HERS Music Trio Highlights Female LA Composers at Third@First

When soprano Karen Hogle Brown founded HERS during the pandemic, she was responding to a structural problem that has dogged her career: in the opera world, a small set of canonical works dominates the stage, and the lack of women composers, she has argued, has real consequences for which voices get heard. On Saturday afternoon, HERS Music brings that mission to First United Methodist Church Pasadena, performing a program of vocal selections by celebrated Los Angeles female composers as part of the church’s Third@First concert series.

The Saturday program features two acclaimed vocalists — Karen Hogle Brown and Tamara Bevard — and pianist Jennie Jung, performing music by Reena Esmail, Zanaida Stewart Robles, Dale Trumbore, and others. Hogle Brown, a member of the LA Opera Chorus and the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Master Chorale, has performed Schnittke’s Symphony No. 4 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series and Avro Pärt’s “Magnificat” with the Jacaranda Music Festival. Bevard has maintained a private voice studio since 2000 and has been on the Pasadena Conservatory faculty since 2011 and at Pomona College since 2017.

Jung, a pianist who made her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at age 11, has performed as soloist with the Korean Philharmonic, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Taejon Philharmonic, and the University of Toronto Symphony, and has been on staff at the Mozarteum in Austria and the Aspen Summer Music Festival.

The Third@First series, curated by pianist Junko Ueno Garrett, has presented chamber music and vocal performances at the church for more than a decade.

HERS Music Trio at Third@First will run on Saturday, May 16 at 4 p.m. First United Methodist Church Pasadena, 500 E. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 796-0157 or visit thirdatfirst.org. Tickets available online.