Join acclaimed guitarist Steve Thachuk for an evening of ambient electric guitar soundscapes, post-rock-infused microtonal music, and collaborations with longtime friends and colleagues.
Well… it’s that time again. Time to choose between the lesser of two evils, mostly. In this uber divisive time, let’s all come together to enjoy an evening of mostly politically inspired music. All are welcome no matter your political views, just leave your signs in your yard where they belong.
Join artist Matt McBane for an evening of new music for synthesizers and strings! McBane will be joined by Betsy Rettig (cello) and Ian Dicke (synthesizer).
Brightwork Ensemble soprano Stacey Fraser joins her bandmates to explore nature, spirituality, the fragility of humanity and the wonderfully unfiltered thoughts that pop into Fraser’s head on her daily runs—proof that inspiration is only ever a few kilometers away.
Join us for an evening that brings together some of the city's most distinctive cross-cultural voices, weaving Hindustani and Carnatic classical, Celtic, Balkan, West African, and Western classical traditions into original music that is bright, fiery, and intricate.
Join Tuesdays @ Monk Space for a special concert by SILBARG ENSEMBLE, exploring creative intercultural music-making by combining the sounds of traditional Iranian music and jazz!
Journey across five centuries—from the luminous keyboard works of 16th-century Dutch master Jan Sweelinck to György Ligeti’s electrifying 20th-century harpsichord classics, with contemporary works by beloved California composers Lou Harrison, Veronika Krausas and Carolyn Yarnell.
Tuesdays @ Monk Space closes out the 2026-27 season with a very special concert by Brightwork Ensemble celebrating the incredible history of new music being made right here in America!
Don’t miss our 2025-26 season finale, a program of creative voices from Southeast Asia, curated by cellist extraordinaire Maggie Parkins and performed by the world-class musicians of Brightwork Ensemble.
Brightwork Ensemble members perform music by the 2025-26 cohort of the High School Composer Initiative. Join us to celebrate and support the music of these talented young artists, light reception to follow.
TUESDAYS @ MONK SPACE PRESENTS: A celebration of works by composers from the Americas, performed by Brightwork Ensemble musicians and friends from the Los Angeles new music community.
Brightwork Ensemble is bringing back one of last season's more popular programs to the celebrate the kickoff concert of our new residency with Sierra Madre Playhouse: Pop Up!
TUESDAYS @ MONK SPACE PRESENTS: An Evening of Strings, Strings, and . . . Presented by the Cold Blue Music Record Label* Exquisite, virtuosic music from Los Angeles’s Cold Blue Music record label, a source of remarkable new music with a West Coast slant for more than 25 years.
Tuesdays @ Monk Space presents a program of big themes for small ensembles by William Roper. Roper composes narrative musical journeys. This program will take you from sub-Saharan Africa to Asteroid B-612 and a few places in between.
Nick Norton and Cristina Lord both have new albums on the way. These mainstays of the LA new music community open the 2025-26 Tuesdays @ Monk Space season with synths, vocals, field recordings, and strings, in a concert of material drawn from their upcoming releases.
Enjoy an evening of cutting-edge chamber music fusing some of our favorite pop songs with the exciting modernism of this Pierrot ensemble, including innovative Beatles settings, a beat-inspired work by Pulitzer-prize winning composer Anthony Davis, newly commissioned works, and unique takes on the music of Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Prince and others.
Expect the unexpected in this concert curated by Lyris Quartet member and celebrated violinist Alyssa Park. This concert will feature some of Ms. Park’s favorite local artists who work fluidly between genres, defying conventional labels.
Two dynamic performers - guitarist and composer Alexander Elliott Miller and violist and singer Wendy Richman - present new works written as duets for solo performers.
April 9, 2025 | Cal State University Fullerton - Meng Concert Hall
Six noted librettists and six composers are teaming up to create six original pieces inspired by and amplifying the in-between cultures of the city, which will be performed by the nationally recognized chamber ensemble Brightwork newmusic and renowned vocal sextet HEX.
Experience 10 world premieres by the young composers who have completed our 2024/25 High School Composer Initiative, performed by Brightwork Ensemble and mentored by composer Nina Shekhar.
Six noted librettists and six composers are teaming up to create six original pieces inspired by and amplifying the in-between cultures of the city, which will be performed by the nationally recognized chamber ensemble Brightwork newmusic and renowned vocal sextet HEX.
Brightwork Ensemble and People Inside Electronic present their annual collaboration on the Hear Now Festival to showcase recent electro acoustic works by local composers.
An interdisciplinary program exploring the fascinating interplay between human and artificial intelligence in music — set in an engaging and interactive game show format that invites the audience to become musical detectives.
Niloufar Shiri (kamancheh) and Antonín Fajt (keyboards) blend creative improvisation with innovative arrangements of traditional and folk melodies from Iran, and the eastern Czech Republic, along with classical Iranian music.
February 27, 2025 | Cal State Northridge - Recital Hall
When composer Olivier Messiaen wrote his “Quartet for the End of Time” as a German prisoner during World War II, his choice of instrumentation was limited by the other musicians he met at prison camp. This combination of instruments:
piano, cello, violin, and clarinet, has since fascinated composers for their expressive possibilities and wide variations in timbre.
In this special one-night-only performance, The Red Koral Quartet will be joined by Wadada on trumpet as he weaves in and out of his String Quartet No. 17.
Members of Brightwork Ensemble join Molly Pease, Scott Graff, Chohi Kim, and Kion Heidari, for the fourth iteration of Overtone Industries' ground-breaking Original Vision Opera Development Program.
One of multiple concerts in Southern California and beyond celebrating the life and music of Sarah Gibson during the 2024/25 season, this evening is dedicated to exploring Sarah's small chamber works.
Members of Brightwork Ensemble present a FREE public concert as part of the kick-off day for the High School Composer Initiative.
This concert is free and attendees need to RSVP to reserve their spot.
Exquisite, virtuosic music from Los Angeles’s Cold Blue Music record label, a source of
remarkable new music with a West Coast slant for more than 25 years.
The finale to the T@MS 2023/24 10th Anniversary Season plays with the power of music and food to conjure memory. Guests will be served a multi-course meal paired with musical selections.
erde dreams uses themes of nature and earthly phenomena to explore issues of mental health. Composer and soprano Molly Pease wlll present new music for voice and electronics, joined by special guests M. A. Tiesenga and Miller Wrenn.
Brightwork Ensemble members Stacey Fraser (soprano), Aron Kallay (piano), Nick Terry (percussion), and Brian Walsh (clarinets) present music about love, longing, green skies, and an ever expanding universe.
Featuring Chris Cerronne's I will learn to love a person and AJ McCaffery's Murmurations.
March 26, 2024 | Cal State University Fullerton - Meng Concert Hall
Brightwork Ensemble members Stacey Fraser (soprano), Aron Kallay (piano), Nick Terry (percussion), and Brian Walsh (clarinets) present music about love, longing, green skies, and an ever expanding universe.
Featuring Chris Cerronne's I will learn to love a person and AJ McCaffery's Murmurations.
Acclaimed mrudangam artist, composer, and scholar Rajna Swaminathan presents new works for trio featuring ganavya doraiswamy and Utsav Lal, with special guests from Brightwork Ensemble.
Hong Kong-born and Berlin-based sound artist and instrument builder Viola Yip presents a new work for self-built PVC dress, speaker cables, body movements, and electronics.
March 4, 2024 | Cal State Northridge - Recital Hall
Brightwork Members Brian Walsh (clarinet), Maggie Parkins (cello), and Aron Kallay (piano) conclude their 2023/24 residency with a concert featuring works by CSUN composition students and CSUN faculty including A.J. McCaffrey, Liviu Marinescu, and Kyle Simpson.
Clarinetist Joshua Rubin, founding member of International Contemporary Ensemble (NYC), presents an evening of daring and adventurous music featuring clarinet, with special guests including Steve Lehman, saxophone.
February 25, 2024 | Harvey Mudd - Drinkward Recital Hall
Brightwork Ensemble members Stacey Fraser (soprano), Aron Kallay (piano), Nick Terry (percussion), and Brian Walsh (clarinets) present music about love, longing, green skies, and an ever expanding universe.
Featuring Chris Cerronne's I will learn to love a person and AJ McCaffery's Murmurations.
Chris Castro's song cycle Cançoes dos Desassosego is the centerpiece of this program featuring the soprano Sharon Harms and the Lyris Quartet, one of LA's most exciting chamber music groups.
Celebrating two decades of one of Southern California's most exciting, adventurous, and beloved ensembles. Featuring world premieres by Niloufar Shiri and Fred Frith.
Originally formed as a quartet comprising flute, cello, guitar and mallets in the 1980's, Signs of Life is reimagined and reunited for this October concert curated by Alan Duff Berman.
Join us for an evening celebrating the legacy of beloved and pioneering algorithmic composer Clarence Barlow. Curated by Nick Norton and Brandon Rolle, the program will include a varied retrospective of Barlow's work.
Conductor, Music Director, and Bassoonist Anthony Parnther curates an evening at T@MS for conducted string orchestra featuring music inspired by courage, strength, and resistance to oppression.
Please note new date: Monday, May 15! In its second installment of its Emerging Artist Series, T@MS presents violin duo The Furies (Maiani da Silva and Kate Outterbridge) and percussionist and composer Jordan Curcuruto.
Mattie Barbier, Tim Feeney, Stephanie Cheng Smith and Cassia Streb invite the audience to explore a site specific, collectively-conceived project blurring the sonic boundaries between the indoor and outdoor, the live and recorded.
April 15, 2023 | First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica
Brightwork Ensemble, Lyris Quartet with Jessica Giuderi and Mike Kaufman, and Anthony Parnther, conductor, perform works by William Kraft, Gabriella Smith, Sarah Gibson, Thomas Kotcheff, and Mark Grey.
Brightwork Ensemble and People Inside Electronic present their annual collaboration on the Hear Now Festival to showcase recent electro acoustic works by local composers.
April 5, 2023 | Cal State University Fullerton - Meng Concert Hall
Brightwork Ensemble members Shalini Vijayan (violin), Brian Walsh (clarinet), and Aron Kallay (piano) tackle one of the 20th Century’s most iconic works, Bela Bartok’s “Contrasts,” in addition to some favorite trios from the present and recent past. The program will also include Aram Khachaturian’s folk tune infused “Trio for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano,” Pamela Madsen’s evocative “Sea Change,” and “Dash” by Jennifer Higdon, which has the players move with as much intensity and forward motion as the title implies. Brightwork will be joined by the CSUF New Music Ensemble to perform Dr. Pamela Madsen't "Singing of the Waves". Brightwork will also perform a student composition by Lorna Katz on the second half of the program.
Composer Nina Shekhar curates an evening of chamber music composed by herself and friends and performed by herself and friends, including Brightwork Ensemble and Lyris Quartet
Brightwork Ensemble members Shalini Vijayan (violin), Brian Walsh (clarinet), and Aron Kallay (piano) tackle one of the 20th Century’s most iconic works, Bela Bartok’s “Contrasts,” in addition to some favorite trios from the present and recent past. The program will also include Aram Khachaturian’s folk tune infused “Trio for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano,” Pamela Madsen’s evocative “Sea Change,” and “Dash” by Jennifer Higdon, which has the players move with as much intensity and forward motion as the title implies.
Join us for an evening in celebration of Yoko Ono's 90th birthday, her genre-defying career, and her indelible influence on art and popular culture. This collaboratively curated group show will feature art and sound installations, realizations of Ono's scores, and new works inspired by Ono and themes that permeate her art including feminism, domesticity, and world peace.
Brightwork ensemble presents day full of presentations, student readings, and open rehearsals followed by a concert accompanied by students from the University of Redlands Dance Department.
A tribute to the music of Alvin Lucier, who deftly explored the physical properties of sound and the eerie resonances of spaces and objects. This concert will feature classic, rarely performed works by Lucier, as well as new music inspired by his discoveries.
Join Brightwork newmusic as we present the music of Helmut Oehring, composer, director, choreographer. One of "the most influential audiovisual composers alongside John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Björk and Robert Ashley". -New Yorker
Composer, performer, cutting-edge technologist, educator. To say that both Ian Dicke and Mari Kimura inhabit multiple spaces at any given moment would be an understatement. In this concert, they share with the T@MS audience what they've been working on. Don't miss this unique concert!
Six noted librettists and six composers are teaming up to create six original pieces inspired by and amplifying the in-between cultures of the city, which will be performed by the nationally recognized chamber ensemble Brightwork newmusic and renowned vocal sextet HEX.
Join us for a mini-concert and garden party at a Mid-City home to celebrate the premiere of "Interstitial: A Book of Musical Stories" next month at USC.
September 17, 2022 | Cal State University Fullerton - Meng Concert Hall
Brightwork Ensemble and soprano Stacey Fraser give the world premiere of Dr. Pamela Madsen's Opera America and NEA Awarded Opera: Why Women Went West, with video/texts by Quintan Ana Wikswo.
Percussionist and composer Nick Terry presents a 60-minute guided meditation intended as a duet between the performer and readings of several contemplative texts, evoking kaleidoscopic and ritualist soundscapes that invite the audience to stillness and reflection.
Twelve world premieres written by the students in Brightwork's High School Composer Initiative, performed by the fearless musicians of Brightwork Ensemble.
In its second installment of its Emerging Artist Series, T@MS presents violin duo The Furies (Maiani da Silva and Kate Outterbridge) and percussionist and composer Jordan Curcuruto.
Tuesdays @ Monk Space presents the ensemble debut of MILLER || PHELPS in Public Domain, a concert of music questioning and challenging the limits of intellectual rights and ownership.
Featuring pianist Nic Gerpe performing Crumb's Makrokosmos alongside newly commissioned works by Juhi Bansal, Viet Cuong, Eric Guinivan, Julie Herndon, Vera Ivanova, Gilda Lyons, Alex Miller, Fernanda Aoki Navarro, Thomas Osborne, Timothy Peterson, and Gernot Wolfgang.
Members of Brightwork Ensemble will be joined by the Lyris Quartet and soprano Stacey Fraser to present both well-known and lesser-known masterpieces by Johnston, including the Suite for Microtonal Piano, Quartet #4 (Amazing Grace), Calamity Jane to Her Daughter, and Ponder Nothing.
Southland Ensemble: The Koan Quartet & Christine Tavolacci present works by Carolyn Chen for string quartet, bass flute, speakers, and singers -- exploring nature and how we invent it.
December 1, 2019 | Cal State Northridge - Recital Hall
Brightwork performs George Crumb's Dream Sequence and Robert Paterson's Hell's Kitchen alongside works by Noah Meites, Stephen Lias, and Vicki Ray. With a new work from Liviu Marinescu. FREE!
November 1, 2019 | Pomona College - Little Bridges
Brightwork joins Pomona College faculty to perform Steve Reich's Pulitzer Prize winning Double Sextet. Also on the program is Louis Andriessen's iconic Workers Union and two piano duos by Meredith Monk.
Brightwork is in residence with the Hear Now Festival and People Inside Electronics for this concert featuring Los Angeles composers.
Program:
Alex Miller: To Oblivion (Belmont Tunnel)
Ian Dicke: Latest And Greatest
Anthony Paul Garcia: If It Stops
Dominique Schafer: Cendre
Wen Liu: Echoes In Petals Falling
Mu-xuan Lin: Pale Fire
With special guest artists Shalini Vijayan, violin, Alex Miller, guitar, Scott Worthington and Eric Shetzen, bass, and Alma Fernandez, viola.
