Meet Your Neighbor: Classical Music Muse

Miriam Schulman is board chair of Jacaranda Music, a local group that plays a wide range of classical music from past and present. new classical music at the First Presbyterian church on 2nd Street in Santa Monica on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m. 

Tell me about your educational and work background.

I went to college at Hollins University in Virginia where I got my BA in Film History and Criticism. Two years later I moved to LA to continue my film studies, getting an MFA from USC in Film Production. When I left grad school I worked in film editing until I married and started my family.  

Where did you grow up and how did you come to love music?

My home state is Georgia.  One of my strongest memories of growing up is of this enormous old phonograph cabinet on which my mother played 33 LP records. Romantic music mostly, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven; and operas—Madame Butterfly was a particular favorite.  She would turn the volume up until the music filled the whole house.  It wasn't until college, however, that I truly fell in love with music.  I took a survey course that introduced me to Berg, Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich, and suddenly a whole new world—the world of  20th century composers—opened up.

How did you end up in Brentwood?

My husband, Tom, and I moved to Brentwood in 1991, into a house designed for us by Los Angeles architect Steve Ehrlich, and we have raised two wonderful boys here, Max and Peter, both of whom aspire to become writers like their father.  Max lives in New York, and Peter is a senior at .

I love the Westside in general but I am attached to Brentwood in particular. It is a great place to raise children because it's a true neighborhood community. The feeling is more what you would expect to have living in a small town rather than a big city.  We've been shopping in the same stores for over 20 years.  My children grew up in and and .  Living here makes me feel like a California native.      

How did you come to be involved with Jacaranda Music?

I have been going to new music concerts in Los Angeles since the late 1970's.  It was easier when I lived in Hollywood, because most of the new music concerts then took place at LACMA or in downtown.  Moving west made it harder to find the kind of music that I was interested in locally.  Then I discovered Jacaranda. For several years I just attended the concerts, gratefully soaking up the extraordinary programs they presented.  I was impressed that a series of such importance and uniqueness was going on practically in my backyard, the only one of its kind on the Westside.  And they were playing composers I loved—Phillip Glass, Terry Riley, Steve Reich.  It was heaven.  Over the years, Jacaranda introduced me to many new composers, not all of whom I loved, but all were compelling in their own way.   My ear for what is beautiful has been developed, expanded, educated.  

Any particular Jacaranda concerts that have been particularly memorable?

There are many moments that define the Jacaranda experience for me and explain my passion for the series.  One of these took place in 2010.  In 1993 Nonesuch released a recording of Phillip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach, which concludes with a spectacular piece, called Knee Play #5,
for three voices, organ, and chorus.  I had been loving and listening to this music on CD for years when I heard it performed at a Jacaranda concert in 2010.  Suddenly it was as if I were hearing it for the very first time. Absolutely a revelation.

Jacaranda's programs, crafted by Artistic Director Patrick Scott, and conducted by Mark Alan Hilt, are concerts of wonderfully edgy, unusual, and unjustly overlooked classical music.  Most, but not all, of the pieces presented are by 20th and 21st century composers. Lots of pieces are west coast premiers. Many of the composers are upstarts or rebels.  It's not what most people think of when they think of classical music, and it's not for the faint of heart.  It's challenging, exciting, and sometimes difficult, but always memorable.  The concept is that it's music on the EDGE.  Music on the cutting edge; music that puts you on the edge of your seat; and of course, music on the edge of the continent.

It's easily the best kept secret in Los Angeles.  

The concerts are held in the lovely on 2nd Street, where many Westsiders send their children to preschool.  Almost hidden behind the elegant art work of Laddie John Dill is a quiet courtyard; pass through this and you enter into a hall of exquisite acoustical properties which offers a musical experience of breathtaking intimacy and immediacy. The performers are all top professionals, from the LA Phil and other pinnacles of the classical music community. Our subscribers know how lucky we are to have Jacaranda in Santa Monica.  My job as board chair is to make sure that this extraordinary cultural jewel has the support it deserves, and to tell the rest of Los Angeles that here is a concert series worthy of a drive from any part of the greater LA area.

Indeed, we have a number of committed commuters already, dedicated Jacarandites who drive from as far away as Pasadena, Long Beach, and Glendale.

I heard you were an avid dog trainer and spider photographer. Tell me about those hobbies and any other interesting hobbies or quirks.

As for my quirky hobbies and passions?  Well, besides dogs, my favorite animals are snakes, bats, and spiders, with lizards, octopi and squid close behind.  I guess you could say that I have always been especially fond of the creatures that most people find least appealing.  I am particularly fascinated by the beleaguered invertebrates of the world—which, by the way, make up 97 percent of the world's species.  I have a particular fondness for spiders, which are—despite widespread opinion to the contrary—generally sweet tempered, docile, helpful, and intriguing creatures.

My dear and patient husband is resigned to having all our windows swathed in spider silk, and I can frequently be found dashing about our garden catching insects to put into their webs.  I have taught about spiders in LA schools, and last fall 27 of my photographs of spiders were displayed at the . 

I have tended to orphaned baby bats in Australia, and rescued hostile snakes from pet stores before the snakes were put down.  I am a fan of clicker training for keeping dogs—and their owners—entertained, and I am taking classes in sport agility with our Skye Terrier, Morris.