2009 was a tragic year for MoLAA with the passing of its founder, Dr. Robert Gumbiner. In the wake of his passing, the museum — equipped with a $25 million endowment from Gumbiner’s foundation — was searching for a direction, one that would continue his mission. “What’s so exciting, is that the staff and the administration were so committed to continuing the vision that Dr. Gumbiner laid out,” said Edwina Brandon, VP of External Affairs. “We’re just taking it to the next level, and doing things that he didn’t have a chance to do.”

Taking it to the next level meant hiring new chief curator Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, who has brought a greatly intensified focus on cuttingedge contemporary art. “[Fajardo-Hill] has a tremendous reputation in terms of Latin American art,” Brandon said. This year the museum will feature Mexican artists, part of a season-long celebration of the centenary of the Mexican Revolution and the bicentenary of Mexico’s independence from Spain. There will be plenty of themed events at MoLAA, including tequila tastings and a version of the museum’s Murals Under the Stars program that will feature a variety of Mexican artists.

MoLAA will also feature exhibits with the works of Felipe Ehrenberg, Dr. Atl, and other artists who include Mexican themes in their art. Under Fajardo-Hill’s direction, the museum’s Project Room will be more given to experimental, modern artists who will also include work focused on the celebration of Mexican art. This year’s schedule will feature Mariana Castillo Deball and Jorge Méndez Blake, who will create a site-specific installation for the museum’s themed schedule, as well as present a lecture and a workshop.

“We want to do one or two historical exhibits, and one contemporary,” said Fajardo-Hill, of the museum’s exhibition plans. “We’re trying to go a little more cutting-edge.”

Future plans for the museum under its new direction include a dialogue series that would pair Latin American artists together with contemporary American artists to discuss their work and culture. “We want to contextualize Latin American art in a broader context,” Fajardo-Hill said.

Visit molaa.org for more information.



Celebrating its 75th anniversary, the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra (LBSO) knew they wanted to do something they’d never done before. To keep people excited about moving forward, the Symphony looked to the master Beethoven for inspiration. The Symphony created the “Beethoven Comes to the Beach” program, which has them playing all nine Beethoven symphonies. This would be the first time the Orchestra has ever done so in one season.

“Beethoven created revolutionary classical music and launched a new era of symphonic composition, so it’s fitting that we celebrate our 75th season by programming all nine Beethoven symphonies,” said Enrique Arturo Diemecke, musical director and conductor of the Orchestra. The performances will last until the 75th season concludes in the early summer. The Orchestra is also producing a series of “Discovering Beethoven” lectures around the city, given by Diemecke, to help introduce the works of the master.

But along with making the classic works more popular, they’re not forgetting the popular works themselves, with a revised Pops! program. “We’re very pleased to have Steven Reineke on as our Pops! conductor,” said Rick Berry, Director of Marketing for the LBSO. “He’s the hottest Pops conductor in the country, a real international star.” Reineke not only conducts for LBSO, but is also the Music Director of the New York Pops.

Reineke has two great shows coming up. The first will be in February. Michael Cavanagh (the star of the musical Movin’ Out) will sing a wide selection with the Orchestra, including Billy Joel hits. In mid-March, a special Pops! performance will feature some golden oldies, for which the LBSO will be joined by the Ladies of Motown. The songs may not be quite as old or as esteemed as Beethoven, but the show is sure to be a sell-out. Visit lbso.org for more information.



Musical Theatre West has been in existence for over 50 years, and residents have been happy the company has made this city its exclusive home for the last decade.

Musical Theatre West still has three upcoming shows in their 2009-10 season, and all of them should be exciting for local musical theater fans. Sweeney Todd concludes its run, fittingly enough, on Valentine’s Day. That will make room for The Marvelous Wonderettes, a ’50s and ’60s revival that will feature some favorite hits from the past. The season will wrap with the Tony Award-winning 1776, an historical production that portrays the tension-fraught drafting of the Declaration of Independence with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Ben Franklin all having starring roles.

With the last performance of 1776 on July 25, the 2009-2010 season will come to a close. For the 2010-2011 season the company will be doing something special. Showing a laudable willingness to interact with fans, the company has uploaded a survey to their site that will ask for input on what should be scheduled for next year’s Musical Theatre West calendar.

Visit musical.org for more information.



Despite being the oldest professional opera company in Southern California, the Long Beach Opera keeps things fresh. This year will showcase that, as the Opera shows its unique nature — both in their selection of what to perform and their selection of where to perform.

Andreas Mitisek, the Opera’s general and artistic director, said all three of the operas the company will perform this season are by American composers. “Those three works (The Good Soldier Schweik, Nixon in China, and Orpheus & Euridice) are a great selection of the creative spirits of American composers. Usually companies perform Italian or European composers, but this year we chose to feature all the talents here in the U.S. I promise you, no other house in the U.S. will do that.”

More striking, the last of those three operas, Orpheus & Euridice will be performed in the water at Long Beach’s historic Belmont Olympic Pool. The Opera had presented the same performance at the pool two years ago, and decided to reprise it this season because of the overwhelming demand. Mitisek stresses that there is artistic merit to the venue. “For me,” he said, “doing it in a pool is not a gimmick. The water is a metaphor for life and death and crossing the River Styx into the underworld. It really worked out beautifully.”

Visit http://longbeachopera.org for more information.



The city’s two other art museums will also make amazing works of art available to residents with a mix of innovative exhibitions and their own permanent collections.

The Long Beach Museum of Art (LBMA) will be wrapping their acclaimed “Sweet Subversives” exhibit in mid-February. The exhibit had 31 Southern California artists explore what drawing meant to them and how they used it to achieve their vision. The museum will also continue its popular “LBMA After Dark” series this year. The museum will be open to the public after hours, allowing residents to enjoy live entertainment and cocktails as they browse the featured exhibitions.

CSULB’s University Art Museum (UAM), which continues to bolster its reputation with a strong exhibition schedule, will begin the year by featuring portions of the permanent collection in “Reframing the Collection,” and will close with a retrospective of the works of Michael Goldberg. Other exhibits such as Timothy Hutching’s “The Celestial Spheres,” a scored video animation project, “SMS,” a late-1960s project involving over 80 artists, including Yoko Ono and UAM’s popular student art exhibition, will capture the campus and the city’s attention.

Visit lbma.org and csulb.edu for more information.