Read our Reviews

Jacaranda is a series of adventures offering the cornerstones of music from centuries past next to unforgettable new and modern music. Jacaranda, a program of the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, is exciting repertoire and brilliant musicians. Each concert program has a point of view and the series as a whole is rich with musical relationships that are satisfying on many levels to both new and experienced listeners.

Jacaranda’s creators, Mark Alan Hilt and Patrick Scott, have an insightful way of programming music that lifts the concert experience to an exciting level. Jacaranda provides music that is mostly missing from the cultural life of Los Angeles in compelling performances that make you wonder why.

Jacaranda is designed for those who are looking for a way into classical music, for those who want an intimate venue presenting the music that they have learned to love through recordings, or for the connoisseur wanting an alternative to the usual concert fare – with the all the social benefits and adventure that only live concerts can provide.

The warmly resonant sound of Jacaranda’s newly renovated home, the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, brings the music alive with an unforgettable physical presence – “…an invitingly clean-lined architectural space with fine acoustics,” said Los Angeles CITY BEAT; “…airy and comfortable,” added the Los Angeles Times.

• 450 upholstered bench seating intimately arranged around the performing area;
• an excellent Steinway piano;
• a Schantz organ well-suited for repertoire ranging from Bach to Messiaen;
• across from Houston’s Restaurant & Bar; near to the ocean and the Santa Monica Bay Club, next to the Third Street Promenade, and close to the Fairmont Miramar Hotel.
• easy access to Second Street from Wilshire Boulevard or Arizona Avenue; and
• nine levels of low cost City parking across the street, as well as private parking behind the bank next door, enter off of Wilshire.

The team of Patrick Scott and Mark Hilt bring to Jacaranda a broad and unexpected background of accomplishments. Their approach has proven fresh and effective in re-imagining the concert going experience with a mostly youthful mix of players, dynamic repertoire, and unusually informative program notes.

Patrick Scott, Artistic Director, studied with visual artists Robert Irwin, Vija Celmins, Ed Moses, Tony Delap, and Kenneth Price at the University of California at Irvine, where he received the Chancellor’s Award and a President’s Fellowship for painting. He graduated cum laude. In addition to directing Jacaranda, he currently promotes education programs for Invent Now Kids, Inc. a division of the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation. Previously, he was the chief development officer for LA’s BEST After School Enrichment in the Mayor’s Office, and has held key positions with Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School, Film Independent, and Humanitas, a project of Urban Education Partnership. He worked with Peter Sellars to design the Los Angeles Festival education program. As a consultant, his clients have included the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, AT&T, Inner-City Arts, People for the American Way, Mediascope and Warner Bros.

Mark Alan Hilt is Music Director of Jacaranda and Director of Music of the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, where he organized the Bach 2000 festival and Festival Messiaen in 2002. Those two composers figure prominently in his organ repertoire. As a member of the Harvard-Westlake School faculty, he teaches sight singing, accompanies four choral ensembles, coaches singers, and serves as music director for the annual musical theatre production. Starting at age eighteen, he has gained over 25 years experience as a church musician, recitalist and vocal coach. With five operas and more than ten musicals under his baton, Mr. Hilt’s repertoire as a conductor, accompanist, and organist is very broad. For Jacaranda he has conducted works by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Ives, Stravinsky, Barber, Gruber, Maxwell Davies, Reich, and Glass.