Music in the garden, under the stars

Smiles of a summer night

Looking up at the Constellation Quartet

by Bondo Wyszpolski

Violinist Emily Moore, sitting outdoors on a recent sunny afternoon, mentions the difficulty of finding intimate venues in which to perform. “We call them listening spaces,” she explains, “the small space where acoustic acts do really well. The string quartet will never do well in a bar.” She laughs: “We are not that band!”

But Moore, who founded the Garden Concert Series at the Village Garden in Riviera Village, has lucked out, and by extension so have we, that is, as long as we can score tickets because—remember, we’re talking intimate venues—the Village Garden is not the Hollywood Bowl.

Moore, in her early 30s, is also one of the founders of the Constellation Quartet, the Garden Concert Series’ resident ensemble, which has at least five more shows lined up between now and early September. In addition to Moore, who has a degree in popular music from USC, the group includes cellist Max Mueller, a composer, music arranger and educator, violinist Jayla Tang, with a degree in Violin Performance from CalArts, and violist Carson Rick, recently back from the Glenn Gould School in Canada.

Although she’s currently a resident of Redondo Beach, “I was a chronic Westsider for about 15 years,” Moore says; “Santa Monica, Westwood, and I’ve been here for a year.” However, her colleagues are spread out across the Southland. “We all kind of left L.A. at the same time,” she adds, “but we went in opposite directions.” One group member resides in Woodland Hills, one in Calabasas, and another in Long Beach. Therefore it’s always of some concern as to where they rehearse. Moore says, whether seriously or not I’m not sure, that they try and flip a coin.

Until recently, when they were all vaccinated, the quartet held lots of outdoor rehearsals while wearing masks at the same time. As of this writing mask protocols are still in place, but the playing field, the dos and don’ts, will be shifting greatly over these next few weeks.

Not your papa’s string quartet

One of the things that makes the Constellation Quartet stand out is the group’s selection of music: It’s not your typical array of Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert.

“You picked up on what I care quite a bit about,”Moore replies. “We’re all trained classically, generally speaking, and I kind of went left a bit. I pursue contemporary music, improvisation, and all different styles. I’m a fiddle player, and the cellist (with whom she’s been performing for 15 years) is an amazing film composer. He does the majority of our arrangements, and they’re really unique.”

Among the artists receiving the group’s classical string quartet treatment we’ll find Prince, Henry Mancini, Dua Lipa, and James Taylor. This evident diversity turns out to be part of a bigger question that Moore returns to more than once in our conversation, which is how do we keep classical music alive and relevant in the 21st century. And one way of doing that is to inject renditions of music that might be more recent, more familiar, and more relatable. The Kronos Quartet, at least when this writer used to hear them live in the 1990s, would often conclude their cutting-edge concerts with a personal take on “Purple Haze,” by Jimi Hendrix. And, yes, it was quite a crowd pleaser.

Another thing that helps the Constellation Quartet to stand out is that each performance features a guest artist, and this invariably influences the direction, the pace, and the set list. For example, when Abby Posner joins the group on July 3 the focus will be on Americana with a celebration of American film music. Petty Chavez steers it over to transatlantic folk-pop on July 17, Daniel Zaitchik tilts it towards piano-based pop-rock on August 21, and Crystal Starr gives it a retro-pop vibe on Sept. 11. With each event it’s like the dial on the radio is turned a little to the left or a little to the right.

A musical sanctuary

The current series in the Village Garden may be new, but Emily Moore isn’t a novice at arranging for and promoting shows for her group, and she mentions a previous venture that was called the Neighborhood Concert.

“We were going out and doing socially-distant concerts in people’s neighborhoods, especially driveways and front yards. I think we did about 25 over the course of 10 months,” adding that, “It was so much fun.”

The concern then, and a concern which has carried over as we quite literally spring into summer, is to create an environment in which the audience feels safe, and also one that shuts out the mundane world for at least the duration of the performance: “I want them to come into that concert and feel like they can just sit back and relax,” Moore says, “and feel comfortable to experience the music.”

She likens the Village Garden to a hidden gem. “I wouldn’t have expected it to be in the middle of Riviera Village,” and in fact this outdoor oasis, which is a business unto itself and hosts private events such as weddings and birthday parties, has probably been overlooked by nearly everyone who hurries by on Catalina Avenue.

Setting up for concerts here took some imaginative thinking, and Moore points out that seating was limited to only 25 patrons for both of the first two concerts, but that they’ll be able to accommodate a dozen more fairly soon, and possibly larger numbers after that. The problem with higher numbers, as she’s quick to acknowledge, would be a compromise of the implied intimate experience. What’s more likely, if ticket demand is high, is that the Constellation Quartet may plan an early show and a late show on the same evening. Which wouldn’t be uncommon, as I seem to recall this was fairly standard for venues like McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica.

Despite its size, the seating area in the Village Garden has been set up in tiers, with blocks of seats that follow socially-distanced guidelines (a term that may become quaint in a few months). Although no one is really that far from the stage, ticket prices might indicate otherwise in that they range from $25 to $100. In part that’s because silver VIP tickets come with wine, gold VIP tickets with a charcuterie basket, and other amenities up and down the scale. For that matter, patrons are allowed to carry in food and beverages, although I would imagine that anything too crunchy, and consumed during the performance, will be frowned upon.

Presently, all concerts begin at 7:30, with doors opening at 7 p.m. Shows run about 90 minutes, about 20-25 of them before a brief intermission, followed by an hour of engaging music and an evening to cherish.

Tickets are limited and sell out quickly. To learn what’s on tap for the summer, and to find out more about the Constellation Quartet and its guest artists, visit gardenconcertseries.com. ER