The Hammer Museum and Lulu restaurant will be closed to the public on Tuesday, December 24 and Wednesday, December 25.

Music & Performance

Strange Sounds from the Bookshelf

  • This is a past program

This concert, inspired by the rules and idiosyncrasies of the English language, features Nico Muhly & Maira Kalman’s The Elements of Style, based on the eponymous guidebook by Strunk & White, and special Oxford English Dictionary–inspired commissions from Los Angeles composers Anne LeBaron and Scott Worthington. The concert is performed by the new music collective wasteLAnd and features eggbeaters, typewriters, clattering teacups, and other unexpected guests. Special guests include Tacita Dean, Kajon Cermak, and Jonathan Gold

This program is in conjunction with Hollywood is a Verb, a citywide, monthlong initiative of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Public Library, looking at the Oxford English Dictionary through a contemporary Southern California lens. 


All Hammer public programs are free and made possible by a major gift from the Dream Fund at UCLA. 

Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy, Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley, an anonymous donor, and all Hammer members. 

The Hammer’s digital presentation of its public programs is made possible by the Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Foundation.