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Orange County has long been a hotbed of creativity, especially in the music department. We had an explosive punk rock movement in the late 1970s and early 80s, which is when I was playing drums in a band called Desperate Living while managing other local bands and producing demos...

In 1978, John Travolta received an Oscar nomination for his role in “Saturday Night Fever,” disco music topped the Billboard music charts, disco clubs – and disco wear – were all the rage, and a small Orange County-based orchestra called Pacific Symphony played its first concert....

  What does it take for musicians to bond with one another? For the four members of The Side Deal, it was a patch of black ice. The band was in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. They were driving to a morning gig in a rented car, and it was snowing. Coming down...

A Newport Coast campus transformed into a global village over the weekend, celebrating diversity with food, entertainment and activities from around the world. Sage Hill School hosted the 17th Annual Multicultural Fair on Saturday, bringing in hundreds of attendees from across...

The popular Concerts on the Green series will once again bring thousands of music lovers to the Civic Center lawn this summer. Four acts were approved by the arts commission last Thursday during their monthly meeting. The performers for the summer series are a Sinatra-esque...

  It’s that time of year again: The Corona del Mar Christmas Walk is returning next weekend for holiday fun and festivities. The popular holiday community event, presented by the CdM Chamber of Commerce, returns on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.,  in its 39th year of bringing...

They say good things come in threes, but in the case of the Quebe Sisters, the musical trio is more than just good—they are astoundingly talented. All three Quebe Sisters –  Hulda, Sophia and Grace – play violin, which itself is unusual. But then they open their mouths and...

  For more than 20 years, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County has hosted the annual House of Design, where a team of local designers customize a classic home and the public pays to tour the home, with proceeds going to the Society’s youth music education programs. The...

  Newport Beach City Arts Commission once again doled out cultural arts grants last week, but this year more than half the funds went back to the Commission — for Concerts on the Green and other programming — and the rest went to only a handful of organizations.   At the Art...

Orange County doesn’t have any major rock concert festival-style events (think Coachella), so the closest thing to a truly unique musical experience is called KAABOO, which I recently attended at the Del Mar racetrack in San Diego county. Only an hour away by car, KAABOO is even...

Where are the future Broadway stars? They’re attending the Orange County School of the Arts. OCSA kicked off its 2017-18 season with a beachfront concert at the Balboa Bay Resort on Sept. 9 starring Broadway star (and OCSA alumna) Krysta Rodriguez performing a handful of songs...

Pacific Symphony’s 2017-18 Classical Opening Night Celebration & Concert was a night of elegance and opulence from the moment 320 guests arrived at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel. Attendees decked out in black-tie and stunning ball gowns began celebrating the Symphony’s...

The Orange County Women’s Chorus, one of the top amateur choruses in California, recently announced it’s welcoming new singers in all voice parts for its 2017-18 20th Anniversary Season. The OCWC, named a 2014 Outstanding Arts Organization by Arts Orange County, just...

OC Cajun Food & Music Celebration Christopher has been to New Orleans three times and loves the Creole and Cajun foods, and the music that goes with it, so he was thrilled to learn of the inaugural OC Cajun Food & Music Celebration, hosted by the Community Action...

The Pacific Symphony is renowned as having some of the best musicians in southern California, but the Pacific Symphony Youth Ensembles also have top music students performing with them. In fact, the ensembles are so good that in addition to concerts in Segerstrom Concert Hall,...

An invitation to the annual Pacific Symphony Gala is always a welcome and treasured treat, but when the theme is the Roaring 20s and Great Gatsby attire is suggested, we knew what we had to do: comb the costume boutiques and thrift stores for the perfect ensemble. After visiting...

All good things must come to an end, and so it was with the Pacific Symphony’s summer concerts at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater. After nearly three decades, Pacific Symphony played its final concert at Irvine Meadows last September, shortly before the venue closed to make way for a...

With a newfound need to drive private fundraising for the city’s cultural arts in Newport Beach, the city Arts Commission is investing in music and manpower. The commissioners approved an increase of $60,000 in their programming budget for a concert by the Pacific Symphony next...

Encore for Education, a commercial real estate industry charity concert, raised $161,345 to benefit Music Matters, a program created by Buchanan Children’s Charities and the Orange County Community Foundation (both based in Newport Beach) to restart Orange County public schools...

Drummer or chef? That was the question Stan Frazier pondered when he was growing up in Newport Beach, but fortunately he was able to pursue both music and the culinary arts. As the drummer and principal songwriter for the popular band Sugar Ray, Frazier toured the world, had six...