Hello Fellow Classical Music Aficionados,

Well, you probably received the E-mail notification this past Saturday about the organizer stepping down and
the Meetup going extinct by June 21st if another organizer did not take over. This surprised me as it also surprised
you and I did receive some correspondences regarding this.

Micheal Mossey, the founder and original organizer of the Meetup decided to stepdown which resulted in the E-mail
notification. I'm not sure why Micheal decided to step down and have not heard from him. I've decided to
become the new organizer with Margarethe Eichel as co-organizer. So, rest be assured, the Classical Music
Meetup will not be going into oblivion.

The June Meetup calendar events still appear as cancelled but pay no attention to this. I'll need to find a way to re-activate
the June Meetup events if this is possible.

I will be scheduling a second June Meetup at a restaurant in Pasadena. Still haven't decided upon a place but am leaning
towards Italian. If you folks know of a good Italian restaurant where the food is good and inexpensive (and the Health
Rating is not below "A") please let me know. The date will either me next Monday, June 15th, or the following Monday,
June 22nd.

I attened a UC Irvine Symphony all-Ravel concert this past Saturday evening at the Irvine Barclay Theater on the
campus of UC Irvine. The concert was great! Five of Ravel's more popular works were programmed.
Two of the pieces (Pavane for a Dead Princess and Le Tombeau de Couperin) were also played by the
Colburn Orchestra at Ambassador Auditorium last February which some of the Meetup members attended.
I have to rate the Colburn Orchestra ahead of the UCI Symphony on those pieces. The french horn solo in the Pavane was
somewhat shaky. Maybe the player had the solo jitters as this was the first piece on the program. However,
Tombeau was nicely performed.

Overall, the UCI Symphony did a superb job on all of the Ravel pieces. Their version of Ma Mere L'Oye
was just as good as the version I heard performed by the professional Marina Del Rey Symphony last summer.
The UCI Orchestra was really polished in the second half with Valses Nobles and Sentimentales and Rapsodie Espagnole.
The orchestra has solid string and wind sections. I'm really amazed at with the sound and quality of today's college
symphony ensembles - almost as good as a professional level orchestra but with much less pricier tickets which is a
blessing in today's economy. I would highly recommend that you attend concerts by the UCLA Philhormonia,
USC Thornton Orchestra, the Colburn School of Music Orchestra, or UCI Symphony next year and be treated
to peformances of high caliber w/o gouging your pocket books.

Lastly, we came that close to see the Classical Music Meetup get snuffed-out. In order for the Meetup to continue
thriving and sustaining itself, we need your ongoing turnout and participation. Kyoko's piano recital at the end of May
had a good turnout. If any of you folks have ideas on how we can encourage good turnout and particpation at events,
please let either Margarethe or me know. Your suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated.

With the new Hollywood Bowl season starting next month, perhaps we could gather Meetup members to go to
several Bowl concerts over the summer and bring food/drinks along. I would suggest taking the Park and Ride
to get to the Bowl instead of driving/parking there (which sucks) and then arranging for us to meet somewhere
at the Bowl (by the box office perhaps) prior to the concert and then head up to our seats. Just a thought.

So don't fret, the Meetup is still alive and kicking and will go on.
Mark