On a Saturday afternoon in October, a handful of Los Angeles Philharmonic musicians will walk into a church sanctuary on Colorado Boulevard, sit down a few feet from the pews, and play Bach, Beethoven and Brahms for anyone who shows up. There is no ticket, no admission charge, and no reserved seating. The concert, titled "The Three Bs: Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms," runs from 4 to 5 p.m. and opens the 2026-27 season of the Third@First concert series at First United Methodist Church of Pasadena.
The pianist is Junko Ueno Garrett, the series' artistic coordinator, who will perform alongside the visiting Philharmonic players. The program is built around the old idea that these three composers — Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms — form the spine of the Western canon.
What makes the afternoon unusual is less the repertoire than the economics. Third@First has never charged admission. The series is funded entirely by voluntary donations, and it does not draw on the church's operating budget. That model has been in place since Garrett and the church's former music director, Sébastien Vallée, founded the series in 2014. "We are delighted to open our beautiful church to the community," Garrett said in an earlier interview with Pasadena Magazine. "I'm very grateful to see the growth in the audience, especially the repeaters." The church's then-pastor, Rev. Gregory Norton, described the series as "our congregation's own musical gift to Pasadena, free monthly concerts of high-quality."
Garrett's own biography explains why Philharmonic players are willing to spend a Saturday in Pasadena. Born in Japan, she began playing piano at three, trained at Tokyo's Toho Gakuen School of Music under Hiroshi Miura, and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, studying with John Perry. She teaches on the music faculty at Occidental College. She received the Japanese Consul General's Award for her contributions to international relations.
The series she helps run has ranged widely over its seasons. It has mounted full orchestral works. It has hosted the 50-member Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles. It closed its most recent season in June with UCLA university organist Christoph Bull performing alongside the painter Norton Wisdom, who created visual interpretations in real time on stage. The season ahead continues that breadth: an "Echoes of Japan" program in November featuring Garrett playing Joe Hisaishi, RADWIMPS, Ado, Yoasobi, Hikaru Utada, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Takashi Yoshimatsu; a Christmas Joy concert in December; a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in January with ensembles from the California School of the Arts-San Gabriel Valley; the Belrose Duo — cellist David Garrett and Junko Ueno Garrett — playing Fauré and Poulenc in February; the Celtic band Sligo Rags in March; organist Aaron Shows playing 1980s hits on the church's pipe organ in May; and a June 2027 close with Pasadena Pro Musica and the church's Chancel Choir performing Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem.
The room itself is part of the draw. The First United Methodist Church congregation traces its founding to 1875. The sanctuary houses an Ernest M. Skinner pipe organ — Opus 430, four manuals, still extant, with a new console and added ranks installed in the mid-1970s. The church sits east of Old Pasadena in the Playhouse District.
The free model puts Third@First in a broader San Gabriel Valley tradition of low-cost chamber music, alongside South Pasadena's Restoration Concert Series, which launched its 30th season in September with eight concerts a year in a 184-seat room at the public library. But the Third@First version is starker: no ticket, no suggested price, just a donation basket and an hour of music. For anyone who has wanted to hear Philharmonic-caliber players without buying a seat at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the cost of entry on this particular Saturday is the drive to Colorado and Oakland.