Age Is Just A Number

What a night! Every so often there is an evening that can only be described as exquisite. That occurred Thursday, October 5, at Disney Hall at the LA Philharmonic’s gala for the launch of their new season, an evening honoring the 94-year-old and very much active Frank Gehry.

The evening was special in so many ways: It has been 20 years since the opening of the Gehry designed Walt Disney Hall, and next year Gustavo Dudamel who led the LA Phil to excellence, not only making it the first choice for new music in the US, but also in fostering innovative music education programs and performances throughout LA.

The evening’s program was also well-chosen and meaningful. In tribute to Gehry, the evening was chosen to reflect both the theme of fish and water, which has often been a source of inspiration for Gehry’s work (When I interviewed Gehry several years ago he explained that at one point during his childhood, he lived with his grandparents who were orthodox Jews, and that his grandmother would keep carp in the bathtub, before preparing it as gefilte fish – and the image of the carp undulating in the bathtub has stayed with him his whole life); as well as Gehry’s great avocation for sailing (it is said that the design of Disney Hall was inspired by sails. So, now you have the evening’s themes or currents (as the case may be).

Violinist Geneva Lewis began the evening appearing from the perch where the Disney Hall organ resides, performing the Bach Partita in E minor for solo violin– which was all the more significant as it was the first piece of music played in the Hall while it was still under construction.

The second piece, Fog, was a composition by Esa Pekka Salonen who was the LA Phil conductor for much of Disney Hall’s first decade, that was itself inspired by the Bach Partita and written for the occasion of Gehry’s 90^th Birthday. Accompanying the piece was none other than Lucinda Childs, the 73 year old dancer and choreographer who had collaborated with Gehry forty years before, and who performed her own choreography to Salonen’s Fog, on a stage above the orchestra in her trademark fashion of minimalist moves and sudden transitions.

Gehry loves classical music, said Dudamel who insisted on referring to Gehry as “Pancho,” and shared that Gehry is also passionate about Jazz.

Accordingly, the next performer was Herbie Hancock, 83, Gehry’s friend of longstanding, who played a 10-minute version of his “Maiden Voyage” with the orchestra, which was delicate, emotional, heartfelt – you could hear each Hancock keystroke, as he played and improvised – truly memorable.

Even more so, was Hancock was joined onstage by H.E.R. the young singer, musician, composer, who performed two of her songs, including her masterpiece (thus far) “The Journey.” And finally, to complete the water-themed programming, the LA Phil performed Debussy’s La Mer – to Gehry who took a seat on stage facing the orchestra, with Dudamel at one with his orchestra.

But there was one more surprise: The Walt Disney Hall’s organist took his place and performed a short but magnificent piece of music (may have been Bach as well), followed by confetti pops all over the audience in celebration. It was a joyous ending to a night of celebration.

And then it was over. Dudamel, Hancock, H.E.R., Lewis, Childs, and Gehry himself took bows. It was certainly an evening that reminded one that creativity has no age, and that for some individuals age is just a number. And that even if Western music only has twelve notes, the journey those notes can take you on, whatever the form of music, whenever it was written, is incomporable.