Audrey Reed
A&E Editor
Old friends will meet in a newly remodeled Smothers Theatre Sept. 18 for a classical concert featuring Spanish and American compositions.
Pepperdine professor of music and internationally recognized classical guitar player Christopher Parkening and Southern California local and baritone Jubilant Sykes are the first performers of the Stotsenberg Recital Series.
“We are going to perform a Spanish-American program,” Parkening said. “We were given this idea because the Spanish-speaking culture has had an undeniable influence on the development of American music. From Aaron Copland’s ‘El Salon Mexico’ to Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story,’ the vibrant rhythms of Latin America have blended with the best of American compositions to produce this distinctive sound.
“And for the classical guitar, the Spanish culture was foundational to the development of the instrument and its repertoire.
It’s also important for us to glorify the Lord with our music so we will conclude the concert Saturday night with some American spirituals.”
The concert will feature Parkening playing classical guitar, and midway through the concert Sykes and Parkening will perform together.
“The guitar is a very acoustic instrument,” Sykes said. “It’s really bare and raw and it’s a natural instrument for the voice. They are very conducive for each other.”
This pair has performed together many other times throughout their 15-year friendship, and their similarities determine the tone of each of their concerts.
“Jubilant will very often time conclude a concert with American spirituals,” Parkening said. “They give us the opportunity, because we are both Christians, to directly glorify the Lord with the music. These words are really meaningful to us. In fact, I believe that performance has true integrity when the heart of the artist is conveyed in the music. And such would be the case for Jubilant and me, for whom spirituals, in particular, reflect our faith.”
This concert will bring quite a few firsts for the Center for the Arts. In addition to Smothers Theatre’s new plaza and lobby, this season hosts many new performers, Managing Director Marnie Mitzi said.
“Christopher Parkening has been on the faculty for about three years now,” she said. “And this is the first time the Pepperdine community has been able to see a formal recital from him.”
Parkening and Sykes plan to tour Japan in 2005, and while Parkening does not always like life on tour, traveling with Sykes presents advantages.
“It also gives me the opportunity to collaborate with a very fine musician,” Parkening said. “Especially when it’s a friend of yours, it makes traveling and the concert tour much more enjoyable.”
The two got the idea to perform together many years ago because they use the same management company.
“Our management, IMG in New York City, said, ‘You guys are friends and you go to the same church, why don’t you do this tour together?’” Parkening said.
The combination made sense: a world-renowned guitarist and a critically acclaimed baritone singer, each with his personal style, but each with several common factors.
Sykes has performed with every major symphony orchestra in the nation, and his last project was at the Hollywood Bowl with The Los Angeles Philharmonic.
In the future, Sykes has other performances scheduled, and possibly more recordings.
Sykes said he often get questions about his unusual first name.
“That’s my real name,” Sykes said. “My mom wanted a different name, and she gave it to me. I have an older brother, and his name is Chris. I was the experiment.”
Sykes began singing at his middle school in Santa Monica. It was there that a choir teacher first recognized his talent. He went on to college at Cal State Fulerton and trained at University of Southern California, in Paris and in Austria.
To Pepperdine students Parkening may be best known as a professor or Convo speaker, but to the music world he is comparable to Andre Segovia, according to The Los Angeles Times. He also holds a place in the “Gallery of the Greats” of Guitar Magazine.
Parkening pursues several hobbies in addition to teaching and performing the guitar.
“My son will probably have a fishing rod in his hand before a guitar,” said Parkening, who is an avid fly fisher.
With these two well-known faces in contemporary classical music, the concert featuring Spanish-American music will appeal especially to guitar lovers, Sykes said.
“I think it’s a simple truth that we sometimes forget with the way the world is today,” Sykes said. “I think people hear that message easier [through song], than by talking.”
Tickets for the concert are $60 for adults and $10 for students, and the concert is almost sold out, Mitzi said.
09-16-2004