California Institute of the Arts launches the second season of The Wild Beast Concert Series with CalArts Capitol Jazz, a jazz extravaganza featuring ten hot bands, on Saturday, October 1.

Hosted by The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, the series of four free outdoor concerts spans classical, jazz and world music with a special performance of the avant-garde classics Ballet Mécanique and Les Noces on October 22. The Wild Beast music pavilion, on the CalArts campus, has been dubbed a “mini Hollywood Bowl” for its delightful outdoor amphitheater setting.  With open lawn seating, families are welcome and picnics encouraged at Santa Clarita’s most intimate open-air concert venue.

CalArts was recently named the nation’s top school for artistic students in a new national ranking from Newsweek—and The Wild Beast Concert Series provides the opportunity for audiences to experience the talents of CalArts’ Herb Alpert School of Music for themselves.

For the past 22 years, Capitol Records, a subsidiary of EMI, has sponsored the annual CalArts Jazz CD, a selection of the most compelling performers and works coming out of the CalArts Jazz Program in the previous year, recorded and mastered in the legendary Capitol Records Studios in Hollywood.

The Wild Beast Concert Series presents the first step for CalArts jazz bands on the road to the Capitol Records Tower: a festive public performance of their hottest repertoire. An eclectic line-up of ten bands will perform one number each: Latin, world-inflected, free, experimental, traditional, be-bop, fusion. CalArts is renowned for producing phenoms, such as Ravi Coltrane, Marcus Shelby and Todd Sickafoose, who later became jazz stars; concertgoers will be able to say “I heard them when…”

On October 22, The Wild Beast Concert Series presents two avant-garde classics from the dawn of the Roaring Twenties: George Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique (1924) and Igor Stravinsky’s Les Noces (The Wedding, 1923). Encapsulating the exuberance and futurist yearnings of the post-World War I period, both works are scored for four pianos and an array of percussion; Les Noces includes vocal soloists and a large chorus, while Ballet Mécanique blends the mechanical sounds of airplane propellers and electric bells with multiple pianos. Virtuoso pianists (required for these technically demanding scores)—recent graduates of the CalArts piano program—are joined by faculty vocal soloists, the CalArts Choir, and an impressive battery of percussionists.

Admission to the Oct. 1 and Oct. 22 performances is free. Advance registration is suggested. For information call 661.253.7816. CalArts is located at  24700 McBean Pkwy. in Valencia.