Pasadena Symphony Helps Community Grieve and Give After Fires

January 30, 2025, 2:36 PM · The concert was about to begin last Saturday, and I looked across the stage at my colleague Irina Voloshina, sitting right by the audience in the first violins. I could see she was having a hard time holding back the tears.

Pasadena Symphony conductor Brett Mitchell was finishing his opening words, acknowledging that it had been a very difficult few weeks in the community of Pasadena and Altadena, California, where the Eaton Canyon fire had reduced a huge portion of the area to rubble and ash over the course of one night.

Irina's home had burned to the ground during the fire. She was out of the country when it happened, but - thankfully - she had called a friend to retrieve her violin from the house. However - the violin was the only thing that was rescued. At the time, it had seemed unthinkable that the fire could actually make its way to her house on Mariposa Street.

Violinist Irina Voloshina and Violinist.com's Laurie Niles, at Saturday's Pasadena Symphony concert.

"Mariposa" means "butterfly" in Spanish. And that house is where Irina held more than 65 free concerts from her driveway during the pandemic. It was birthplace of her concert series, Melodia Mariposa - named after her street and the community that blossomed around the music she created there. The butterfly became a symbol for Irina - her butterfly necklace was one of her few remaining possessions, and she wore it during the concert on Saturday night.

Wildfires tend to stay in the mountains. They typically don't jump onto a street grid and spread from there. Mariposa Street was in the city, not in the mountains. But just in case, she had her friend get the violin.

Later, from afar, she checked her home's security system from her phone. It was sending her alarm after alarm, as every window blew out, one by one. They were exploding in the heat of the fire that consumed her house and every other possession she owned: keepsakes from her original home in Ukraine, jewelry, another beloved violin, family photos, drawings that her granddaughter had made for her. Later, when she came to sort through the rubble, she found that even her Le Creuset pans were destroyed - weren't those supposed to be able to withstand anything? Nothing was left.

Back on stage - Brett was telling the audience that we were about to play one of the most heart-wrenching pieces of music ever written, Barber's "Adagio for Strings." The piece had been added to the program at the last minute, in acknowledgment of the community's devastating losses.

Irina was looking away from the audience, trying to keep it together to play this gut-wrenching music. I confess that I questioned this choice, earlier in the week. How on Earth could we play this music? How could anyone listen to it? To me it felt like too much - too sad for people who have lost too much.

But during the week, Brett did explain the choice: "I never program this piece for a regular concert. It is only when something like this happens," he told us. He gently encouraged us to play the Barber in certain ways - at the beginning, just sneak in, let the sound come from absolutely nothing. Toward the end of the piece is an immense apotheosis, he told us to use as many bows as we wanted, and he would hold that note for as long as he possibly dared. And after that note - a silence, followed by the quietest pianissimo we could manage. Stillness and grief. "I've studied this music for years, put notes in the score," he said during rehearsal. "In this place, I wrote...," he hesitated a little, "'Ashen.' Just devastated."

"Ashen" - ? Part of me was thinking, "Why would you say this to us? How could you even GO THERE?" Three musicians in the orchestra had lost their homes to the fire. Other musicians had been evacuated and displaced. Any of us living in the area were grieving - for our beautiful Altadena and the people who made it that way, now bearing unthinkable hardship.

Then again...wasn't this exactly what this music was saying? How can we NOT go there? Ashen. I had to fight my own tears as we continued to rehearse that day.

As Brett continued his spoken introduction at the concert, Irina was looking away from the audience, she was in fact looking straight in my direction. I felt desperate to send her a sign - I put hand over my heart. I think we were all trying to send strength to her, and to Carrie Kennedy, sitting next to her, and to Joel Pargman, married violinists who also had lost their homes to the fire.

And so we played Barber's Adagio for Strings - we traveled together through that music's numb emptiness and through its wailing grief, back to something still and quiet, a glimmer of hope. The audience seemed to travel with us.

The rest of the program was actually quite upbeat - Jessie Montgomery's "Starburst," Florence Price's jubilant Piano Concerto in One Movement, and Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony. I had wondered about that, too. Was this music too happy for the occasion? Brett had originally programed it to "give everyone a boost" during the dark days of January. "I had no idea, what a boost we would all need," he said at the concert.

It was actually just perfect. Jessie's piece was a burst of energy after the Barber. Florence Price's concerto was so joyful, with pianist Inon Barnatan as our affable and sure-handed soloist. More than a few of us were singing its catchy "juba" dance tune as we exited the stage for intermission. And closing with the Mozart - it's a symphony that feels like a rescue mission for the soul, an infusion of beauty, where spirit triumphs over the dark shadows, every time. I had the sense that we were simply enjoying its humor, cleverness and bright energy. Mozart was familiar territory, in the face of a world that felt so changed.

We had two shows that day. Between the shows a radio reporter spoke with Irina, out in the lobby. In the background, the symphony also was holding an instrument drive, accepting donated musical instruments to give to Pasadena Youth Symphony Members the the Pasadena Unified School District students who lost instruments in the fire. (In PUSD, where 10,000 of the district's 14,000 students were evacuated or lost their homes, the need is dire.)

Because I'd been writing so much about the fires, I was asked to speak with the radio reporter, too, but this was about Irina. She told her story, and she also talked about the concert. I asked Irina - had she seen me over there, trying to signal something from my heart to hers?

"I saw you - and you were all sending me strength," she said. She also said that she loved the Barber - it was sadness personified in music, and she emerged from it feeling more hopeful. In the midst of so much personal hardship, she had thought about canceling the next concert in her Melodia Mariposa concert series - but now she felt more determined than ever to make it happen. Their next concert is on Feb. 16, with the Lyris Quartet.

And the instrument drive? Led by Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra Director Alex Chu, they collected 49 instruments, with more on the way. Those included 14 violins, 4 violas, 5 cellos, 4 guitars, 7 flutes, 3 clarinets, 1 bassoon, 2 piccolos, 2 saxophones, 5 trumpets and 2 trombones.

Alex Chu Pasadena Symphony Youth Orchestra

PSO Director of Education and Community Engagement Alex Chu and Artistic Operations Coordinator Kristine Llanderal, collecting instruments for music students who lost instruments in the fire.

"We had so many stories from people who donated their instruments because they wanted to help, to offer their precious instruments that they had since they were 10 to someone who could use them in their time of need," Alex told me. "One gentleman came in to donate his violin that he had played while he served in the Vietnam War and opened up the case to show us the original certificate of the violin with a picture from a newspaper clipping of him playing it while serving in the war. He had said he hadn’t touched the violin in 10 years and wanted it to go to someone who’d love it and walked away."

* * *

Here some links related to this story, for donations and learning more about Irina's concert series:

Melodia Mariposa: Learn about Irina's concert series HERE and follow Melodia Mariposa on Facebook (HERE) ad Instagram (HERE).

Irina Voloshina: she lost her house and nearly all of her possessions in the fire. Find her GoFundMe campaign - CLICK HERE.

Carrie Kennedy and Joel Pargman are married violinists who play in the Pasadena Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras and many other groups. They lost their house and nearly all their possessions in the fire. Find their GoFundMe campaign CLICK HERE.

Pasadena Symphony Instrument Drive: It's not too late to donate an instrument; sign up to do so CLICK HERE.

Pasadena Unified School District lost a great many musical instruments that were stored at Eliot Arts Magnet School, which burned in the fire. To help them, donate to the Pasadena Educational Foundation's Eaton Fire Response Fund, and specify in the memo that you would like your donation to help the district's music program. CLICK HERE.

You might also like:

* * *

Enjoying Violinist.com? Click here to sign up for our free, bi-weekly email newsletter. And if you've already signed up, please invite your friends! Thank you.

Replies

Paul Deck

January 31, 2025 at 04:17 AM · The Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron Dutch Oven with the fused cast-iron handles is rated to 660 F.

Sander Marcus

February 3, 2025 at 12:15 AM · Aaron Copland: “So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it.”

Laurie Niles

February 4, 2025 at 09:45 PM · Paul, it was that bad. A few days ago I went up to the burn zone, as I live so close and it has all been so hard to understand. I went with my daughter and husband, wearing masks, driving slowly. My daughter has so many childhood memories and friends who lived up there. We felt reverence - no way we were going to take any pictures. It felt very sacred and private, and also still and silent. Like a moment frozen, that shouldn’t be disturbed until people can come back and spend their own time with their own losses. Nearly everything is gone, including the color, except for a ceramic flower pot here, a tile there. It's ash and chimneys, burnt cars with no tires and twisted metal, for miles. It's easy to get lost up there because none of the familiar landmarks remain.

Laurie Niles

February 4, 2025 at 10:35 PM · Here is a link to the KCRW radio story about this concert: read here

And here is a review by San Francisco Classical Voice: read here

This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.