Category: Stories
‘Rivers of Sound’: From the Euphrates to The Soraya
Composer Amir ElSaffar, the innovative jazz trumpeter and director of the Rivers of Sound Orchestra, is calling his new work “a sonic embrace.” ElSaffar penned the expression to describe “Emergence,”...
Accessing the Eternal Through Dance
Ragamala Dance Company, a family affair, has its artistic roots in the South Indian dance form, Bharatanatyam, renowned as the oldest classical dance tradition in India.
Martha Graham’s ode to nature ‘Canticle,’ re-imagined for 21st Century
When Martha Graham premiered a new, full-company work with a poetic title, “Canticle for Innocent Comedians,” it was the Spring of 1952.
Director Selects: Bach by Beltrami
We are so fortunate to live in Los Angeles where scores of top-shelf musicians live and work.
Bridging the Dance Gap with Ballet BC
When the effervescent contemporary ballet troupe Ballet BC last appeared at The Soraya, it was indeed “BC”—Before Covid.
We're back!On February 5, The Soraya will resume regularly scheduled performances.
Our brief hiatus, consistent with CSUN and L.A. County public health measures, helped to keep safe our artists, audiences, and employees, while importantly respecting the extraordinary burden on hospitals and...
An Update from the Executive and Artistic Director
When we re-opened The Soraya in October, I had only two wishes: that we would do so safely, and that we would never need to shut the doors again.
Time Traveling with Martha Graham, at The Soraya
When Martha Graham placed a single bare foot—famously small, her feet had enviable high arches—on the stage of New York’s 48th Street Theater in her 1926 debut as an independent...
Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Ginny Mancini 1924-2021
Ginny Mancini was impeccable – stylish, glamorous, kind, worldly, and generous. So many here in Los Angeles, and far beyond, benefitted from her philanthropy, including The Soraya.
Sonic Boom: The Police, Reimagined, at The Soraya
No band electrified audiences in the 1970s and ‘80s like The Police. Omnipresent on the airwaves, they had arenas pulsing across the globe. Punk energy unpinned by jazz figures, reggae rhythms and symphonic aspirations made The Police the defining New Wave band.