46th Season Features Major Choral Works by Bach and Mozart, Works by 10 Living Composers, including West Coast Premiere of Meredith Monk Co-Commission and Los Angeles Premieres of John Adams’ Choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer, and Ingram Marshall’s Savage Altars

Chorale also Participates in “West Coast, Left Coast” Festival with Concert Featuring Reprise of David O’s A Map of Los Angeles; Plus Music Director Grant Gershon Conducts Works by Moses Hogan, Vaughn Williams, Frank Martin, Nico Muhly, Arvo Pärt and Morten Lauridsen, as well Messiah Sing-Along and High School Choir Festival

The Los Angeles Master Chorale, under the artistic leadership of Music Director Grant Gershon, builds upon its storied history of propelling the choral literature forward during its 2009|10 season at the Walt Disney Concert Hall presenting works by 10 living composers, as well as such choral masterpieces as Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Gershon conducts 11 concerts and special events, and presents several major West Coast and Los Angeles premieres. Special guests include Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, making its third appearance with the Chorale in four years, and Huayucaltia, which performed with the choir in 2007 and is noted for its sensitive fusion of Andean, Afro-Peruvian, jazz, rock and classical music.

“There is a special intimacy to every Chorale performance,” says Gershon, who marks his ninth season as music director. “Whether we’re singing time-honored classics or lesser known pieces, the choir adds its wonderfully unique stamp to the music, providing a richness that the audience takes away from our live performances.”

The season opens with the unusual pairing of the Mozart Requiem, one of the world’s great choral masterpieces, and the Los Angeles premiere of John Adam’s seminal Choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer from his 1991 opera about the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and murder of wheelchair-bound passenger Leon Klinghoffer. The New York Times describes the work’s choral writing as “thickly textured, enshrouded with luminous yet pointedly astringent harmonies.” Both pieces reflect universal issues that transcend the ages.

The Chorale also participates in “West Coast, Left Coast,” an LA Phil Festival at Disney Hall curated by John Adams that showcases a range of West Coast composers. For its festival offering, the choir reprises David O’s critically acclaimed A Map of Los Angeles, which it premiered in May 2008 as part of its LA is the World initiative. It also presents the Los Angeles premiere of Ingram Marshall’s striking Savage Altars, as well as Mid-Winter Songs by 2007 National Medal of Arts recipient Morten Lauridsen, of which the Chorale made the world premiere recording of the orchestral version in 1998.

The Chorale and the Saint Louis Symphony have collaborated to co-commission a new work by Meredith Monk with premieres in St. Louis in March 2010 and in Los Angeles just one month later in April 2010. One-of-a-kind vocalist Meredith Monk, who has been called a "magician of the voice" and "one of America’s coolest composers," joins the Chorale for this performance, which concludes with Arvo Pärt’s meditative Miserere.

In addition, Gershon conducts an almost a cappella concert with compositions by Frank Martin, Nico Muhly, Tarik O’Regan, Judith Weir and Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur. Other season highlights include Bach’s profound St. Matthew Passion with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, and an Americana program showcasing the Moses Hogan spirituals Elijah Rock and Battle of Jericho, as well as Shenandoah and Hymning Tunes from Sacred Harp Anthology. Huayucaltia adds its distinctive Latin sound to the Chorale’s popular “Rejoice!” holiday celebration, featuring Ramirez’s Nuestra Navidad.

For the first time, the Chorale offers a matinee performance – in addition to its traditional evening time slot – of its eminently popular Messiah Sing-Along, which turns 29 this season. The family-friendly Holiday Wonders, with its engaging repertory of favorite carols and family-friendly ticket prices, boasts brass, organ, and children’s chorus.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale also opens the doors of Disney Hall to the public free-of-charge for its 21st Annual High School Choir Festival. Serving as a vital force in training the next generation of singers and music lovers, the comprehensive yearlong in-school program culminates with a performance conducted by Gershon of 1,000 high school students from more than two dozen Southland high schools.

The Chorale continues to present “Listen Up!,” a series of lively pre-concert conversations providing insight into the evening’s program, with KUSC’s Alan Chapman and Gershon.

Season Detailed

Mozart’s Requiem, LA Premiere of John Adams’ Choruses from the Death of Klinghoffer, and Post-Concert Gala Launch 46th Season on October 18, 2009

The Los Angeles Master Chorale opens its 2009|10 season with the pairing of the sublime Mozart Requiem and the Los Angeles premiere of John Adams’ Choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer, based on his 1991 opera about the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and murder of passenger Leon Klinghoffer, on Sunday, October 18, 2009, 7:00 p.m., at Disney Hall. Music Director Grant Gershon conducts these two dramatically different but complementary works that both grapple with universal issues. Adams joins Gershon for a pre-concert discussion at 6 p.m. A post-concert gala, held in BP Hall, caps the evening.

“I’m very excited about presenting these works on the same program,” states Gershon. “Although Mozart’s work was written over 200 years ago, and John’s less than 20, they share a powerful operatic element and have extremely compelling back stories. They also serve to showcase the Chorale’s extraordinarily diverse artistic capabilities.”

John Adams’ 1991 opera The Death of Klinghoffer, called by Newsweek a “work that fires the heart,” premiered in Brussels during the final weeks of the Gulf War in 1991 in a Peter Sellars production. Never before performed in Los Angeles, the opera tells the story of the 1984 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro by four Palestinian commandos and the subsequent murder of wheelchair-bound Jewish American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. The Choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer, approximately 42 minutes in length, serve to support and articulate the story, standing apart form the action and adding, in the composer’s words, “an important dramatic perspective to the more immediate and often violent emotional plane that framed the actual kidnapping story.” It is a choral meditation on the tragic events and their causes, and was librettist Alice Goodman’s second collaboration with Adams, preceded by the acclaimed opera Nixon in China.

Mozart’s Requiem, written in 1791, was the composer’s final composition. Gershon calls the masterpiece “among the all-time top five choral pieces for beauty and drama.” Long shrouded in mystery, the Requiem, commissioned by an Austrian nobleman who originally took credit for the work, was unfinished at the time of the composer’s death, and speculation continues to surround its completion, which was guided by his wife, Constanze.

The Bank of New York Mellon sponsors the gala and concert, which is part of the 8th Annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days.

“West Coast, Left Coast” Offering Includes LA Premiere of Marshall’s Savage Altars, Reprise of O’s A Map of Los Angeles and Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs on November 22, 2009

The Los Angeles Master Chorale helps to launch “West Coast, Left Coast,” an LA Phil Festival celebrating West Coast composers, by showcasing notable choral works by LA-based composers David O and Morten Lauridsen, and former San Franciscan Ingram Marshall on Sunday, November 22, 2009, 7:00 p.m., at Disney Hall. Gershon conducts the Los Angeles premiere of Marshall’s compelling Savage Altars, considered among his most prominent works, and the piano version of 2007 National Medal of Arts recipient Morten Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs, recorded by the Chorale in 1998. In addition, the choir reprises O’s acclaimed A Map of Los Angeles – featuring Mexican folk harp virtuoso Sergio “Checo” Alonso – which it commission and premiered in 2008 as part of its LA is the World initiative.

Marshall, among the first generation of minimalists, along with Steve Reich and Philip Glass, wrote Savage Altars, for chamber choir, electronic tape and violin and viola obbligato, juxtaposing unusual text. It derives its title from the Roman historian Tacitus' Annals Book I, which chronicles the Roman campaigns against the German tribes. Marshall notes, “They suffered a devastating defeat by the Cheruscan soldiers in the Teutobugian forest. Six years later, the remains, bleached out bones, splintered spears and debris, of three Roman Legions, were found, the whole of which was named ‘barbarae arae’ – savage altars. Elements of the hymn Magnificat, and the canon ‘Sumer is i cumen in’ are interwoven in melodic and textual contributions. This was written on the eve of the first Gulf War under Bush the elder.”

The Chorale first performed Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs in 1985 under the baton of founding Music Director Roger Wagner, and has continued to enjoy a long and fruitful relationship with the composer, who served as the choir’s composer in residence from 1994 to 2001. In 1980, the USC Chamber Singers premiered the piece with Gershon, then a student, in the chorus. One of the composer’s seven vocal cycles, it uses winter as its unifying motif and is based on poems by Robert Graves. The Los Angeles Times calls it “accessible in the best sense.”

O’s A Map of Los Angeles has been described as “sassy,” and “touching” and hailed for “tapping into a feeling of community.” The 25-minute, six-movement piece, a shifting soundscape of LA that is ripe with emotion and whimsy, features mixed choir, Mexican folk harp, piano, acoustic bass and two percussionists. Set to a primarily non-verbal text, O created a meditation on the dead. He explains, “They’re bits of text you might see when driving around LA that also merge Spanish and English in sometimes nonsensical sometimes macabre and sometimes poignant ways.” O drew inspiration and material for the piece from three quintessential LA landmarks. He began writing the piece in front of the baseball stadium of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, whose most recent name change has been much maligned. A bus trip to the La Brea Tar Pits supplied vital visual and audio impressions of the city, and an unplanned stop at Evergreen Cemetery, the city’s oldest cemetery, provided a unique historical and personal perspective on the region.

Alonso is a master of the Mexican folk harp traditions from the southern coast of Mexico’s Veracruz and the western states of Jalisco and Michoacan, the jarocho and mariachi traditions, respectively. Alonso began studying and researching Mexican folk music in 1993 in the ethnomusicology department at UCLA, studying with Jesus Guzman of Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano and other Mexican and Latin American master harpists, including Alberto de la Rosa, Delfino Guerrero, Ivan Velasco and others. A teacher at San Fernando High School and instructor for the Mariachi Master Apprentice Program, Alonso also performs regularly with Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, with whom he has received a Grammy, Mariachi Nuevo Cuicatlan, and Grupo Aves. He received a 2006/2007 Master Musician Fellowship from the Durfee Foundation.

Chorale Heralds Holidays with Family Concert December 5, 2009

Holiday Wonders, the Master Chorale’s joyous seasonal program for the entire family, is set for Saturday, December 5, 2:30 p.m. Organist John West, back by popular demand, takes Disney Hall’s iconic organ through its paces as he accompanies the choir in a range of favorite carols and singalongs. The talented Los Angeles Master Chorale “Voices Within” Children’s Choir, comprised of Los Angeles-area students who have participated in the Chorale’s “Voices Within” artist-in-residency program, performs several original choral works written by local fifth graders. Santa also promises to conduct a carol or two. Tickets for children 17 and under are half price in all sections. (Suitable for children five years of age and older.)

Messiah Sing-Along Matinee and Evening Performances Slated for December 12, and 20, 2009

To celebrate the 29th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Messiah Sing-Along, the Music Center resident company presents the first-ever matinee performance of the popular do-it-yourself version of Handel’s masterpiece on Saturday, December 12, 2009, 2:00 p.m. as well as an evening performance on Sunday, December 20, 2009, 7:00 p.m. Gershon conducts both performances, each of which features a different team of four professional singers from the Chorale singing the solo roles. The audience itself sings the chorus parts, filling the landmark venue with its exuberant and robust sound.

“The Messiah Sing-Along is one of LA’s definitive holiday traditions,” says Gershon. “There is truly nothing like it. It’s become a must-do for any music lover or for anyone who wants to get into the holiday spirit and enjoy Handel’s beautiful music.” Scores are available for sale at the door.

Huayucaltia and Organist John West “Rejoice!“ with Chorale on December 13, 2009

Continuing its tradition of presenting a diverse range of holiday classics from around the globe at its annual “Rejoice!” concert on Sunday, December 13, 2009, 7 p.m., the Chorale opens the holiday program with Ramirez’s captivating Nuestra Navidad, featuring guest ensemble Huayucaltia, acclaimed for its compelling entho-Latin grooves. Gershon also conducts Midnight Mass for Christmas Eve, a charming French baroque work by Charpentier, Vaughn Williams’ climactic Fantasia on Christmas Carols for organ, chorus and baritone soloist, as well as an array of classic carols. John West is guest organist.

The five members of Huayucaltia, which was formed in 1985, perform on indigenous and contemporary instruments, embracing the timeless cultures of the Americas. Reflecting the Latin American New Song (nueva cancion or trova) movement of the 1970s, the group fuses Andean, Afro-Peruvian, jazz, rock and classical influences. Huayucaltia’s name (why-you-call-tia) is derived from the Nahuatl word “huayolcayotl” or kinship, which the members interpret as meaning unity and brotherhood. The band has toured throughout the West Coast, Southeast and Midwest of the United States and Perú.

Critically acclaimed organist John West has made solo appearances with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and with the inimitable Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, and has toured extensively from the Republic of Soviet States and the far northern reaches of Alaska to South America, Puerto Rico and across the United States. Locally, West has been a featured artist of the American Guild of Organists Region X Convention and the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and has performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Spreckles Organ Pavilion, the Hollywood Bowl and Ambassador Auditorium, as well as on the Hazel Wright Organ at the Crystal Cathedral and the great organs of the First Congregational Church Los Angeles. West, who appeared with the Chorale last December, received his Master of Music degree with Honors from the New England Conservatory and his undergraduate degree from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

Chorale Presents US Premiere of Judith Wier’s Two Human Hymns and West Coast Premiere of Nico Muhly’s Bright Mass with Canons on January 31, 2010

The Los Angeles Master Chorale continues its 46th season with an almost a cappella program anchored by the United States premiere of Judith Weir’s Two Human Hymns and the West Coast premiere of Nico Muhly’s Bright Mass with Canons on Sunday, January 31, 2010, 7:00 p.m., at Disney Hall. Other works include Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur’s sensuous 21-minute Le cantique des cantiques, based on the love poetry from “Song of Songs,” Tarik O’Regan’s Confirma hoc Deus, and Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir, written in 1922 but not performed until 1963 because the composer believed it “unworthy,” though the piece is now considered one of the choral monuments of the 20th Century. Gershon conducts, and both he and Muhly participate in Listen Up!, the pre-concert talk at 6:00 p.m.

Weir’s Two Human Hymns, debuted by the University of Aberdeen Chapel Choir on October 22, 1995, was written for six-part choir and organ and is set to two poems by 17th Century English poets George Herbert and Henry King. Weir says of her lyrical seven-minute piece, “The music for the choir is mostly composed in simple songlike shapes, which are little hymns. The texts, though clearly related to Christian beliefs, could be more widely applicable to all human experience, which is why I have called them 'Human Hymns.’”

Gershon calls Daniel-Lesur’s Le cantique des cantiques “one of the most sensuous and gorgeous a cappella French compositions ever written.” The seven-movement work was written for 12-part unaccompanied voices, mixing French and Latin text drawn from “Song of Songs” as well as from New Testament texts.

Describing Martin’s austere but inspiring Mass for Double Choir, a showcase for choir, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross states, “It sounds like a Renaissance mass lost in time.” He notes Martin had “a gift for immersing himself in styles of the past without seeming to imitate them.”

Noted for his eclectic body of work that includes thrilling choral pieces, O’Regan composed Confirma hoc Deus for mixed choir and organ. Born in London in 1978, the two-time British Composer Award winner was educated at Oxford University, completing his postgraduate studies at Cambridge. O'Regan currently divides his time between New York City and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he is Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts, having previously held the Fulbright Chester Schirmer Fellowship in Music Composition at Columbia University and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard. His compositions have been performed internationally by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Los Angeles Master Chorale. He is currently working on an operatic version of Joseph Conrad's “Heart of Darkness” in development with American Opera Projects in New York and OperaGenesis at the Royal Opera House, London.

Muhly, pairing ancient music techniques with a minimalist bent, wrote the reverent Bright Mass with Canons in 1995 for the choir of St. Thomas Church in New York City. Gershon says, “It takes the purity of the Anglican tradition of choral music and gives it a modern veneer, making it clearly of the here and now.” The Chorale presented the West Coast premiere of Muhly’s Expecting The Main Things from You in February 2009. Among his numerous projects, Mulhy composed the score for the 2009 Academy Award-nominated film The Reader.

Musica Angelica Joins Chorale for Disney Hall Debut of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion on March 7

Grant Gershon conducts the Los Angeles Master Chorale in the Walt Disney Concert Hall debut of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion – considered one of Western Civilization’s greatest pieces of music – on Sunday, March 7, 2010, 7:00 p.m. Members of the Chorale will sing the solo roles, and joining the choir is special guest ensemble Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, performing on period instruments and regarded as one of the nation’s foremost Baroque ensembles. The performance marks the early music ensemble’s third appearance with the choir in four years. Previous collaborations included Bach’s B Minor Mass in 2008 and a program of Mexican Baroque gems in 2006.

Gershon describes St. Matthew Passion as one of the top five choral masterworks and says, “It is an honor to be the first person to conduct Bach’s famed work in Disney Hall, with its stellar acoustics and intimate setting.”

Composed in 1727 and set to chapters 26 and 27 from the Book of Matthew, Bach’s deeply emotional work also incorporates choruses and arias to recount the story of the capture and crucifixion of Christ, interrupted by the poetic interjections of the chorus. Intensely dramatic, lyrical and contemplative, St. Matthew Passion has been used over the years to great effect in numerous films, including The Talented Mr. Ripley staring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett.

Unique Soundscape Features Monk West Coast Premiere and Arvo Pärt’s Miserere on April 11

The Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Grant Gershon, weaves a rich choral soundscape with the West Coast premiere of a new work by “visionary” interdisciplinary artist Meredith Monk and Arvo Pärt’s spare but powerful Miserere on Sunday, April 11, 2009, 7:00 p.m., at Disney Hall. Monk, a one-of-a-kind vocalist who has been called a "magician of the voice" and "one of America’s coolest composers," performs with the choir and also appears at the pre-concert talk “Listen Up!” with Gershon at 6:00 p.m. Her new work was co-commissioned by the Chorale and the Saint Louis Symphony, which gives the world premiere in March 2010, just one month prior to the Chorale’s performance.

“These two introspective composers have very personal and timeless soundscapes that rely on the purity of the human voice,” Gershon says. “It’s an honor for the Chorale to co-commission a piece from Meredith and to work with her again after our rewarding partnership two years ago.”

In 2006, the Chorale performed Monk’s hauntingly beautiful and intricate Invisible Light, the a cappella conclusion from her opera Atlas, which is loosely based on the travel writings of a Victoria adventurer and follows the journey of an everywoman whose passion for spiritual self-discovery takes her to the ends of the earth and beyond. One critic noted, “It was the most human musical performance I have attended.”

Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, music theater works, films and installations. A pioneer in what is now called "extended vocal technique" and "interdisciplinary performance," Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound in an effort to discover and weave together new modes of perception. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which we have no words. In a career that spans more than 35 years, she has earned acclaim by audiences and critics as a major creative force in the performing arts. The Washington Post proclaims, “In originality, in scope, in depth, there are few to rival (Monk).”

Moses Hogan Spirituals Are Centerpiece of Americana Program Concluding Season on May 22, 2010

Elijah Rock and Battle of Jericho are two of the soul-searing spirituals by prolific composer Moses Hogan that anchor the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Americana program concluding its season on Sunday, May 22, 2010, 7:00 p.m., at Walt Disney Concert Hall. In addition, Gershon conducts such classic folk songs as Shenandoah and Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair in addition to selections from the Sacred Harp Anthology, a collection of hymns presented in the shape note style, a teaching technique from the 1800’s using varying shapes to represent different notes.

“Moses Hogan’s virtuosic arrangements, filled with incredible energy, are amazing display pieces for choir,” states Gershon. “To shine the light on the full range of his artistry is a wonderful aspect of this concert. We’ll be raising Disney Hall’s rafters!”

Hogan, a pianist, conductor and internationally renowned arranger, was known for his vast body of accessible and popular arrangements of spirituals. Tragically, the New Orleans native died of brain cancer in 2003 at age 45.

Special Event

21st Annual High School Choir Festival Set for April 16, 2010

The Chorale opens the doors of the Walt Disney Concert Hall to the city free-of-charge for its 21st Annual Los Angeles Master Chorale High School Choir Festival on Friday, April 16, 2010. One of the largest high school choir festivals in the nation, it showcases the remarkable vocal talents of more than 1,000 high school students from some two dozen Southland schools in a massive choir conducted by Grant Gershon. The festival features an Americana theme, which ties in with the Chorale’s final concert in May, and is also part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Festival of the Americas.” The community is welcome to enjoy the vitality and power of these young voices raised in song in the splendid setting of Disney Hall.

Ticket Information

For a free brochure on the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s 2008|09 season at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, please call 213-972-7282 or log on to www.lamc.org.

Program, prices and artists subject to change.

02-19-09

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