On Thursday, August 22 at 7:30pm, don't miss the return of a longtime Montalvo favorite to the beautiful outdoor Lilian Fontaine Garden Theatre: An Evening with Chris Botti.
This Grammy Award winning jazz artist is one of the top-selling American instrumentalists of all time. His success has crossed over to audiences often reserved for pop music, and his ongoing association with PBS has led to four #1 jazz albums along with worldwide recognition.
Tickets are now on sale to the public, so get yours today -- and when you buy, be sure to add Dining on the Terrace, our delicious pre-concert meal on the front veranda of the Villa!
Come listen and dance with us on Thursday, June 13 as Orquestra Latin Heat performs at our Live Music Dance Party on the outdoor Garden Terrace!
Before the show (at 6:30pm), you can dust off your dancing skills by taking an optional class in either Merengue & Salsa or Merengue & Cumbia. You'll review basic footwork and fundamentals to get yourself warmed up for the music.
At 7:30pm, the band takes the stage with their swinging horns, vocals, and Latin percussion. If you're fresh out of the class, you'll want to practice your moves, but if you'd rather just get a ticket to the show, you can still groove to the music on a beautiful Montalvo summer evening. Either way, this is a party you won't want to miss!
On Wednesday, May 29 at 7:30pm, join critically acclaimed poet and Lucas Artists Fellow Willie Perdomo for a conversation with award-winning journalist, author, and cultural critic Jeff Chang in a special Open Access event: The Crazy Bunch.
Perdomo, a native of East Harlem, has won praise as a playful, historically engaged poet whose lyrical language mixes “city life with a sense of the transcendent” (NPR). In his fourth collection, The Crazy Bunch, he returns to his beloved neighborhood to create a vivid, kaleidoscopic portrait of a “crew” coming of age in the 1990s through poems written in couplets, vignettes, sketches, riffs, and dialogue.
Chang, one of America’s most important cultural critics, has written extensively on culture, politics, the arts, and music, and was named by The Utne Reader as one of "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.” His latest book, We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation, was recently turned into a four-episode digital series for PBS Indie Lens Storycast.
Don't miss this evening of poetry, conversation, and culture with two of the most interesting voices of our time. Tickets are just $10, or free for Montalvo donors!
Early this month, our Phelan Cactus Garden received a new resident: an enormous new barrel cactus.
This beautiful specimen came to us thanks to a local resident who recently returned to her family home where the cactus had been growing for decades, thanks to the care of her father. The plant was so large that she didn't feel she could keep it, but many local gardens were unable to accommodate a donation due to the difficulty in simply moving the nearly five-foot, 1,000 pound behemoth!
Thankfully, the Montalvo gardening staff led by Ann Northrop and Chris Yamashita came to the rescue. With the additional help of some plant-loving friends and our talented facilities team, we were able to extract the cactus from its original home and move it to our garden. The strap and pole you see in the picture are temporary, stabilizing the plant as its roots settle into their new home.
You can watch a video of our team deploying the cactus into the ground, or click below to see a Facebook photo gallery documenting moving day.
Be sure to stroll down to the Cactus Garden for a visit the next time you're here! It's located through the gates at the base of the lawn, down the path through the Italianate Garden, and past the Love Temple. There are plenty of other beautiful succulents there, as well as some works of art that you just might love. Enjoy!
