Multicultural Fresno

I just got back from a weekend in Fresno, California.

Ordinarily, Fresno is a place you pass through on the way to the western side of the Sierra Nevadas. These days, however, it happens to be where my girlfriend's mother lives and thus the weekend trip.

I've posted before about Fresno and how it is often ridiculed as an armpit of California by those who don't bother to stop and check it out. Fresno is no longer the small little farming community it once was, however. The city is now nearly 500,000 strong and growing. And, as an indication that it has matured to a real city, it even has its own philharmonic.

I'm mentioning the philharmonic because while attending a show Sunday afternoon, I had one of those great multicultural moments. There I was with my Austrian born girlfriend, sitting in an American theater named after a famous Armenian writer, William Saroyan, and listening to an evening of Russian arrangements that included Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op.43 performed by a French-Armenian pianist named Vardan Mamikonian.

Wow, Fresno! It's not just about growing oranges anymore!

Filed under: Arts and Culture, United States