2023/2024 Season

JULY & AUGUST 2023

EXPANDED LEARNING SUMMER CAMP

We offered a free Expanded Learning Summer Camp for 38 underserved children from our area. Our dedicated staff and renowned teachers created an enriching 5 week program that brought ecology, art, music, history and science to life through hands-on activities. We are grateful to the Inland Empire Community Foundation and Lynda Martin for supporting this program.


JULY 2023

AN EVENING WITH PERRY HOBERMAN

We welcomed the multi talented, often hilarious singer/songwriter, Perry Hoberman for a solo performance of his original work. Perry Hoberman is a visual artist, songwriter and musician. He has been exhibiting and performing locally, nationally and internationally for more than four decades. As a New York to Joshua Tree transplant Hoberman enjoys being a member of the local bands, Desert Drama Club and Superbloom.


AUGUST 2023

SUMMER CAMP GALLERY EXHIBITION AT TAYLOR JUNCTION

We celebrated the culmination of our Expanded Learning Summer Camp with a Gallery Exhibition at Taylor Junction in Joshua Tree thanks to Rolo Castillo. Families joined us to reminisce about the teaching, creativity and fun of our five week summer program.


SEPTEMBER 2023

OPEN HOUSE AT JOSHUA TREE ARTS & ECOLOGY CENTER

To celebrate the change of season we hosted an Open House at our Arts & Ecology center to share our flourishing tepary bean & amaranth gardens with the community. After the tours, we gathered in the Sunken Circle for music and poetry.


OCTOBER 2023

MADALITSO BAND

Madalitso Band, a duo from Malawi, brought two elementary schools into spontaneous dance with their rhythmic, authentic music and homemade instruments. Madalitso’s culminating performance at Lou Harrison House even brought adults to their feet!


OCTOBER 2023

THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED, LIVE ORIGINAL SCORE BY GYAN RILEY

Our 2023/24 Composer-in-Residence performed his live score to The Adventures of Prince Achmed at the Lou Harrison House outdoor stage. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film, created in 1926 by German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger who invented a technique of manipulating cardboard cutouts and lead sheets under a camera to create this vividly colorful film. Gyan’s amazing new score gave this nearly 100 year old film new life. It was introduced by film historian Christopher Perry.


NOVEMBER 2023

PEPPINO D’AGOSTINO

Sicilian born Master Guitarist Peppino D’Agostino presented a concert inside Lou Harrison House with special guest, 2023/24 Composer-in-Residence, Gyan Riley. D’Agostino also hosted a workshop to share his fingerstyle techniques with local musicians. In addition, over two days, Peppino shared his passion for music with thousands of elementary school children in the Morongo Unified School District.
Peppino D’Agostino emerged on the musical scene in the late 1980s and helped redefine the acoustic guitar’s boundaries. He has since been called “the guitarist’s guitarist” by Acoustic Guitar magazine. His virtuosic technique, penchant for open tunings and percussive effects are the basis of his unique compositional style, which has been inspiring musicians and audiences alike for years.


NOVEMBER 2023

NEW MOON CEREMONY WITH KIM MARCUS

Kim Marcus, Serrano-Cahuilla Elder of the Santa Rosa Reservation, led a New Moon Ceremony around a fire. Completing the ceremony attendees swept away footsteps in the sand with brooms fashioned from dry desert brush and were fed a farm to table meal from our Arts & Ecology Center. This event was presented as a cultural partner of the Joshua Treenial.


JANUARY 2024

OPEN HOUSE | SEED EXCHANGE

Joshua Tree Arts & Ecology Center hosted an Open House | Seed Exchange where fellow desert gardeners gathered to share seeds, tour the gardens, and join a Sound Circle. Our seed offerings included fourth generation Tepary beans, amaranth, sunflower seeds, Jerusalem artichoke and more.


JANUARY 2024

TUVAN SHAMANISM & THROAT SINGING

Chingiz Kam, Brown Bear Shaman of Tuva (Siberia) and throat singer, Arrington de Dionyso shared an indigenous Tuvan ceremony performance at Lou Harrison House. Chingiz Kam is a hereditary shaman and the first of his lineage to travel to the West Coast of the United States. His music and rituals are considered healing. Chingiz and Arrington shared Tuvan culture, throat singing and creative inspiration with local elementary and high school students.


MARCH 2024

CHORO DAS 3

A trio of Brazilian sisters, Corina (flute), Lia (7- string guitar) and Elisa (mandolin, clarinet, banjo, accordion and piano) performed a remarkable concert at Lou Harrison House. Dedicated to 19th century Brazilian instrumental music based on a genre called Choro, they began performing as a family tradition with their late father.


APRIL 2024

BILL FRISELL BENEFIT CONCERT FOR LOU HARRISON HOUSE

Grammy award winning composer/guitarist Bill Frisell played a Benefit Concert for Lou Harrison House, to raise support for our nonprofit music and ecology programs. We were honored to have Frisell, one of America’s great jazz musicians grace us for the evening. Frisell defies conventional boundaries, seamlessly blending elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and Americana into his distinctive sound. His eclectic fusion has earned him widespread acclaim, including six Grammy nominations and a well-deserved win.


APRIL 2024

VEM Ensemble String Quartet

The VEM Ensemble is the cornerstone of the newly created Armenian Music Program at UCLA, which raises awareness and celebrates the richness and diversity of Armenian musical tradition. The ensemble is in residence at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and under the artistic leadership of Moves Pogossian, Prizewinner of the Tchaikovsky International Competition. The heart felt and highly skilled musicianship of the ensemble in the acoustic “Great Room” of Lou Harrison House stunned the audience.


APRIL 2024

Wu Fei and special guest Gyan Riley

Guzheng virtuoso Wu Fei and Gyan Riley, 2023/24 Composer-in-Residence, continued their long standing collaboration in concert at Lou Harrison House. Fei is a classically trained composer, singer, and master of the guzheng, the 21-string Chinese zither. She plays in a 2,500 year old musical language, mixing Western classical and Chinese traditions with a contemporary sound. She has released two solo recordings and two collaborative albums, including one with Gyan Riley.