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David Wheatley will be performing

with the

Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra

Ventura First United Methodist Church

1338 E. Santa Clara St., Ventura, CA 93003

SUNDAY

SEPTEMBER 22, 2024 AT 3:00 PM

Program:

Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat Major by Joseph Haydn

Organ Concerto in G Minor by Francis Poulenc - David Wheatley, Organ

Selections from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Felix Mendelsohn

Tickets:

$20 advance purchase: cichamberorchestra.org

$25 at the door

Students and children under 12 are free

For more information, go to cichamberorchestra.org

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THE DAVID WHEATLEY BAND

will be performing on

Saturday, July 20, 2024

7:00 PM

JAZZ IN JULY

ANNUAL SUMMER SERIES

First Presbyterian Church of Granada Hills

10400 Zelzah Ave. Northridge, CA 91326

On the front lawn. Bring your lawn chair.

ADMISSION FREE

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Reviews

THE PQ GAZETTE

Pianist Wheatley Wows Local, Sherman Oaks Crowd

October 20, 2018 - Dispatching with formalities and niceties, I will be frank. David Wheatley gave an intimate, in-home concert that was marked by great musicianship, elegant, kind and gracious words – and “aw-shucks-folks” humor that was educational while opening his age-diverse audience to better appreciate what was before them. He created a deceptively well-thought out program that started strong and only got stronger, piece by piece, showing his mastery in a range of styles from jazz and boogie-woogie, to TV theme songs, national anthems and serious classics. He began with two of his own compositions, “Out of the Blue” and “Piano Soundtrack” – both displaying a deep understanding of appealing melody, harmony, counterpoint – and the kind of flourish one imagines Chopin himself might have displayed in his historically famous Paris salon concerts. No one style dominated, which created a wonderful feeling of “what next” anticipation that could be felt in the air. After two of his own compositions, he moved on to John Philip Sousa’s well-known Washington Post March, then brought in his artist/liaison Barbara Sheppard, who kindly and adeptly explained Mr. Wheatley’s Canadian roots. So that his audience could understand various music styles, Wheatley then chose a single, well-known musical theme (O Canada) and reiterated it with the various base-line counterpoints – sometimes announcing them out loud. The audience cheered. He took the time to introduce his page turner, explaining in detail how he met her, and how this often-seen but little understood role is rife with possible disasters -- from turning too many pages, to not enough, to knocking the music over. Once he had the audience warmed up, Wheatley moved on to Chopin’s famous, rousing crowd-pleaser, Polonaise in A Major, before turning the corner to the more refined and felicitous, Bruyeres, by Claude Debussy. The contrast from muscular to delicate showed off the kind of clarity, ease and keyboard dominion that can only come with decades of experience and training, on top of a unique, interpretive creativity. Then came the core piece of the evening – a composition that doesn’t exist in piano form because it was created as a symphony. Mr. Wheatley adapted and played the Franz Liszt transcription of the entire 35-minute score of Beethoven's 5th. Instead of building it up pompously as the serious accomplishment that it is, he popped the bubble by cuing the audience to go “oooooooooooh!” which they did instantly, and then he broke the ice by declaring, “actually, I’ve changed my mind and won’t play it,” which had the effect of bringing the audience together with laughter while simultaneously riveting attention on what was to follow. He announced at the outset, how many minutes the four-movement composition would take which had the odd-to-me effect of feeling like it ended early rather than dragging on and on, a characteristic that has often plagued some symphonic chestnuts. The Beethoven piece could be reviewed on its own as a separate accomplishment and had the effect on one man of being “just the lift I sorely needed and was hoping for after a long, grueling day.” In the moment, I would have loved to know more about the history of one of Beethoven’s most famous pieces – with perhaps a “what to listen for” guide – ala Alan Chapman’s well-known, pre-LA Phil discussions, featuring composers and performers. But looking back, it does seem that such exposition could have distracted from Wheatley’s carefully-crafted evening. After playing my favorite of the evening, his own Adagio (which to me suggests an obvious crowd pleasing, all-Wheatley composition evening), Wheatley introduced a brief and complete change of pace: a composed-on-the-spot improvisation by Danny Wood, a California Institute of the Arts graduate with a BFA in music composition. Wheatley set up the interlude brilliantly by explaining how he had met Mr. Wood at a party and the duo began examining the evolving state of piano composition from modern to avant garde to experimental. Wheatley explained, that “We at USC begin with the modern and aspire to the avant garde without ever getting there, whereas the folks at Cal Arts begin with the Avant Garde and go beyond.” What followed was a captivating blend of physical percussion and ornamental flourishes that might have come from Prokofiev, Scriabin, Gershwin and/or John Cage. Then Wheatley returned with several surprises: Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C Sharp Minor, blending mid-movement into Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, and two encores that he announced ahead of time would be “spontaneous” – and only if the crowd wanted them. They bellowed for more. “MORE! ENCORE!” Mr. Wheatley obliged. A magical time was had by all.

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Visalia Times Delta Published 10:21 a.m. PT March 11, 2015 |

Music at the Main (Visalia, California) is excited to announce an upcoming concert by acclaimed Hollywood composer and pianist David Wheatley.

Wheatley's talent runs broad and deep. He is a terrific pianist in all genres — classical, jazz, blues, film score, you name it — and is a wonderful storyteller to boot. The concert is at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 15, 2015 at the Main Street Theater, 307 E. Main St.

Wheatley has composed music for television shows such as "Portrait of a Legend" starring James Darren. He has conducted the National Philharmonic Orchestra of London in his original theme and score for the feature surf film "Many Classic Moments." He'll tell some stories, with piano along for effect. But above all, expect the unexpected.

Wheatley will be giving us a bit of everything he has in his huge bag of entertainment— Bach, Beethoven, Bill Evans and whole lot more. He may start with a classical theme and morph it into jazz or blues and back again. Or, he may start with jazz and morph it to classical with a quick aside for an anecdote.

Along with everything else, he will perform some of the television theme songs he has played on: "Laverne and Shirley," "Happy Days," "Mork and Mindy" and "Hawaii Five-O."

But there's a lot more to David Wheatley than this. In the hugely important world of composing music for the film industry, Wheatley stands very tall. (He's tall literally, too, but that's beside the point.) In 1984, he teamed up with others to create the most important film scoring program in the world at USC and served as its first director. As a composer, David's music has can be heard in numerous films: "The Golden Child" with Eddie Murphy, "Cannonball Fever" with John Candy, "The Princess Academy" with Eva Gabor and Bozidar Smiljanic.

He has also performed and recorded with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and performed the Bach "B Minor Mass" under the direction of noted Bach scholar Helmut Rilling playing in Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and Avery Fisher Hall in New York City among many others.

If you've been longing for something a little different, this is your chance. Please join us for an exciting afternoon of song and story.

Thanks to generous sponsorship from County Center Rotary, all children and students are admitted free. An adult accompanying the child is also admitted free. The County Center Rotary's sponsorship also allowed Wheatley to present an hour long program to over 350 ProYouth Heart students.