Tianyi Lu Leads Pacific Symphony in a Singing Account of Sibelius
REVIEW: The young conductor from New Zealand makes a big impression in the composer’s Second Symphony, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. It’s been a season of speed dating for...
May 17, 2024
Classical Music is Booming. Theater? Not So Much.
We look at what ails theater, still struggling to recover four years after the pandemic. The dark days of the pandemic are several years behind us now, but the performing...
May 10, 2024
The City of Irvine and Orange County Music & Dance Celebrate Groundbreaking of New Performing Arts Complex
The sun shone as brightly as the pristine golden shovels Tuesday afternoon at the groundbreaking for two new cultural facilities in Irvine’s Great Park. Last month the city of Irvine...
May 8, 2024
A Former Percussionist Sings the Praises of Pacific Chorale
Pacific Chorale’s new leader made a mid-career switch from instrumental to vocal music with no regrets. Rhett M. Del Campo, the new president and CEO of Pacific Chorale, was a...
May 1, 2024
Víkingur Ólafsson’s Extraordinary Goldberg Year
The Icelandic pianist has devoted 88 concerts to Bach’s keyboard masterpiece, and nothing else. Most concert pianists in the midst of their careers follow a familiar path: performing the warhorse...
April 29, 2024
Shiyeon Sung Leads Pacific Symphony in Impressive Performance of Tchaikovsky
REVIEW: The Korean conductor, the first woman to try out for the orchestra’s music directorship, exhibits authority and intelligence. Shiyeon Sung became the first woman conductor this season to try...
April 26, 2024
Great Park Arts Campus is Finally Taking Shape
After years of planning and negotiations, the Cultural Terrace is a step closer to reality. The city of Irvine has greenlighted construction for two tenants of the Great Park’s dedicated...
April 12, 2024
Ukulele Against the Machine
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performs Saturday, April 13 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Consider the ukulele. It’s not exactly the Rodney Dangerfield of instruments. That’s the accordion, obviously....
April 10, 2024
St.Clair and Pacific Symphony Find the Heart of ‘La Bohème’
REVIEW: The annual semi-staged opera features a talented young cast in Puccini’s masterpiece. “Is anything in the world more poignant than youth and love and tuberculosis?,” Virgil Thomson once wrote...
April 5, 2024
Pacific Chorale Names Rhett M. Del Campo President and CEO
The following is a press release from an organization unaffiliated with Culture OC. The information provided has been written by the submitting organization and not by the writers at Culture OC. We include...
March 27, 2024
Pacific Symphony in Transition, Part 3: Finding a New Conductor for Changing Times
PREVIOUSLY Pacific Symphony in Transition, Part 1: An Ambitious Young Orchestra Survives Some Growing Pains Pacific Symphony in Transition, Part 2: Growth, Turmoil, Tragedy and Triumph Pacific Symphony is looking...
March 27, 2024
Prieto and Pacific Take the Fifth (Mahler’s, That Is)
REVIEW: In an impressive reading of the composer’s symphony, Carlos Miguel Prieto makes his case for the orchestra’s directorship. We’ve had a number of Fifths this season at the Pacific...
March 15, 2024
