenue.