Typically, with Gary Mandell, in his 15th year as the funloving impresario of what now is called Culver City’s Boulevard Music Summer Festival, the question was straight, the answer was a bowl of mirth.
With the Thursday night concerts in the Courtyard of City Hall starting next week, July 9, at 7 o’clock, with Latin jazz and flamenco performers headlining, why should the community come out?
“All new jokes,” Mr. Mandell said.
Does it feel like 15 years?
“No, it feels like 50. Finding sponsors always is difficult. This year two manufacturers of instruments are donating instruments – a $600 nylon-string classical guitar and two $250 ukeleles. They will be raffled off on a night still to be determined.”
In other years, critics of Mr. Mandell’s lineup of performers have chanted their complaints:
- Too many repeat faces on stage,
- The wrong blend of music genres,
- The wrong mix of entertainers,
- A consistent failure to satisfy the eclectic tastes of the hyper-sensitive Cultural Affairs Commission (which no longer has a voice in the selection of entertainers),
- He is the wrong choice for impresario.
To mollify some members of the chorus, Mr. Mandell is bringing in a half-dozen new acts for the summer’s six-Thursday series.
Is this a record?
“No. The first year I did it, all of the acts were new. The acts that are repeats this year have not been here for four or five years.”
Did you hire so many new performers intentionally, or was that just the way it worked out?
“It was intentional. I understand the city, which is the biggest sponsor, likes to see new artists. In the past, I felt like, ‘whatever is out there, whatever I can find.’ If I can’t find somebody whom I don’t think is outstanding, I won’t put them out there just because they are new. I have to make a decision between a repeat and somebody I think is great – what do you do? I don’t think the audience minds as much as the people who are in position to think there should be new performers every year.”
Speaking of repetition, do you know what portion of your audience attends every week?
“Should I include the people who just stay over and don’t go home? I say that because some people just can’t wait for the next show.”
See http://www.boulevardmusic.com/livemusic/608.html
