[photo credit: The Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library]
The New Hollywood String Quartet opens the Restoration Concerts’ 2026-2027 season Sunday, Sept. 13, at 4 p.m. in the South Pasadena Library Community Room, and the audience is invited to a cake reception afterward celebrating the series’ 30 years of affordable chamber music.
The program is Mozart’s String Quartet in G, Schubert’s String Quartet in E-flat major and Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major, according to the concert announcement.
The eight-concert season reaches into Pasadena’s orchestras: Pasadena Symphony principal timpanist Wade Culbreath and Pasadena Pops principal trumpet David Washburn each lead ensembles new to the series later in the run.
The quartet, the series’ quartet in residence, is violinists Tereza Stanislav and Rafael Rishik, violist Robert Brophy and cellist Andrew Shulman. Inspired by the Hollywood String Quartet of more than half a century ago, it gave its first concert in Los Angeles on Jan. 9, 2001, and its members have recorded hundreds of film scores. Stanislav is the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s assistant concertmaster, Brophy its associate principal viola and Shulman its principal cello.
“This event is not only a wonderful concert, but a fundraising event,” Brophy said of a Restoration Concert in May 2024, at which the quartet donated its fee to the series.
The committee describes the 184-seat room as originally built as a library with a Carnegie grant and known for its excellent musical acoustics, and says net proceeds pay for restorations and enhancements to the library and Community Room.
The concert is Sunday, Sept. 13, at 4 p.m. in the South Pasadena Library Community Room, 1115 El Centro Street, South Pasadena. Tickets are $25 at the door and $26 online; season tickets for all eight concerts are $160. A reception follows. For more, email restorationconcerts@gmail.com or visit friendsofsopaslibrary.org/restoration-concerts.