Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents returning artists Takács Quartet for one night only in the Samueli Theater on January 27, 2023 at 7:30pm.

Entering their 48th season of performing, longtime audience favorite Takács Quartet is returning to Samueli Theater as part of this season’s Chamber Music Series.

The program will include Britten: String Quartet No. 1, Bartok: String Quartet No. 6, Dvorak: String Quartet in G Major, Op. 106.

The quartet—Edward Dusinberre, violin; Harumi Rhodes, violin; Richard O’Neill, viola; and Andras Fejer, cello—is renowned for the vitality of its interpretations. This premier chamber music ensemble won their 4th Gramophone Classical Music Award for Chamber Music in 2021 and continues to produce incredible recordings of chamber music. Takács Quartet is the first-string quartet to be inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame and this one-night-only concert is not to be missed.

This performance includes a pre-show talk with musicologist Dr. Byron Adams and will make for a perfect night of classical music. The pre-show performance will begin at 6:45 p.m.

The title of the performance, Musical Voyages, comes from Edward Dusinberre’s new book Distant Melodies: Music in Search of Home. The pieces on the program were written by composers during periods of their lives shaped by departures and homecomings, themes explored in Dusinberre’s book.

About Edward Dusinberre

As first violinist of the Takács Quartet, Edward Dusinberre has won a Grammy and awards from Gramophone Magazine, the Japanese Recording Academy, Chamber Music America, and the Royal Philharmonic Society. Outside of the quartet he has made a recording of Beethoven’s violin sonatas nos. 9 (Kreutzer) and 10 on the Decca label. Dusinberre is also an author. His second book Distant Melodies: Music in Search of Home is published by Faber and University of Chicago Press in the Fall of 2022. The book explores the themes of displacement and return in the lives and specific chamber works of Dvorák, Elgar, Bartók and Britten. His first book Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet, takes the reader inside the life of a string quartet, melding music history and memoir as it explores the circumstances surrounding the composition of Beethoven’s quartets and the Takács Quartet’s experiences rehearsing and performing this music. The book won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s 2016 Creative Communication Award. Announcing the award, the RPS Committee said: “Few have told so well of the musician’s life or offered such illuminating insights to players and listeners alike.” Dusinberre lives in Boulder, where he is Artist-in-Residence and a Christoffersen Fellow at the University of Colorado. In 2017 he was appointed a member of the faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and is a Visiting Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

About Harumi Rhodes

Acclaimed by the New York Times as a “deeply expressive violinist,” Harumi Rhodes has gained broad recognition as a multifaceted musician with a distinctive and sincere musical voice. Her generosity of spirit on stage is contagious, making her one of the most sought-after violinists of her generation. Recent solo engagements include performances of Bernstein Serenade, Beethoven Violin Concerto, Mozart Violin Concerto No 5, and Vivaldi Four Seasons with the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra. In addition to being a founding member of the Naumburg Award winning ensemble, Trio Cavatina, she has performed regularly with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Musicians from Marlboro. An avid supporter of contemporary music, she has been actively involved in commissioning and premiering new works as an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, East Coast Chamber Orchestra(ECCO), and Music from Copland House. Recent discography includes Milton Babbitt’s String Quartet No. 6 (Tzadik); The Five Borough Songbook, including 20 different composers and commissions (GPR Records); Compadrazgo, a compilation of chamber works by Gabriela Lena Frank (Albany Records); Secret Alchemy, with ensemble works by Pierre Jalbert (Copland House Blend); and Clean Plates Don’t Lie, featuring new vocal chamber music works with texts from Chef Dan Barber and the sustainable food movement (Centaur). Rhodes has served as Head of Strings and Chamber Music at Syracuse University, Assistant Violin Faculty at the Juilliard School, and most recently as Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

About Richard O’Neill

Newly appointed violist of the Takács Quartet, Richard O’Neill has distinguished himself as one of the great instrumentalists of his generation.

An EMMY Award winner, two-time GRAMMY nominee and Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, he has appeared as soloist with the world’s top orchestras including the London, Los Angeles, Seoul Philharmonics, the BBC, Hiroshima, Korean Symphonies, the Kremerata Baltica, Moscow, Vienna and Wurtemburg Chamber Orchestras, Alte Musik Koln, and has worked with distinguished musicians and conductors including Andrew Davis, Vladimir Jurowski, Francois Xavier Roth, and Yannick Nezet-Seguin. An Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Principal Violist of Camerata Pacifica, for thirteen seasons he served as Artistic Director of DITTO, his South Korean chamber music project, leading the ensemble on international tours to China and Japan and introducing tens of thousands to music.

A Universal Music/Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, he has made 10 solo albums and many other chamber music recordings, earning multiple platinum discs. Composers Lera Auerbach, Elliott Carter, Paul Chihara, John Harbison, and Huang Ruo have written works for him. He has appeared on major TV networks in South Korea and enjoyed huge success with his 2004 KBS documentary ‘Human Theater’ which was viewed by over 12 million people, and his 2013 series ‘Hello?! Orchestra’ which featured his work with a multicultural youth orchestra for MBC and led to an International Emmy in Arts Programming and a feature length film.

He serves as Goodwill Ambassador for the Korean Red Cross, The Special Olympics, UNICEF, and OXFAM and serves on the faculty of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

About András Fejér

András Fejér(cello) was born in 1955 into a musical family. His father was a cellist and conductor, and his mother was a pianist. He began playing the cello at the age of seven, because as legend has it, his father was unwilling to listen to a violin-upstart practicing. Since an early age, his parents have held string quartet weekends, which, for the young cellist were the most memorable of occasions, if not for the music, then for the glorious desserts his mother used to prepare for those sessions.

After attending a music high school, Mr. Fejér was admitted to the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in 1975, where he was a pupil of Ede Banda, András Mihály, Ferenc Rados and György Kurtág. That same year he founded the Takács String Quartet with three fellow classmates. Although the quartet has been his sole professional focus since then, he does perform as a soloist occasionally as well.

Mr. Fejér is married to a literature teacher. They have three children and live in the Rocky Mountains where they enjoy year-round sunshine in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. When he is not on tour he enjoys reading, photography, tennis, and hiking.

Tickets start at $29 and are available at online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 10 or more, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236.

The Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents for one night only, Pink Martini, on Thursday, January 12 at Segerstrom Hall. Tickets are now on sale at scfta.org. Featuring a dozen musicians, with songs in 25 languages, genre-defying Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages on six continents since its founding almost 30 years ago.

A Continental favorite, the globe-trotting “little orchestra” from Portland, Oregon featuring lead singer China Forbes, comes to Segerstrom Hall.

In 1994 in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Thomas Lauderdale was working in politics, with the intention of eventually running for office. Like other eager politicians-in-training, he went to every political fundraiser under the sun… but was dismayed to find the music at these events underwhelming, lackluster, loud and un-neighborly.

Drawing inspiration from music from all over the world – crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop – and hoping to appeal to conservatives and liberals alike, he founded the “little orchestra” Pink Martini in 1994 provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for political fundraisers for causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, cleaning up the Willamette River, funding for libraries, public broadcasting, education and parks.

One year later, Lauderdale called China Forbes, a Harvard classmate who was living in New York City, and asked her to join Pink Martini. They began to write songs together. Their first song – “Sympathique” (Je ne veus pas travailler)- became an overnight sensation in France, was nominated for “Song of the Year” at France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards, and to this day remains a mantra (“Je ne veux pas travailler” or “I don’t want to work”) for striking French workers.

Says Lauderdale, “We’re very much an American band, but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America… the America which remains the most heterogeneously populated country in the world… composed of people of every country, every language, every religion. Except for Native Americans, all of us are immigrants from every country, of every language, of every religion.”

Featuring a dozen musicians with songs in 25 languages, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America and North America. Pink Martini made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998 under the direction of Norman Leyden.

Since then, the band has gone on to play with more than 70 orchestras around the world, including multiple engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House, and the BBC Concert Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London.

Television appearances include The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Later, with Jools Holland, and a feature on CBS Sunday Morning. The band created a nationally broadcast 2015 NPR holiday concert special, Joy to the World: A Holiday Spectacular, and has been featured on multiple New Year’s Eve broadcasts on NPR’s Toast of the Nation.

Pink Martini has sold over 3 million albums worldwide on their own independent label Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog). The band’s debut album Sympathique was released in 1997, and quickly became an international phenomenon, garnering the group nominations for “Song of the Year” and “Best New Artist” in France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards in 2000. Pink Martini released Hang On Little Tomato in 2004, Hey Eugene! in 2007 and Splendor In The Grass in 2009.

In November 2010 the band released Joy To The World—a festive, multi-denominational holiday album featuring songs from around the globe. Joy To The World received glowing reviews and was carried in Starbucks stores during the 2010 and 2011 holiday seasons. All five albums have gone gold in France, Canada, Greece and Turkey.

In Fall 2011 the band released two albums – A Retrospective, a collection of the band’s most beloved songs spanning their 18-year career, which includes eight previously unreleased tracks, and 1969, an album of collaborations with legendary Japanese singer Saori Yuki. 1969 has been certified platinum in Japan, reaching #2 on the Japanese charts, with the Japan Times raving “the love and respect Saori Yuki and Pink Martini have for the pop tradition shines through on every track.”  The release of 1969 marked the first time a Japanese artist hit the American Billboard charts since Kyu Sakamoto released “Sukiyaki” in 1963.

The band has collaborated with numerous artists, including Phyllis Diller, Jimmy Scott, Carol Channing, Rita Moreno, Jane Powell, Rufus Wainwright, Japanese legends Saori Yuki and Hiroshi Wada, Henri Salvador, Chavela Vargas, New York performer Joey Arias, puppeteer Basil Twist, Georges Moustaki, Michael Feinstein, Charo, Doc Severinsen, filmmaker Gus Van Sant, Courtney Taylor Taylor of The Dandy Warhols, clarinetist and conductor Norman Leyden, Italian actress and songwriter Alba Clemente, DJ Johnny Dynell and Chi Chi Valenti, Faith Prince, Mamie Van Doren, the original cast of Sesame Street, the Portland Youth Philharmonic, Mariachi Aztlan of Pueblo High School in Tucson, Arizona; the Jefferson High School Gospel Choir; the Royal Blues of Grant High School; the Pacific Youth Choir of Portland, Oregon; and Karen Early (who played sleigh bells and crash cymbals on the band’s holiday album and the band’s collaborative album with Japanese singer Saori Yuki, respectively).

In January 2012 bandleader Thomas Lauderdale began work on Pink Martini’s seventh studio album when he recorded the Charlie Chaplin song “Smile” with the legendary Phyllis Diller. The album, titled Get Happy, was released in September 2013 and features 16 globe-spanning songs in nine languages. The band’s beloved vocalist China Forbes anchors the recording, and she was joined by her co-lead singer Storm Large, recording with Pink Martini for the first time, along with a cavalcade of special guests including Rufus Wainwright, Philippe Katerine, Meow Meow, The von Trapps & Ari Shapiro.

And while still in the studio for Get Happy, Lauderdale simultaneously began work on the band’s eighth studio album, Dream a Little Dream, featuring Sofia, Melanie, Amanda and August von Trapp, the actual great-grandchildren of Captain and Maria von Trapp, made famous by the movie The Sound of Music. These siblings have been singing together for over a dozen years and have toured all over the world in concert. Drawn into the magical orbit of Thomas Lauderdale, they now live together in a house in Portland, Oregon and have been frequent guest performers with Pink Martini for the past several years.

The album, released in March 2014, traverses the world, from Sweden to Rwanda to China to Bavaria, and features guest appearances by The Chieftains, Wayne Newton, “Jungle” Jack Hanna, and Charmian Carr (who played Liesl in the original Sound of Music).

In 2016, Pink Martini released its ninth studio album, Je dis oui!, which features vocals from China Forbes, Storm Large, Ari Shapiro, fashion guru Ikram Goldman, civil rights activist Kathleen Saadat, and Rufus Wainwright. The album’s 15 tracks span eight languages (French, Farsi, Armenian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Xhosa and English), and affirms the band’s 23-year history of global inclusivity and collaborative spirit. In 2018, Pink Martini released a special 20th Anniversary Edition of its first album Sympathique, featuring the band’s iconic arrangement of Ravel’s “Bolero”, now in the public domain and finally reinstated on the album after a 20-year absence. In 2019, Thomas Lauderdale and members of Pink Martini collaborated on a new release with the international singing sensation Meow Meow. This album, Hotel Amour, features guest appearances by Rufus Wainwright, The von Trapps, Barry Humphries (of Dame Edna fame), and the inimitable late French pianist and composer, Michel Legrand.

Also in 2019, Pink Martini released two 5-song EPs, each featuring a special guest singer who has been regularly touring with the band since late 2017. Bésame Mucho, with Edna Vazquez singing, features her original powerhouse “Sola Soy” alongside classic Spanish repertoire, like the title track, and “Quizás, quizás, quizás.” Tomorrow features vocalist Jimmie Herrod on a soaring version of the title track (famous from the musical Annie) alongside other repertoire, including the single “Exodus” which has been bringing audiences to their feet at Pink Martini concerts. Both albums feature Pink Martini musicians, and arrangements by bandleader Thomas Lauderdale. Both Edna Vazquez and Jimmie Herrod are currently touring with Pink Martini and will be performing at the Segerstrom.

Single tickets for Pink Martini at Segerstrom Center for the Arts start at $37 and are now available online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 10 or more, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236.

Almost like a voice from an earlier age, Oscar-nominated actress Mary Badham has returned to the limelight with a message for anyone willing to listen.

In the early 1960s, 10-year-old Badham played the role of Scout, the daughter of Atticus Finch (played by Gregory Peck) in the classic film production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Sixty years on, Badham said she accepted the role of Mrs. Dubose in the current stage production of Mockingbird because, like the story itself, she still has something to say. The stage play opened at the Segerstrom Center for the arts Dec. 27 and runs through Jan. 8.

When the movie premiered back in the 1960s, the nation was struggling with civil rights and inequality.

Set in Alabama in 1934, Harper Lee’s enduring story of racial injustice and childhood innocence centers on one of the most venerated characters in American literature, small-town lawyer Atticus Finch.

For Badham, six decades later, things haven’t changed, at least not enough. So, for one of the few living cast members of the original film, she’s not going to miss a chance to speak out.

“We’ve had some change,” she says, “but not enough. We are still fighting the same battles. The legal issues and the bigotry haven’t gone anywhere; they’ve just changed their clothes,” Badham said in an interview.

Make no mistake, she says, “there is prejudice, racism, and bigotry anywhere you go in the world. Here in the United States, we’re still dealing with the black/white issue and people of color.”

Badham thinks the Aaron Sorkin version of the play is fantastic but says the story itself is powerful enough in its own right to pause and take note.

The current tour of Mockingbird, she thinks, comes at a good time following the two-year pandemic.

“We’ve had a real wake-up call in this country. We are at the crossroads of figuring out what we want and I just hope we make the right decision…and that we don’t lose our democracy.”

In addition to racism, Badham thinks the story also speaks strongly to parenting.

“How many children do we have in this country that need real parents?” she asks. “Anybody can have children,” she says, “but it’s something else to be a parent. You have to work at that.”

Playing the child of Atticus Finch in the movie, Badham said she became a lifelong friend of actor Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Finch in the movie.

“He was so wonderful,” said Badham of Peck. With Peck, she said, “what you saw is what you got. He was a great believer in doing the right and being morally grounded.” The actress said she remained friends with Peck until his death and remains close to Peck’s children.

She refuses to make comparisons between Peck’s role as Finch in the movie and Richard (John-boy) Thomas as Finch in the Sorkin-inspired tour version of Mockingbird.

“Through the years, I’ve seen a lot of [Mockingbird] plays and it depends on what each individual brings to the role,” says Badham. “Richard Thomas is doing a brilliant, brilliant job,” she notes. Also, “he would have been one of my first choices for Atticus.”

“He’s so believable in the role and it is very close to who he is as a man, as it was with Gregory.”

The cast of characters includes Atticus’s daughter Scout, her brother Jem, their housekeeper and caretaker, Calpurnia, their visiting friend Dill, and a mysterious neighbor, the reclusive Arthur “Boo” Radley. The other indelible residents of Maycomb, Alabama, are the Finch’s neighbor, Mrs. Dubose, Bob Ewell, Tom Robinson, prosecutor Horace Gilmer, Judge Taylor and Mayella Ewell.

According to historian Joseph Crespino, “in the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its main character, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism.

Starring in the critically acclaimed production are Emmy Award®-winning actor Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch, Melanie Moore as Scout Finch, Jacqueline Williams as Calpurnia, Justin Mark as Jem Finch, Yaegel T. Welch as Tom Robinson and Steven Lee Johnson as Dill Harris. It was designed by Miriam Buether, with costumes by Ann Roth, lighting by Jennifer Tipton, sound by Scott Lehrer and an original score by Adam Guettel. Musical direction is by Kimberly Grigsby, hair & wig design by Campbell Young Associates, casting by The Telsey Office, and design adaptation and supervision by Edward Pierce. The national tour is produced by Barry Diller.

The current play opened at Segerstrom Dec. 27 to cheers and applause, she said.

“People were standing up and cheering,” she says rather happily, surprised. “He [Thomas] gets applause,” says Badham. Though the play deals with serious subject matters, she said it is funny too.

And, says Badham, “it’s okay to laugh,” as if letting the audience know the play wants to make people think about the serious issues, but also audience members should know it is okay to enjoy the humor. “Please feel free to laugh,” the actress said.

Moreover, she said the storyline of Mockingbird is as relevant today, perhaps more so, as when it was published in 1960.

“It resonates today just as strongly today as it has ever been because the main issues haven’t gone away,” the actress says.

“The racial issue, especially in the past five or six years, haven’t gone away. If anything,” said Badham, “it’s still sitting there, and if you walk into any high school today, you’re going to hear it, and you’re going to feel it.”

“Ignorance,” says Badham, “is the root of all evil,” and “education,” she adds, “is the key to freedom.”

“I think it [Mockingbird] has helped a lot in educating people in these things and it makes people think about what they really want as a country. That is the reason I accepted this role,” says Badham, “because I believe there are still lessons to be learned.”

To see Badham, Thomas and the award-winning cast in “To Kill A Mockingbird,” inspired by the timeless novel of the same name by Harper Lee, tickets are available online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, or by calling (714) 556-2787; for inquiries about group ticket discounts for 10 or more, call the Group Services offices at (714) 755-0236.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD holds the record as the highest-grossing American play in Broadway history. It began performances on November 1, 2018, at the Shubert Theatre and played to sold-out houses until the Broadway shutdown in March 2020.

On February 26, 2020, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD became the first-ever Broadway play to perform at New York’s Madison Square Garden, in front of approximately 18,000 New York City public school students, also marking the largest attendance at a single performance