It may not be too late yet to snag a ticket to what’s become one of the social and entertainment events of the season in Malibu this summer. The Concert on the Bluffs this Sunday promises to be a spectacular outdoor evening of music, ballet and local culture to delight all ages. With last year’s premier event sold out, this year city organizers have reserved 100 tickets for latecomers who wish to buy seats at the gate.
The evening will open with a big band jazz ensemble and then continue with the “Concert on the Bluffs Fanfare” written by Malibu local Maria Newman for last year’s inaugural event. This year’s artistic director, Catherine Malcolm Brickman, chair of the Malibu Cultural Arts Commission, hopes the tradition will continue.
“What we tried to do with our concert is have a theme and this year’s theme is to celebrate what is great about America. And what’s really great about this country is its rich cultural heritage,” Brickman said. “So we found a great American piece and American composer—George Gershwin. He wrote probably the most famous American classical composition ever written or performed, ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’ Gershwin said it’s his celebration of the American melting pot. Every piece of music we’ve chosen for the concert is related to ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ or Gershwin.”
Another featured composer, Astor Piazzolla, was heavily influenced by Gershwin. “You’ll hear it in ‘Libertango,’” according to Brickman. “If you’re really listening and feel something sounds familiar, that’s why.” The creative team behind the concert is striving for authenticity and even secured an unusual instrument—a bandoneon—a traditional Argentine accordion-like instrument the piece originally used. “It was important for us to use authentic instruments Piazzolla intended for his piece,” Brickman explained.
Five dancers from the New York City Ballet, including Malibu native Indiana Woodward, will perform on the outdoor stage in exquisite costumes made especially for the event by the owner, founder and designer of Malibu’s Morgane Le Fay store. While Brickman originally had only dreamed of using the store’s ethereal, asymmetrical dresses, a mutual friend connected her with designer Liliana Casabal.
“The next day, I got a call from a woman with a lovely Argentinian accent. I told her, ‘This is a charity. We don’t have big budgets,’ and she agreed to design and make the costumes as her ‘gift to Malibu,’” Brickman said. “These aren’t just dresses from her store. They’re custom-made couture costumes exclusively for the ballet dancers. We are really lucky to get these. It’s a big deal.”
Casabal spoke with The Malibu Times by phone from her studio in New York.
“Of course, I said yes very happily because I love ballet and there’s nothing I love more than ballet costumes,” Casabal said. “The project sounded amazing—ballet outdoors in Malibu is like a dream. From that moment on, I started listening to the music and working on it with great pleasure.
“I really got to understand Gershwin and his amazing masterpiece,” she continued. “As I read about Gershwin and his inspiration for the piece, I loved that it was a creeping train going from New York to Boston and the noise from the train. I loved that. Specifically the music is asymmetric and unexpected and I thought the costumes had to embody that.”
As an Argentinian, Casabal commented on the coincidence that one of her favorite Argentinian composers, Piazzolla, is also on the bill.
“I think ‘Libertango’ is a masterpiece and I’ve never done costumes for it in Argentina—and now I do it in Malibu, which is a great honor,” she said. “Piazzolla was a very unorthodox composer of tango music–very avant-garde, very asymmetric too, very dramatic. ‘Rhapsody’ is an ode to New York and the romanticism of this amazing city, while ‘Libertango’ is more about passion. I feel very blessed to work on it.”
Ravel’s “Bolero” and Alfred Newman’s “Cathy’s Theme” from “Wuthering Heights” are also on the program.
“That one has special meaning because Alfred Newman’s daughter, Maria Newman, who is well known to Malibu people–she’s a composer and violinist–will be playing her father’s piece,” Brickman described. “It’s as though she found a letter written by her dad. Imagine being that little girl who finds a letter from her late father. She’s going to be reading this letter back to him through her violin.”
Newman’s husband, Scott Hosfeld, will once again take the baton as conductor.
The concert will start on time at 5 p.m. Off-site parking with free shuttles is available at Pepperdine and Hughes Research Lab. Gates open at 3 p.m. and guests are encouraged to arrive early to enjoy the park and food trucks. A portion of ticket proceeds will benefit Arts in Education programming for all five Malibu public schools and the Malibu Senior Center.
Editor’s note: Due to an editing error, the version of this story that ran in the Aug. 17 edition of The Malibu Times included an incorrect date for the concert. The concert is set to take place on Sunday, Aug. 20 and the story reflects the corrected information.
