The Restoration Concert Series kicks off its 30th anniversary season on Sunday, September 13, with the New Hollywood String Quartet performing at 4 p.m. in the South Pasadena Public Library Community Room. The quartet, serving as the series' ensemble in residence, will play works by Mozart, Schubert, and Ravel in the 184-seat hall at 1115 El Centro Street, a room long known for its excellent musical acoustics.
The concert marks the opening of an eight-concert season celebrating three decades of what organizers describe as affordable chamber music, according to Pasadena Now. Tickets are $26 online or $25 at the door, with a season pass covering all eight concerts priced at $160. Net proceeds from the series go toward restorations and enhancements to the library and its community room, a mission embedded in the program's name since volunteer Cindy Line founded it in 1996, following the library's 100th birthday celebrations, when a single popular chamber concert prompted city librarians to request an annual program, according to the Tiger Newspaper.
A Library Room With Carnegie Roots
The venue itself carries its own history. The room was built as a library with a grant from Andrew Carnegie, opening in 1908 as the building's main reading room, according to the City of South Pasadena. It received a Mediterranean Revival redesign in 1930, was designated a local Cultural Heritage Landmark in 1972, and was converted into a public community hall in 1982. Carnegie reportedly visited the South Pasadena building himself during his 1910 California tour, per the city's account.
Over the Restoration Concerts' history, ticket proceeds have funded tangible upgrades to the space, including audience seating, carpeting, sound systems, a folding projector screen, and a 2012 ADA-compliant wheelchair access ramp, the Tiger Newspaper reports. The series also previously funded the purchase of a nine-foot Steinway concert grand piano, which was later sold and replaced with an updated rental instrument to keep pace with the needs of visiting artists.
From Studio Sessions to the Concert Stage
The New Hollywood String Quartet gave its first concert in Los Angeles on January 9, 2001, and its members bring deep studio credentials alongside their chamber music work. Cellist Andrew Shulman serves as principal cello of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, violinist Tereza Stanislav is the orchestra's assistant concertmaster, violist Robert Brophy is its associate principal viola, and violinist Rafael Rishik rounds out the ensemble. Collectively, the quartet has recorded hundreds of film scores, according to Pasadena Now.
The group draws its name and inspiration from the original Hollywood String Quartet, founded in 1939 by 20th Century Fox concertmaster Felix Slatkin and Warner Bros. principal cellist Eleanor Aller, the first female principal cellist in studio orchestra history. That earlier ensemble became the first American-formed chamber group to gain international acclaim through its Capitol Records releases, recording extensively with Frank Sinatra, including his 1956 album Close to You, before disbanding in 1961, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The modern quartet has built its own reputation well beyond South Pasadena. It has mounted annual multi-day summer chamber music festivals since its 2019 Summer of Brahms program, in which the ensemble performed all 25 of Johannes Brahms's instrumental chamber works, and its July 2025 Summer of Angels festival at The Huntington's Rothenberg Hall featured guest conductor Leonard Slatkin and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, per The South Pasadenan. The quartet was also selected by Artistic Director Cécilia Tsan to perform an all-Schubert program inside the vaulted dome housing Mount Wilson Observatory's 100-inch telescope, as part of a September 2025 concert series there, Musical America reported. Its recording of composer Gernot Wolfgang's piece String Theory earned a 2016 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Compendium.
New Faces and a Season of Familiar Names
Two ensembles new to the Restoration Concerts series will appear later in the 2026-2027 season. Trumpeter David Washburn, principal trumpet of the Pasadena Pops, leads his own brass quintet, while timpanist Wade Culbreath, principal timpanist of the Pasadena Symphony, leads a percussion ensemble making its series debut. The full lineup, detailed by ColoradoBoulevard.net, also includes the Cantilena Trio, pianist Robert Thies performing with violinist Roger Wilkie, pianist Rodolfo Leone with a string trio, and string sextet Ensemble Familia, featuring Escher String Quartet violist Bredon Speltz.
Thies has performed in the Restoration Concert Series continuously since its inaugural 1996 season. He gained worldwide acclaim in 1995 as the first American pianist to win first prize in a Russian piano competition since Van Cliburn's landmark win in 1958, according to ColoradoBoulevard.net's earlier coverage of his recurring appearances with the series.
The New Hollywood String Quartet's ties to the series run deeper than this season's opener. At a May 2024 concert, the quartet donated its performance fee back to Restoration Concerts. Violist Robert Brophy called it, per Pasadena Now, a wonderful concert and a fundraising event.
Community Support Behind the Scenes
The Restoration Concert Series is managed entirely by a 10-member volunteer committee under the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, a structure that earned the program South Pasadena's 2013 Image Award for drawing regional classical music lovers to the city, according to South Pasadena Patch. Audience members at the September 13 concert will be invited to a cake reception following the performance. More information on tickets and the season schedule is available at [email protected] or friendsofsopaslibrary.org/restoration-concerts.
