The daughter of Oscar-winning composer Alfred Newman and her husband host and perform in chamber orchestra concerts every evening through Saturday; Mary Pickford film among the highlights.
By Michael Aushenker / Special to The Malibu Times
Like many charming California beachside communities, from Laguna Beach to Carmel, Malibu is rife with festivals. What makes Malibu distinctive is the diversity of these communitywide cultural happenings, and none may be as unique as the Sixth Annual Malibu Coast Music Festival, which began Saturday and continues through Saturday, Aug. 27. (All programming begins 7:30 p.m.)
The festival is a dream come true for Scott Hosfeld and Maria Newman, the latter a part of the Newman musical family that includes patriarch Alfred Newman (who won Oscars for scoring movies such as “Camelot” and “The King and I”).
This week’s programming, accompanied by silent films, will include compositions by Schumann, Prokofiev, Schubert, Mozart and Joplin. Wednesday’s program will feature architect Eric Lloyd Wright and Chef Norma Coronado. Saturday’s “Fantastic Festival Finale” closes with conductor Hosfeld leading the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra.
Hosfeld and Newman, who each play viola and violin, began holding concerts at their house, the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture located in the Zuma Beach vicinity, in 2006.
“My wife’s mother bought the property in the 1940s,” Hosfeld explained. “She gave parcels to each of her children and she built a house here…with the idea of having concerts in it.”
Indeed, the Montgomery Arts House is the extension of Martha Montgomery Newman’s dream.
“She had this dream…a place where music and the arts can flourish,” Newman said of her mother.
The silent film screenings will take place in a garden setting that utilizes an indoor/outdoor loft space. Designed by architect Wright (grandson of architect Frank Lloyd Wright), the Montgomery Arts House continues the Wright family tradition of bringing the outside in and incorporating ocean views and surrounding nature with interior spaces meant to accentuate acoustic performances.
“We do almost 40 events in the house, including the festival, each year…,” Hosfeld said. “In the summer, we bring [musicians] in and they actually stay here and rehearse. We’re doing six concerts in eight days [this week].”
Friday night’s program will mark only the second time the restored version of “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” will be screened to live music. The Mary Pickford Foundation commissioned Maria Newman to compose the original score for the 1917 Pickford film.
“Back in 1997, I was approached for the first time by the Mary Pickford Foundation,” Newman recalled. “…They approached me to score ‘Daddy Longlegs’ from 1919. This was going to be a restored version. I found out later my own father, Alfred Newman, scored [a later version of ‘Daddy Longlegs’] with Fred Astaire.
“What they wanted me to do, instead of writing in the style of the times, they wanted chamber music for a small orchestra.”
They commissioned several more from Newman: “The Love Light,” “The Heart O’ the Hills,” “What the Daisy Said” and now “Rebecca.”
“It’s a wonderful, wonderfully made film,” Newman said. “It’s a beautiful restoration and it’s appropriate for all ages. It’s so good, I was sort of intimidated to write for it. You could say it’s a budding romance. It has some fantastic chase scenes, but not in the way of Chaplin or Keaton. This is definitely very character oriented [and] modern in that sense.”
Newman noted that the 90-minute Pickford film has a “fabulous circus scene…It’s brilliant for kids to see.”
Pickford plays several roles, varying in age.
“She is so brilliant, you actually buy that she is 12 years old,” Newman said. In these complicated times of depressing world affairs, she added, “This [movie] is a breath of fresh air.”
The composer said that in creating music for this 94-year-old movie, “the biggest challenge was to stay out of the movie enough to let those hilarious lines [on title cards] speak for themselves.”
While this is a public festival, the organizers keep the proceedings low-key.
“We do it by invitation through our mailing list,” Hosfeld said. “We don’t exclude anybody. There’s no charge, we do it by donation.”
The purposely small-scale festival expects about 60 to 80 people a night.
“We’re trying to create a special atmosphere that’s a little different from a concert hall,” Hosfeld said. “It’s more like being a guest at someone’s home.”
Newman knows the importance that environment and surroundings play when intermingled with musical performance. She grew up in Rustic Canyon in a home created by Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. that has since been bought and restored by actress Diane Keaton.
“There’s nothing like the intimacy of performing music up close,” Newman said. “…You create an amazing symbiosis between artist and performer.”
More information can be obtained by visiting malibufriendsofmusic.org