Sam Kim

Photo by cgkinla via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr For those of you with a bad memory, we are here to remind you that it's Valentine's Day coming up this Saturday! To make it look like you made your plans months in advance, what better way to show them than by getting two tickets to a romantic show? Here are a few concerts this week that might pique your interest. The LA...

Leon Fleisher is a world renown pianist and conductor who has left a lasting impact on pianists in the 20th century. Many of his students are now world famous soloists and teachers, including Jonathan Biss, Yefim Bronfman, Helene Grimaud, and Andre Watts. He lost feeling in his right hand due to focal dystonia, and continued his career by performing left-hand piano music (yes, there is such a thing) and teaching at Peabody and Curtis....

The musician often aims to imitate the accents and nuances of the human voice, and the instrument that has best reflected that voice for the last 500 years has been the violin (although some would argue for the cello, which is not so "nasal-y"). The Bach violin sonatas and partitas have often been considered benchmark works for the violin player, and the Chaconne is probably the most popular movement out of all six. Here...

Photo by Peter Gene via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr This week has us feeling all red, white, and blue (and not from the cold) with all the concerts in store for us. It starts on Monday with XTET at Zipper Hall, where they will be performing a viola piece (we will refrain from throwing in a viola joke here, but feel free to add one in the comments section if you’d...

Solo cellists seem to be a rare specimen in Los Angeles these days, and for the classical pick of this week we have not one but two fantastic cellists headlining concerts. The DaCamera Society hosts Peter Stump, the principal cellist of the LA Phil, in a concert featuring music of the 20th century. Works on schedule include the masterpiece solo sonata by Zoltan Kodaly, and works of Ligeti and Lutoslawski. Tickets are a little...

You haven't done your Christmas shopping yet. You just had finals, you were trying to finish a project before Christmas, or you found out one of your friends got you a gift that you totally forgot to get a gift for! Oh no! If you take a look at our many gift guides and can't find them at a store near you, hopefully you can find them online without spending a fortune on it as...

On December 22nd, 1808, Beethoven held a concert in Vienna, premiering three works. You might have heard of all of them; the concert featured the Fifth and Sixth symphonies, along with his Piano Concerto No. 4. To celebrate, here is the first movement of the fifth symphony, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. LAist covered most of the Christmas related events here, and if you're looking for any classical music related gifts, you can check this...

LAist was on hand to check out last week's opening ceremony for the new and improved Conga Room, which was once considered the "premier Latin music nightclub" by the LA Times. It's picked up some steam since moving from West Hollywood to downtown's LA Live; Will.I.Am, Jennifer Lopez, Sheila E., Jimmy Smits, Amaury Nolasco, Baron Davis, and Trevor Ariza are co-owners for what promises to become a cornerstone establishment establishment of LA Live. The venue...

This EXTENSIVE gift guide is not a reflection of any particular taste or preference; it is a gift guide for classical music lovers/enthusiasts of all shapes and sizes. Like always, it is recommended to support your local establishments and artists, especially in a city like Los Angeles that is rich in talent and culture. If you're looking to buy tickets as a gift, it is recommended to buy tickets for two people, because no...

With Christmas rapidly approaching, we are taking this opportunity to inform you about ALL of the upcoming holiday concerts. Although you'll be hard-pressed to find any high quality freebies these days, you can always count on some free concerts to keep your family/date entertained for a few hours. All the free concerts are listed in bold. We will list them in chronological order, after a few updates. If there is an event you feel...