Interview with an L.A. composer

Michael McLean's first violin concerto was recorded last year at Abbey Road Studios, performed on a 1728 Stradivarius accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra. How cool is that? Laurie Niles of the L.A.-based Violinist.com finds out and blogs:

One day while rummaging through his parents' record collection, he found, buried beneath the Mamas and the Papas and Simon and Garfunkel, a Time/Life collection of classical music his father had purchased. Curious, he looked through the contents: Bach Brandenburg, Handel Water Music, Mozart 40th Symphony, Beethoven 3rd Symphony, Schubert "Unfinished" Symphony and more. He decided to pop Mozart 40 onto the turntable.

"I put that on, and it was a huge spiritual awakening for me," said McLean. “I listened to that record hundreds of times. I wish I could go back to that moment: really experiencing what that music was about, with no intellectual filter."

McLean teaches at The Colburn School downtown.