Music Ministries at Glendale City Church Growing Exponentially
Posted by Debbonnaire Kovacs, Sept. 30, 2015
[Editor’s Note: Last year we ran a feature on the Caesura Youth Orchestra, which you may like to peruse for more detailed information. This short piece links to an announcement of this year’s Fall Fundraiser Concert, and also brings to light several other musical ministries of the Glendale City Church in California.]
The Caesura Youth Orchestra is just one of several music programs at the Glendale City Church. CYO was started just over a year ago to provide free music education, free group lessons, and free instruments (to students who remain with the program three years) for a lifetime of musical enjoyment. The program focuses on students in under-served parts of the community who would not be able to afford private music lessons and whose school only provides music one day each week to the students. Learn more or get involved at their Facebook page.
Second Saturday Series
In addition to the CYO, Glendale City has for over five years provided the Second Saturday Series of concerts as a way of reaching out to the community through music. The series started with the intention of introducing a new 150 rank organ, but now includes winners of awards at the Thornton School of Music at USC, a Children’s Choir Festival, and annual graduating recital for conductors at California State University Los Angles.
Artists for the series come from across the United States and several foreign countries each year. The series regularly gets requests from artists who wish to be part of the series. Several artists have rated the acoustics in the church as the best for musical performance in Los Angeles, especially for string instruments.
Tribute Organ Concert
Because Glendale City’s organist, Kemp Smeal, had heart transplant surgery this summer, they needed to find a replacement for his usual November concert. The results have been heartening: Phil Smith, Curator of the organ at Disney Hall; Sal Soria, organist at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral; Kimo Smith from Loma Linda University; Ty Woodward, organist in Santa Monica; and Sean O’Neal from the San Gabriel Valley will present a tribute concert to Kemp on November 14.
Glendale Noon Concerts
Recently, the church also began hosting Glendale Noon Concerts on the first and third Wednesday of each month. The series which is now at GCC has been in the area for the last five years and regularly attracts those in the business community and City Hall offices to a 30-40 minute break in their day during their lunch hour. Various musicians playing strings, woodwinds, and brass instruments bring their skills to this refreshing and invigorating space.
Kaleidoscope Orchestra
During the coming year, GCC will also serve as the venue for the Kaleidoscope Orchestra. This unique orchestra of 40-50 members, now in its second season, performs without a conductor and stands for the entire performance. Kaleidoscope will have their opening performance for the season at Zipper Hall in downtown Los Angeles on October 4. Future performances during the year will be in Glendale and Santa Monica. Michael Kaufman, who will be performing at the CYO benefit on October 18, is one of the co-founders of Kaleidoscope.
