The Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra (SMS), now in its 77th season, presented the fifth concert of its 2021-2022 performance calendar. Guest director Dr. Brian Stone led this uniquely themed March 27, spring concert, which began with the audience standing in ovation as he led the SMS in a performance of the “State Anthem of Ukraine,” as a show of support for the Ukrainian people .
The SMS performed for a nearly sold-out crowd at the newly built John Adams Middle School Performing Arts Center. This dynamic arts venue is the result of a collaboration between Santa Monica Malibu School District and Santa Monica College (SMC) and is located at 1630 Pearl St., in Santa Monica. It will be used for rehearsals and performances by both entities.
SMS recently suffered the tragic loss of his beloved music director and conductor of nine years, Maestro Guido Lamell. Lamell, a Santa Monica resident and violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra for over 40 years, unexpectedly died of a heart attack in July 2021. The SMS has performed three in-person concerts since Lamell’s death, each lead by a different guest conductor.
The March 27 concert carried a special significance, as the guest conductor was Santa Monica’s own Dr Brian Stone. Stone said, “I came back to my hometown, to the location of childhood mentors, to conduct music by a cycle of three successive generations of nineteenth century Middle-European masters, with the Santa Monica Symphony. Music depends on generational cycles of mentorship to flourish and progress, and Santa Monica’s tremendous tradition of music education has demonstrated this time and again.”
SMS manager Alex Novakovich, referred to Stone as more than just a musician or conductor, “he is a musicologist” Novakovich said. She explained that SMS’s former conductor Lamell, before his death, had already put together a music program for his next concert. His choices included “Brahms: Symphony No. 2”.
Stone, when creating the SMS’s Spring 2022 concert program, kept the “Brahms: Symphony No. 2” piece and added two additional pieces by composers known to have impactful mentor/mentee relationships with Brahms. Stone’s grouping of these three composers created a concert theme that highlighted the significance of generational cycles of mentorship, which Stone holds as core value. A value also exemplified in the full-circle progression of Stone returning to conduct in the community where he began as a student and now has returned as a leader inspired to impact the next cycle of musicians.
Before conducting the concert pieces, Stone stepped down from the podium and spoke conversationally to the audience, explaining in delightful detail, the relationship between the three influential composers whose pieces were about to be performed. Each one built relationships with, and mentored the next in line, effectively creating ongoing cycles of musical expansion and impact. Composer Robert Schumann (“Cello Concerto”) was mentor to Johannes Brahms (“Symphony No. 2”), and Brahms went on to mentor Antonín Dvořák (“Carnival Overture”).
The concert featured Santa Monica resident, international cello soloist and UCLA music professor, Antonio Lysy, performing Schumann’s Cello Concerto.
Stone is an accomplished musician, conductor and musical director, raised in Santa Monica, educated through Santa Monica school music programs, and mentored by some of Santa Monica’s most iconic music educators. Stone has a reputation for excellence, and a unique ability to inspire other musicians to the same.
As Music Director and Conductor of the SMC Symphony Orchestra program from 2017 to 2019, his leadership style and expertise attracted professional musicians, SMC students and Santa Monica High School students to join the ensemble. This dynamic created an exceptional orchestra program that aligned with Stone’s vision of a mentoring environment. Stone said, “Santa Monica is a place where music and musicians begin and continue!”
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