Travel back to some very high postwar times, an era commonly associated with conformity, crew cuts, and the Red Scare. In Altadena, an alternative universe was also in full flower. Revisit this with Altadena Heritage’s Concerts on the Crest weekend exhibition Oct. 24-25. Fifty years after the original Chilao Flats concerts — music, art, and the exchange of ideas will again flow at two extraordinary cultural events at the wondrous Mountain View Mausoleum, architectural gem of the 1920s.
Saturday, watch the sun set 4-7 p.m. on the San Gabriels from the Mausoleum’s second story courtyard at a cocktail party. Enjoy exquisite food from The Spot and popular music of the 1950s interpreted by the Bohos.
The exhibition will open for preview: Boho-Highbrow — The Work of Jirayr Zorthian and Gus Albrecht features a witty collection of drawings by the well-known Altadena artist and sybarite illustrating Albrecht’s opinionated and often hilarious thoughts on music and culture. Albrecht was a professor of chemistry, a musician, and impresario — his pithy columns “Music Matters” appeared in The Pasadena Independent. These and other of his writings make up the other half of a surprising, divergent view of Postwar America as expressed by two Altadenans.
Boho-Highbrow continues at a Sunday Salon Oct. 25th. The exhibition will be open all day, and from 4-6 pm, beginning in the Grand Staircase Hall of the Mausoleum, Diego Morales and string quartet will perform a Shostakovich and Ravel program in deference to the Schoenfeld sisters who played at the original Concerts on the Crest organized by Albrecht. Music will be interspersed with commentary from Diego, who studied with Eleanor Schoenfeld at USC. Social context from local historian Michele Zack and others will restart the provocative jazz-classical-music-graphic arts conversation this exhibition celebrates.
Tickets for this rare weekend of art, culture, and architecture are $50 for both events (limited to 100 reservations), or $20 for the Sunday Salon and exhibition only. Guests are welcomed to interpret their own Boho-chic style at Saturday’s rooftop cocktail party. For reservations, email Altadenaheritage@earthlink.net or call 626.797.0054.
