What do you get when you have a room full of lawyers, judges, legal staff and law students? The surprising answer: an orchestra, chorus and big band.
Malibu resident and practicing lawyer of almost 40 years Gary S. Greene formed the Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic on Jan. 19, 2009, and two weeks later, the 30-member group completed its first performance.
Since then, the group has expanded to 75 members, and now shares the stage with a chorus and Gary Greene, Esq. and His Big Band of Barristers. The chorus, Legal Voices, had its first rehearsal on April 30, 2011 and features more than 100 voices.
Greene founded all three groups, who often collaborate on stage during performances. They perform for “all ages” and “all types of music,” ranging from the classics to Broadway hits.
Greene, who was raised in a family of musicians, was inspired to create the group after speaking to a supreme court judge who happened to play the trumpet.
“We reached out to the Bar Association and the legal newspapers and within in a matter of a few days, I had more than 100 responses,” Greene shared. “That was surprising of itself, but what was really surprising was they weren’t just people who played in high school … but most people went to music conservatories.”
Every person involved in the L.A. Lawyers Philharmonic, proclaimed by the City of Los Angeles as “L.A.’s only legal orchestra,” has some kind of tie to law, but many participants also have formal musical training, including students who have studied at Juilliard, USC, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and more.
“I asked them, as a professional musician, ‘What brought you into law?’” Green explained. “They all had the same answer — ‘well yes, we went through all the training, it’s our passion, but we have to make a living’ so they went to law school.”
Greene, who still practices law, shared that he is relieved to have music to turn to after a long day at work. “It gave me the appropriate time off from the strenuous practice of law that I needed,” he said. “It was a relief to finish a day’s work and play in an orchestra.”
And now, Greene finds the delicate balance between work and play, although he considers music a second career.
“Most lawyers work these long hours and I do, too, but then again, for whatever reason, I’m very fortunate that I don’t need many hours of sleep,” Greene explained. “After a full day of work, I can then turn to my music. I try to get to bed at two or three in the morning and get up at 7:30 or 8 and I’m off and going again.”
Greene explained that he has been a musician almost all of his life. His uncle, Ernst Katz, formed the Junior Philharmonic Orchestra, a program that dates back to the 1930s. Katz trained thousands of musicians, including Greene, who played violin and served as concertmaster for “many, many years.”
His uncle is also one of the reasons he lives in Malibu.
“My grandparents and uncle purchased a lot in Carbon Beach in 1954,” Greene said. “I grew up as a kid right here in the sand … Getting up early, catching fish and having lunch out of that, and spending the entire day in the ocean. I would spend every day in the ocean and that’s where I learned about Malibu.”
Greene and his musical groups now perform three to four times per year. Their most recent performance was a sellout at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday, June 13 — their sixth annual Concert Extraordinaire.
The show opened with “Jupiter” from “The Planets” by Gustav Holst and closed with “Age of Aquarius” and “Let the Sunshine In” from the Broadway musical “Hair.” Part of the program was bestowing the first-ever June Lockhart Humanitarian Award to Lockheart herself.
Greene said the show went “extremely well” and “even though it was a huge audience, they were very warm and very much involved with the program,” giving Greene and his groups several standing ovations.
Twenty-five percent of net ticket proceeds from the evening will benefit the L.A. County Bar Counsel for Justice and the Beverly Hills Bar Foundation to provide legal services to those who cannot afford them. Throughout their 40-plus performances, proceeds have also benefited the American Diabetes Association, Hollywood Remembers World AIDS Day and Magen David Adom and Ascensia, which raises funds for the homeless.
Wrapping up Saturday’s successful show, Greene is already busy preparing for two upcoming concerts with the Big Band in the next couple of weeks. On top of that, Greene and the orchestra gather at Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert’s Pacific Palisadian home to practice each Monday. There are also members who commute in for performances, including from San Diego and Sacramento.
But each member seems grateful for the group and to have a place to relax after a stressful day.
“People come up to me and say ‘thank you, I really needed this after the day I had in court,’” Greene said. “That’s why I put it together.”
