[photo credit: Visit Pasadena]
The concert is the second in the observatory’s Sunday Afternoon Concerts in the Dome series, which cellist Cécilia Tsan co-founded in 2017. The series presents live chamber music beneath the vaulted steel dome of the Hooker telescope a Pasadena-area scientific landmark that Tsan and the observatory say produces acoustics comparable to the cathedrals of Europe. The Mount Wilson Institute, which operates the observatory, is headquartered on South Grand Avenue in Pasadena.
The Rogue Lemon Collective is a Los Angeles-based group of classically trained string musicians who stray from conventional repertoire, according to the ensemble’s website. Their recordings span string-quartet arrangements of pop and rock songs alongside original compositions — including the 2025 album “Between Dreams & Twilight,” a collaboration with guitarist Mike Moreno, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, and drummer Gary Novak. Their June 7 program, titled “High Ground, New Sound,” will feature violinists Eleanor Dunbar and Megan Shun, violist Rita Andrade, cellist Zach Reaves, and bassist Karl McComas-Reichl. The ensemble frequently incorporates improvisation into its performances, according to the group.
It is a return engagement. The collective performed in the dome in August 2024.
The same concert will be offered twice, at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., with a reception and light refreshments outside the dome at 4 p.m. Tickets are $65 and are available at www.mtwilson.edu/concerts. Visitors are advised to arrive on time; gates close shortly after performances begin.
The 2026 season opened May 24 with a program of Mendelssohn and Fauré that marked the debut of the observatory’s new Steinway grand piano. That concert sold out. Four more dates follow through October: a brass quintet on July 5, a jazz program on August 9, the Webern String Quartet on September 6, and piano quartets of Mahler and Brahms closing the season on October 4.
Tsan, a graduate of the Paris Conservatory and prizewinner at the Barcelona, Florence, and Paris international competitions, is principal cellist of the Long Beach Symphony and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. She has said that the observatory’s mountaintop setting is inseparable from the music.
“You see LA from above and it’s magical,” Tsan said in a 2023 interview with the Argonaut. “It’s a good introduction to what you’re going to experience when you are in the dome and feeling the connection of music and the universe.”
The observatory, founded by George Ellery Hale in 1904, sits at 5,710 feet in the San Gabriel Mountains at 100 Mt Wilson Circle Rd., Mount Wilson, CA 91023. The 100-inch telescope, which saw first light in 1917, was the world’s largest for three decades. Its dome, designed by Chicago architect D.H. Burnham, requires concertgoers to climb a 53-step staircase to reach the performance level. The observatory is not ADA-accessible, and children under 6 are not permitted. The observatory grounds are open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; entrance to the grounds is free.
Directions are available at www.mtwilson.edu/1map. The observatory advises visitors to use its directions rather than phone navigation apps, which can be inaccurate. There is a 10- to 15-minute walk from the parking lot to the dome. Comfortable shoes and layers for the mountain temperature are recommended.
For information, call (626) 214-8030 or email concerts@mtwilson.edu.
A mile above Pasadena, the dome waits its ribs arching overhead like the inside of a cathedral that happens to hold a telescope.
Mount Wilson Observatory — Sunday Afternoon Concerts in the Dome — June 7 Where: Mount Wilson Observatory, 100 Mt Wilson Circle Rd., Mount Wilson Info: (626) 214-8030 | mtwilson.edu Link: https://www.visitpasadena.com/events/summer-of-music-other-festivals/
