Todd and Robin Mason would often host little informal concerts in their West LA home and had attended other home chamber music performances. Being naturally competitive people, on their ride home, they would brainstorm ways that it could have been better. Those conversations eventually lay the foundation for Mason Home Concerts.
In 2013, the couple undertook extensive renovations to optimize their home for live performances, transforming it into a warm, acoustically excellent concert room designed specifically for chamber music.
“We took a chance and made a whole room, which can hold about 50 people,” Todd explained. “We got a beautiful piano: a Yamaha Concert Grand. That’s important because to do classical music and chamber music, you must have a good piano, because so much of the repertoire includes piano. We didn’t know if it would really take off. We just kind of did it because we loved it. We had a couple of concerts, and it was a very successful and positive experience. Everyone loved it, and word got out that we were doing this.”
Mason Home Concerts continues a proud LA tradition of home-based chamber music, tracing back to the seminal “Evenings on the Roof” concerts of the 1940s and the Da Camera Society’s performances in historical homes. Over its 12-year history, the series has presented over 50 performances, bringing together principal and longtime members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Long Beach Symphony alongside faculty and alumni from Juilliard, USC and UCLA.
Todd has been “super involved” in classical music since high school, when he started his own chamber orchestra. He received his master’s degree in composition from The Juilliard School in New York City and his compositions have been played by the Juilliard Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic, the Brno Philharmonic, members of the Budapest Philharmonic, LA Opera Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic.
When Todd met Robin and they married, his career took a bit of a left turn. The two went into filmmaking. Mason Home Concerts was launched as a passion project.
“It was actually kind of funny,” Todd relayed, “because there was this one accomplished young cellist who just graduated from USC, and he played a concert, and there were only about 20 people in the audience. Afterward he said, ‘If you do your series again next year, I’d love to come back.’ Well, I didn’t even know we were doing a series. Then USC did a write-up about the series, and there was really no turning back.”
About 10 years ago, Robin passed away, and the series stopped. Todd took time to process and figure out what to do.
“I didn’t know what I would do at that point, if I would keep the thing going or if I would just move,” he shared. “But this is something that we’d envisioned together. So, I decided to—and she wanted me to—continue doing the concerts, kind of in her honor.”
The second chamber music concert of the Mason Home Concerts 2026 season will take place on Feb. 21, and features Chalifour & Friends, an all-star ensemble led by Los Angeles Philharmonic concertmaster Martin Chalifour, performing Brahms’ towering “Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34.” There will be a preconcert talk by LA Philharmonic’s Dr. Kristi Brown-Montesano.
“In the past eight years it has grown and grown,” Todd said. “Now we are selling out pretty much every single concert with about 50 guests. An old family friend of mine, who was a teacher of mine in second grade, she’s sort of my secret weapon because she’s almost like a professional cook, and she makes amazing, almost gourmet food for every single concert. It makes the whole thing extremely special and unique. People keep telling me to raise the price, but I’m keeping it where it is for now because my goal is not to make money but to create the best possible music and share it with other people.”
Mason Home Concerts presents five performances a year, once a month. The next dates after February’s concert are March 7, where Mason’s “String Quartet No. 5” will be premiered, April 18 and May 16.
“In a world that is getting increasingly chaotic, these concerts offer a kind of oasis for everybody that comes,” said Todd. “Even if they are not classical music lovers, and this is the first time they’ve heard chamber music, it’s an elevating experience. You can see it in their eyes. They’re all lit up. They’ve just never heard anything like that.”
“A comment I’ve often received is that they’ll say, ‘I’ve heard that piece, but I’ve never really heard it before like that,’” he continued. “What they’re talking about is that they’re sitting only maybe 10 feet away from the performers, and they can hear nuances that you would never hear in a bigger concert hall. Doing chamber music represents one of the best things that we are capable of as human beings, and it’s just so nice to be reminded of that and to actually experience it firsthand. What’s happened in the last 10 years is that in a way, it has become my personal salvation, too, to recover from the loss of my wife and find a new purpose.”
Tickets are available at a suggested $40 minimum donation per concert (or $175 for a season pass), and include hors d’oeuvres and the series’ signature buffet dinner at 5:30 p.m. prior to the 6 p.m. concert.
For more information, the Mar Vista location, and tickets, please visit masonconcerts.org.