Arts Alive

USC Thornton School alumnus Bear McCreary is currently enjoying a stellar career as a composer for motion pictures, television and video games. His soundtrack for the new movie The Professor and Madman was recently released, his score for Godzilla: King of the Monsters is about to come out, and he has four more projects in the works. He achieved early success in television with his music for the remake of Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead. McCreary told me it’s more than the genre or the medium that excites him.

You heard his piano-playing in last year’s Green Book — those were actually his hands whenever you saw Don Shirley’s hands onscreen. He also wrote the score. Now, composer Kris Bowers is taking on an even more serious, real-life subject: the tragic story of five teenagers wrongfully convicted of a rape in Central Park in 1989. Contributing reporter Tim Greiving visited Bowers at his studio.

KUSC’s Gail Eichenthal and Arts Alive and LA Times Film critic Kenneth Turan discuss highlights from the Cannes film festival.

KUSC’s Alan Chapman has a lot to say about music, but can he say it in 60 seconds? That’s the Chapman Challenge. We ask a question and Alan has a minute to answer it.

Today’s question is from Ken in New Haven, CT, who writes, “Could you please explain the name of the Gewandhaus Orchestra?”

Gail Eichenthal previews the first ever KUSC Kids Discovery Day at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.

Recently the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concluded it’s season with it’s newly minted music director Maestro Jaime Martín. Maestro Martin is a celebrated flutist and conductor and his recent appoint represents a long arc that began with another former conductor of the LACO, Sir Neville Marriner, who was a huge influence on Maestro Martin.

An opera performed by kids about how technology impacts our daily lives and decision-making? That’s precisely what’s on stage this weekend at Ojai Youth Opera.

KUSC’s Alan Chapman has a lot to say about music, but can he say it in 60 seconds? That’s the Chapman Challenge. We ask a question and Alan has a minute to answer it. Today’s question is from Anthony in Los Angeles who writes, “I heard that Mendelssohn started a Bach revival. Why did Bach have to be revived?

KUSC’s Gail Eichenthal and Arts Alive and LA Times Film critic Kenneth Turan discuss the new French film “Non-Fiction”, opening this weekend.

Jacob Jonas The Company mixes contemporary ballet, breakdance, and acrobatic movement. They were named one of “12 standout companies of 2018” by the Los Angeles Times and “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine in 2018. This week, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents The Company in their final appearance as 2018/2019 Company-In-Residence.