Brand from Home | March 10, 2022

Concerts at Brand Library in March and April!

Music Playlists

Listen to a streaming playlist from Freegal Music, Naxos Music Library,Naxos Jazz Music Library, Hoopla or Music Online from Alexander Street free with your library card. Alexander Street will ask for an academic institution, use Glendale Public Library.

Here are some new CDs.

Here are some fun music related movies on Hoopla.

Online Music Classes

Coursera has some great music courses. You can sign up for free on the California State Library web site. Music related classes include:

The Singer/Songwriter, How To Play Guitar, Fundamentals of Music Theory, The DIY Musician, Music Production, The Business of Music, Electronic Music Production and Songwriting.

Art Happenings

Brand Library & Art Center invites you to join us for the closing reception of Let Me Talk, a provocative exhibition featuring paintings, sculptures, installation, and photography by a diverse group of 24 artists. Exhibit curators Ada Pullini Brown and Jill Sykes will hold a guided tour with exhibit artists followed by the closing reception on Saturday, March 19th at 2PM.

Glendale Library, Arts and Culture and ReflectSpace Gallery are proud to present As the Earth Wanes: Considering Climate Change, an exhibition designed to reflect on the effects of global warming and climate change on our planet. To create greater awareness about climate change and generate critical conversations toward a greener and more sustainable future, several artists shed light on the current state of our planet.

On March 12, Antaeus Theatre Company and the Brand Library & Art Center will co-present a FREE Zip Code Plays event on Zoom. The virtual Salon will begin with the audio drama The Six Pianos of Miradero, and will be followed by a discussion with Playwright Alex Goldberg, Director Lisa Sanaye Dring, Antaeus Artist Director Bill Brochtrup, and Senior Library, Arts & Culture Supervisor Caley Cannon. The story is fictional but based on real people and events in the history of the Brand family.

Build A Native Bee House

Pick up a kit to build a nesting box for our native California Orchard Mason bee at Brand Library & Art Center starting Thursday, March 10. The native bees of North America have been around for millions of years, long before European honey bees arrived. California is home to 1,600 of the 3,600 native bee species in North America. Let's give them a hand (and a home) to help out our local population. The Bee House Kit includes all the materials you need to build a nesting box for Orchard Mason bees and Leaf Cutter bees as well as Native California Wild Flower seeds to plant (make it a Bed & Breakfast). Watch a great film to learn more about the variety of bees and the work they do: My Garden of a Thousand Bees.

Explore our collections to learn more!

Can't find it at the library? Try out Link+ our network of 70 public and academic libraries from across California and Nevada. Just click on the link from the catalog or watch a tutorial to learn more.

Brand Library Staff Reviews

The film industry changed dramatically between 1929 and 1934 with the advent of sound and the implementation of the often misguided Motion Picture Production Code that changed how women and their stories were allowed to appear on film. Torch Singer (1933) is a tear-jerking pre-Code melodrama starring Claudette Colbert as the pregnant Sally Trent. Thinking she’s been abandoned earlier by her lover when he leaves for China, Sally arrives at a charity hospital to give birth to their baby. She attempts to work to support herself and her daughter but eventually has to put the baby up for adoption after exhausting every other avenue. Sally tries to remake herself as a torch singer and is ironically told after an audition by the male club owner to “learn how to suffer” to better her singing! She won’t accept defeat again, and a year later, Sally morphs into the glamorous Mimi Benton, a wealthy and successful singer with a hardened disposition toward life and love who’s destined to be reunited with her past (in the oddest of ways it turns out). This Depression-era film has a lot of empathy for Sally/Mimi, and Colbert plays the anguished mother/alcoholic torch singer to perfection. It’s worth listening to the audio commentary by film critic Kat Ellinger to learn more about the background of the film including its female writer, representations of women in pre-Code cinema, and the wonderful supporting characters, especially Mildred Washington who plays a hilarious maid/confidante. -SB

Martha Masters – Guitar Recital (Naxos 2001). Martha Masters won the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition in 2000. Soon after she recorded this album for Naxos. She is a fantastic player and it is a wonderful album to listen to. Her playing is wonderfully expressive with fabulous technique. The contrast between the two largest pieces on the program – Cavatine by Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986) and Suite in E minor by J.S. Bach (1685-1750) is a nice programming choice. The colorful Variations on a Theme of Mozart by Fernando Sor (1778-1839) is an ever popular virtuoso guitar piece. Bryan Johanson’s (b. 1951) Variations on a Finnish Folk Song is a mellow and enjoyable piece - the only piece by a living composer on the program. Mexican composer Manual Ponce (1882-1948) wrote many pieces for his friend Andrés Segovia, that are now standard guitar repertoire. Thème varié et Finale (1926) is one of Ponce’s most popular pieces and this exciting performance is a good introduction. Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999) is well known to guitarists and his En los Trigales (In the Wheat Fields) ends the program. This lively short piece depicts rural Spanish life.

Bokyung Byun, the 2021 winner of the Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition, will be performing at Brand Library on April 30 at 2pm. Byun is the only female guitarist to win this annual competition since Martha Masters in 2000. Both are wonderful artists that you should become familiar with. -BW

Covid-19 Resources

Reliable information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) is available from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the California Department of Public Health, Los Angeles County Public Health Department, City of Glendale and the Library, Arts & Culture department.