Summer Bowl series is stunning; JLLA celebrates Centennial
The annual opening night for the Hollywood Bowl’s Tuesday and Thursday classical music series is another mark of the return of summer. Alfresco dining and visiting with friends before the concert and at intermission are traditions for longtime box holders and newcomers alike. This year, the thousands of attendees on July 9 enjoyed a stunning performance by violinist Augustin Hadelich of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2. The classical musician returned to the stage to perform a resounding encore, where he turned his instrument into an extraordinary fiddle for a foot-stomping piece that was greeted with cheers and a standing ovation from the audience, plus huge applause from the members of the orchestra.

VIOLIN SOLOIST Augustin Hadelich kicked off the Hollywood Bowl’s 2024 summer season with a superb rendition of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, followed by a rousing fiddle music encore.
The main event of the evening was Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” adeptly conducted by Elim Chan. She is a sought-after conductor around the world and also participated in the Philharmonic’s Dudamel Fellowship program when she was younger.
Just a few of those from the neighborhood who were spotted in and around the garden boxes at opening night were Daryl and Jim Twerdahl, Nina Gregory and Kemper Bates, Patti Carroll and her husband, Mark, Martha and John Welborne, Marilyn Wells, Allison Schallert, Brian Brady and many more. The Bowl is “just up the road” (Highland Avenue), after all!
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The Original Farmers Market — longtime former home of the Junior League of Los Angeles (JLLA), prior to the League’s occupying its own home, Rainey House — almost next door to the Larchmont Chronicle on the Boulevard — was the setting on June 30 for the public kick-off of the JLLA’s “Centennial: Legacy of Impact” fundraising campaign.

PRESIDENT-ELECT Dawn Eash will preside during the JLLA Centennial events. To her right is Sarah Christian, Centennial co-chair and past president.
Among the beneficiaries of the sums being raised by the campaign is a series of marquee training events and Community Improvement Projects (CIP) presented through the League’s partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.
At the June 30 event, League leaders made the happy announcement that the campaign goal is $2 million … and that $1,040,653 of that already had been secured.
A number of JLLA leaders spoke at the event, including current 2024-25 president Cristina Rivard and 2025-26 president-elect Dawn Eash. The speakers explained that the local Junior League members also see this 100-year Los Angeles historic milestone as an opportunity to celebrate the generations of women leaders who were League members before them and who helped pave the way for local communities to thrive.

JUNIOR LEAGUE of Los Angeles 2024-25 President Cristina Rivard describes Centennial celebration plans.
A lot more information about the plans for the celebration, to be focused between June 2025 and the spring of 2026, will be shared soon. The Chronicle plans to be among the first to report on our next-door Larchmont neighbor’s exciting plans!
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Local Jack Lancaster is playing Orlando in “As You Like It” in Shakespeare in the Park.
Shakespeare in the Park is one of Los Angeles’ best kept secrets. Although, happily, it’s actually not all that secret! Every summer, nearly 40,000 Angelenos trek to Griffith Park, near the Old Zoo, to witness some of the best live theater the city has to offer, put on by the Independent Shakespeare Company, and it’s absolutely, beautifully free.
This year’s offering, which is presented in the round, is the comedy “As You Like It,” which I attended on a warm summer’s night on Sat., July 20, with nearly 1,000 other Angelenos and Larchmont locals in attendance.
Larchmont’s own Jack Lancaster plays one of the play’s title roles, Orlando, while another Larchmont local, Ethan Remez-Cott, serves mightily as a musician, lord and courtier. Locals in the audience included Elizabeth Dennehy (an Independent Shakespeare Co. board member), Chris Calcote and Edward Blum.

SHAKESPEARE in the Park featured Jack Lancaster as Orlando.
Performances, which run from July 10 to September 1, take place Wednesday through Sunday at 7 p.m., with an immersive prologue beginning at 6 p.m. Learn details at iscla.org/plan-your-visit-2024
And now you’re in the Larchmont know!
Category: Entertainment