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# Music Guild at St. Matthew's Opens 42nd Season with Handel, Mozart and Respighi
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/music-guild-at-st-matthews-opens-42nd-season-with-handel-mozart-and-respighi/
- Published: 2026-09-25T18:59:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-25T18:58:59.000Z
- Author: Maaz Alin
- Tags: Entertainment, Pacific Palisades

The Music Guild at St. Matthew's opens its 42nd concert season Friday, Oct. 2, with a program of Handel, Respighi and Mozart, led by Music Director and Conductor Dwayne S. Milburn. The 8 p.m. concert at St. Matthew's Church, 1031 Bienveneda Ave., features the Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew's and guest organist Haesung Park.

The program opens with Handel's Organ Concerto in F Major, HWV 295, known as "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale," a work inspired by birdsong that pairs sparkling orchestral textures with virtuosic organ passages. Park will perform on the restored Pardee Memorial Fisk organ.

Respighi's "Botticelli Triptych" follows, translating three Renaissance paintings — "Spring," "The Adoration of the Magi" and "The Birth of Venus" — into orchestral scenes. The concert concludes with Mozart's Symphony No. 39, K. 543, one of the composer's final symphonies.

"This season opener invites audiences into a world of wonder, beauty, and discovery," Milburn said. "This program spans centuries of musical imagination, from Handel's joyful dialogue between organ and orchestra to the luminous colors of Respighi and the profound expressive depth of Mozart."

Park began studying music at age 4 in her hometown of Seoul, South Korea. She trained at the Korean National University of Arts, earned a Master of Music degree from Boston University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with honors from the University of Southern California, where she studied piano with Norman Krieger and organ with Ladd Thomas. She is the featured pianist on the soundtrack of the documentary "With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story," recorded at Capitol Records in Hollywood. She serves as organist and pianist at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church and at Vallejo Drive Church of Seventh-day Adventists in Glendale, and is principal keyboardist for the Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew's.

A free pre-concert talk, "Liner Notes," begins at 7:10 p.m. and is open to all ticket holders. Members of the ensemble will join Milburn to offer context about the music and composers.

Tickets are $49 for general admission and $10 for students with ID at the door. Children under 16 are free. Tickets are available at MusicGuildOnline.org.

Edited by SMDP Staff