Join us in Memorial Park for the closing celebration of AxS Festival: City as Wunderkammer as we view Sunstar together. Artist Liliane Lijn has programmed a special sequence of colors, or “Sun Songs” that will only be viewable that day from the park.
We will also be joined from 1:00—2:30pm for a free concert by the acclaimed Los Angeles chamber music group wasteLAnd! Bring a blanket, bring your friends and family, and enjoy this very unique artwork shining brightly from the top of the solar observatory at Mt. Wilson!
Sun Day Star is presented in partnership with Fulcrum Arts, the Armory Center for the Arts and Mt. Wilson Institute. Our thanks to Rochelle Branch, the City of Pasadena, and Old Pasadena for their support and guidance.
Memorial Park is just steps away from the Gold Line station, and there are several affordable paid parking lots within walking distance.
Schedule
1:00pm
Lament of Isis on the Death of Osiris by Elizabeth Lutyens
Stephanie Aston, soprano
1:05pm
Having Never Written a Note for Percussion by James Tenney
Dustin Donahue, percussion
1:20pm
Air by Toru Takemitsu
Rachel Beetz, flute
1:30pm
Earth Ears by Pauline Oliveros
Stephanie Aston, voice
Rachel Beetz, flute
Dustin Donahue, percussion
1:45pm—2:30pm
La perfezione di uno spirito sottile by Salvatore Sciarrino
Stephanie Aston, voice
Rachel Beetz, flute
Dustin Donahue, percussion
Location
Memorial Park
85 E. Holly St.
Pasadena, CA 91103
About Sunstar
Sunstar is an art/science work by Liliane Lijn, artist, and John Vallerga, astrophysicist at UC Berkeley Space Science Lab. Sunstar is a large-scale and far reaching daytime installation sited on the historic 150’ Solar Tower on Mount Wilson. Using engineered glass prisms and specially designed code, a spray of diffracted sunlight is projected to specific locations, making the solar spectrum visible just at the meeting point of earth and sky in the form of a sparkling star.
About wasteLAnd
wasteLAnd is a Los Angeles-based concert series featuring avant-garde and experimental music, focusing on local performers and living composers. With an emphasis on recent and under-performed compositions, wasteLAnd is committed to expanding cultural offerings of the LA community and strives to build long-term relationships with contemporary music enthusiasts and newcomers alike. wasteLAnd concerts are an experience of unique curation, dedication, and quality—a welcoming, relaxed atmosphere in which listeners encounter engaging programs and tenacious performances.
About the Musicians
Stephanie Aston is a committed performer of contemporary music. Praised by Steve Schick as “fearless” in her pursuit of repertoire, she has participated in numerous American and world premiers, including Luigi Nono’s Guai ai Gelidi Mostri, Michael Gordon’s What to Wear, and George Aperghis’ Sextuor: L’Origine des espèces. She has appeared on the L.A. Philharmonic Green Umbrella and Chamber Music Series, wasteLAnd, (Re)Sounds at Stanford University, and at REDCAT. Ms. Aston is an original member of the vocal ensemble Kallisti, and a founding member of the ROMP Ensemble and Accordant Commons. She has also performed with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Long Beach Opera, The Industry, Red Fish Blue Fish, the La Jolla Symphony, Gnarwhallaby, Chamber Cartel, 18-squared, and ad-hoc ensembles at Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Norfolk Contemporary Music Festival, UC San Diego, Stanford University, and in Los Angeles. Stephanie is an affiliated artist with San Diego New Music. Noteworthy performances include Brian Ferneyhough’s Etudes Transcendantales, John Zorn’s Rituals, Jason Eckardt’s Tongues, John Adams’ A Flowering Tree (Kumudha), Edgard Varese’ Offrandes, Igor Stravinsky’s Les Noces, and Alberto Ginastera’s Cantata Para America Magica. Ms. Aston holds a D.M.A. from University of California San Diego, an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts, and a B.M. from University of North Texas and currently teaches at Moorpark College.
Rachel Beetz is a Los Angeles based flutist whose playing has been described as both “soulfully elegant” (Washington Post) and evoking the “roar of prehistoric animals” (San Diego Union Tribune). She is passionate about contemporary music and collaboration in making new work and has been invited to play with ensembles who share this mission such as the Callithumpian Consort, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Noise, Palimpsest, red fish blue fish, Southland Ensemble, Third Coast Percussion, and has been featured in festivals across the globe. She is half of both Plus/Minus with percussionist Dustin Donahue and Autoduplicity, a project with cellist Jennifer Bewerse. Rachel also frequently works with composers in the creation of new solo and chamber pieces; she has given premieres by Nicholas Deyoe, Edward Hamel, Kurt Isaacson, Brian Griffeath-Loeb, Celeste Oram, Michael Pisaro, Roger Reynolds, Scott Worthington, and Yiheng Yvonne Wu, to name a few. You can hear her performances on Blue Griffin, IIKKI, Neuma, and Populist record labels. As a composer, she makes sound pieces involving acute realizations of graphic materials. Her sound work has been exhibited in the US, Iceland, Australia, and India. Rachel is the flute instructor at Moorpark College and also at the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) at New England Conservatory. She holds performance degrees from University of California, San Diego (DMA and MA) and Indiana University (BM).
Dustin Donahue is a percussionist based in Los Angeles. As an advocate for contemporary music, Dustin has commissioned and premiered a large body of solo and chamber music by living composers while continuing to perform music of the twentieth-century avant-garde. He frequently performs with the International Contemporary Ensemble and collaborates with many of southern California’s presenters of contemporary music, such as WasteLAnd, the Ojai Music Festival, Monday Evening Concerts, Jacaranda Music, and San Diego New Music. He appears on releases for Mode Records and Populist Records. As a soloist, Dustin has been featured at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Carlsbad Music Festival, the John Cage Centennial Festival in Washington, D.C., and Mengi in Reykjavik, Iceland. He holds a DMA from the University of California – San Diego where he studied with Steven Schick, and a BM from the University of Wisconsin where he studied with Anthony Di Sanza.