RenArts Orchestra Plays for State Department

Over the years, student-led string orchestras at the in Eagle Rock have played for such diverse audiences as Los Angeles City Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.

On Tuesday night, RenArts’ "Orchestra A,” as the finest of the public charter school’s four string ensembles is called, regaled top officials of an organization that is the centerpiece of America’s foreign diplomacy—the U.S. State Department.

The orchestra played at the opening of a private State Department event held at the Getty Center in West L.A.—a hush-hush affair over which Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was expected to preside.

For security reasons, invitees to the event were carefully screened—and members of RenArts’ top orchestra trimmed from 34 to only 13, according to the school’s co-founder and executive director PK Candaux.

A request by Eagle Rock Patch to cover the evening was denied: “Unfortunately, due to the fact that this is a private event for the government, I was unable to get you clearance to cover the event,” read an email reply from a producer for Empire Entertainment Inc., an entertainment and events company based in New York City and Tokyo. “There is no press allowed.”

Security concerns also evidently kept RenArts in the dark about Clinton’s schedule—and whether or not the secretary of state would be in town. (The most recent news about Clinton was her testimony about U.S. sanctions against Iran before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.)

“We really don’t know,” said Candaux when asked if Clinton was going to be present at the exclusive event at the Getty, for which the entire museum was closed to the public. Added Candaux: “We were in the middle of doing school all day—and in addition we have this.”

This was, of course, a reference to the secretive evening, which, coincidentally, preceded hectic rehearsals by RenArts students for the school’s well-known annual “Winter Show” scheduled for next week.

“It’s our first big show of the year,” said Candaux, explaining that each of RenArts’ four string orchestras will give separate public performances at the school over three consecutive evenings, starting Wednesday, March 7.

Stay tuned for more about the Winter Show next week as well as for an update about whether or not Hillary’s shuttle diplomacy got a well-deserved break from 13 handpicked string virtuosos who would have done Plato proud.