One Year after the Fires: Remembering, Rebuilding, Healing

Image: Izak Bunda
Th. January 15, 2026
Time: 3:00 pm
Location: Thomas Mann House (1550 N San Remo Drive, CA 90272)

An afternoon community gathering of remembrance, community, and hope.

By invitation only ・ Please register via rsvp@vatmh.org

Info

Join us on January 15, 2026 at 3:00 pm at the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles for a community gathering. We invite neighbors, friends, supporters, and all those affected by the Pacific Palisades and Altadena wildfires of January 2025 to join us in the garden for an afternoon of remembrance, community, and hope.

Marking the first anniversary of the devastating fires, this gathering offers an opportunity to reflect on loss and recovery, to honor the resilience of our communities, and to imagine together the future of our city. Through collective conversations, remembrance, and sharing our visions for what lies ahead, the Thomas Mann House seeks to offer a space for healing and renewal. While the Thomas Mann House was able to reopen in June 2025, Villa Aurora is still undergoing fire remediation. While many of our neighbors have returned, others are still in the process of finding their path forward. We look forward to welcoming everyone affected by the fires for a lively community gathering.

The program will feature a performance by Jonathan Hepfer, the Artistic Director of Monday Evening Concerts (MEC), who will perform Buddha by Julius Eastman (1983) and Dream by John Cage (1948).

Participants

Jonathan Hepfer
Jonathan Hepfer is a percussionist, conductor, and concert curator. He began playing classical music at age seventeen after discovering the work of John Cage while studying at SUNY Buffalo. Subsequently, Jonathan attended Oberlin Conservatory, UC San Diego and the Musikhochschule Freiburg where he studied with Michael Rosen, Steven Schick and Bernhard Wulff.  ​Since 2015, he has been the Artistic Director of Monday Evening Concerts (MEC) in Los Angeles as well as its resident ensemble ECHOI. At MEC, Jonathan has directed performances of major works by Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Julius Eastman, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Gérard Grisey, Sarah Hennies, Yves Klein, among others.