Skirball Cultural Center, Summer Series

Skirball Cultural Center's Sunset Concerts Series Revels in Global Sounds and Bringing People Together

July/August 2010 Thursday night concerts feature Parno Graszt (7/22), Natacha Atlas (7/29), Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys (8/5), La Excelencia (8/12), the Jews on Vinyl Revue (8/19), and Kenge Kenge (8/26)

LOS ANGELES—The open expanse of the Skirball Cultural Center's courtyard looks peaceful nestled under the Santa Monica Mountains, but in summer, it bursts with the raucous and joyful noise of the best of the world's musicians: Hungarian gypsies bang milk cans and Kenyan bards wield handmade fiddles, while nonagenarian Yiddish-singing piano bar veterans and soulful Cajuns, hip salsa activists, and trans-cultural divas rub shoulders with dancing neighbors of all generations, backgrounds, and lifestyles.

This fun-loving, open-hearted haven is the Skirball Cultural Center's Sunset Concerts Series, one of Los Angeles' rare opportunities to embrace local, community, and global possibilities in a welcoming outdoor setting designed for dancing, celebration, and engagement. In its fourteenth year, this free Thursday evening series (July 22-August 26) aims to connect people to one another by embracing a panoply of sound that spans the planet, with emphasis on L.A. and California debut performances.

"We're always looking for the perfect outdoor concert," says Sunset Concerts curator Yatrika Shah-Rais, the Skirball's music director. "People like to be outdoors and move. So we offer something that people can get involved in and really dance to. It's festive and boisterous."

The vibrant community spirit of Sunset Concerts, which includes a lively dance floor and, for many, a family picnic, is habit-forming, with concertgoers marking their calendars months in advance and stopping Shah-Rais on the street and asking for the line-up. It is yet another harmonious facet of the Skirball's welcoming, community-minded mission.

Listen now to Yatrika Shah-Rais speak about the 2010 Sunset Concerts at the Skirball.