Ballet and concert performances showcase local talent at Malibu estate home.
By Dena Feingold / Special to The Malibu Times
Situated and built into the hillside of the Santa Monica Mountains with sweeping ocean views, exists an estate home where visitors can enjoy live musical and dance performances, create friendships, build community relationships and indulge in wine and dinner- all for free.
The Malibu Coast String Quartet and the newly created Malibu Coast Chamber Ballet will be presenting their first ever collaboration on May 15, 16 and 18 at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture. The venue is a private residence owned by musicians Maria Newman, daughter of nine-time Academy Award-winning composer and conductor Alfred Newman, and Scott Hosfeld.
“Our home was specifically designed around the performance of intimate chamber music and other types of art making,” Newman said. “We really want to make the community feel as welcome as we could and we want to invite them to our home as guests, listen to music and speakers, and talk about architecture.”
Beginning at 7 p.m., the first portion of the presentation will feature the string quartet performing French composer’s Gabriel Faure’s “Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor,” and will feature Newman and Hosfeld on violins, Eric Kutz on cello and Miko Kominami on piano.
“The first half of the program is pure, absolute music,” Newman said.
The second half will feature the chamber ballet performing dance scenes from Oscar Wilde’s “The Birthday of the Infanta,” with the music written by Newman and performed by the string quartet.
“This will be the first time it has been put to dance,” Newman said. “In a normal ballet setting a conductor can see the cues from the dancers, but in this case we are all going to be on the same level-the dancers and musicians will be cueing each other.”
Directed and choreographed by Malibu native Adrianna Fiori, the story is about a young princess who thinks only of herself, and a dwarf who is captured in the forest and is brought to the princess’ birthday party to perform for her.
“It’s been an amazing process working and making the music come alive through dance,” Fiori said. “I have had to base all of my choreography on the story line-there has to be character development that has to happen to get the story through.”
The tragic ballet performance features Malibu prima ballerinas Dasha Jensen, Skylar Cozen, Chelsea Cozen, Sarah Jayne Simon and Allegra Bell. “We have some of the most amazing talent in Malibu,” Newman said. “Dasha is truly, truly brilliant.”
In an effort to create an intimate environment, guests are limited to about 50 people, with the goal of the audience to experience the performances as though they are living inside the music and dance. “We are doing an old-fashioned interactive type of ballet,” Newman said. “The chamber ballet is small and is meant to be performed in a small setting. We are not separated from the audience by a stage and the audience is as close as possible.”
Commissioned by Newman and Hosfeld, the Montgomery Arts House was designed by architect Eric Lloyd Wright, grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright. Named after Newman’s mother Martha Montgomery, the home features a great room and music room where the performances are held.
“We designed the living room as a series of overlapping low roofs going up vertically with a clear story of the windows between the roofs,” Wright said. “With those stepped roof levels going up, it helps take out the reverberation of the sound from musical instruments and it gives a much more warm, resonant sound.”
Designed organically, the home works with nature and the environment. “We tried for an open space where the different rooms flow together, rather than have a series of boxes,” Wright said.
Started by Newman and Hosfeld, the Malibu Chamer String Quartet is a project that they have enjoyed very much and found to be rewarding. “It is such a pleasure to able to play with other wonderful people that we are able to bring in,” Newman said. “We love to support and sponsor the arts and we just like to do our part for the community.”
The ballet and concert takes place at 6307 Busch Dr. A light supper will be served at 6:30 p.m. with performances beginning at 7 p.m. More information, including reservations and directions, can be obtained online at www.montgomeryartshouse.org or by calling 310.589.0295.