Los Angeles Master Chorale

Los Angeles Master Chorale's LA-Style Birthday Salute Honoring Steve Reich Features Reprisal of You Are (Variations) and West Coast Premiere of Daniel Variations

Sunday, January 28, 2007 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall

Music Director Grant Gershon Conducts Heartfelt Choral Tribute

The Los Angeles Master Chorale offers a distinctive West Coast 70th birthday salute to Steve Reich — described by the Village Voice as “America’s greatest living composer” — on Sunday, January 28, 2007, at 7 p.m., at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  The heartfelt choral tribute features a reprise of You Are (Variations), proclaimed “a masterpiece” by the Los Angeles Times, and the West Coast premiere of the acclaimed composer’s Daniel Variations, a life-affirming work commissioned by the Los Angeles-based Daniel Pearl Foundation, formed in memory of journalist Daniel Pearl to further the ideals that inspired his life and work.  (Reich met the foundation’s president, Judea Pearl, at the Chorale’s world premiere performance of You Are [Variations] at Disney Hall in October 2004, a concert that was part of the Third Annual Daniel Pearl Music Day festivities.)  Reich juxtaposes a text from the Biblical Book of Daniel alongside Danny’s own words in this major choral work.  A selection of early Renaissance Motets rounds out the program.

Daniel Variations was premiered at London’s Barbican Hall on October 8, 2006 by the Steve Reich Ensemble and Synergy Vocals with Brad Lubman conducting.  Written in memory of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and killed while on assignment in Pakistan in October 2002, the text incorporates the reporter’s final words captured on videotape before his execution, “My name is Daniel Pearl.”  Emphasizing his humanity, it interweaves the words of Daniel Pearl with those from the Bible’s Book of Daniel and touches on exile and cruelty, and mercy and compassion.  It concludes with the words, “I sure Hope Gabriel likes my music.”  Pearl was an accomplished violinist and mandolin player, which Reich portrays with a beefed up string section.  The work was co-commissioned by the Daniel Pearl Foundation along with Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre London, Cité de la Musique Paris and Casa de Musica Porto.  “We didn’t want it to be a eulogy or a requiem,” says Judea Pearl, Daniel’s father. "Danny was an ordinary decent person, and a mighty good journalist.  But he became an icon, and this work by Reich is a tribute to a life that personified our culture, our heritage and our dreams.  For me, Danny's murder represents the betrayal of the 21st century, while his legacy represents the determination of civilized society to prevail against the culture of terror."

For the other Reich work on the program, You Are (Variations), the text, which is in both English and Hebrew, is drawn from the Talmud, the Psalms, and the writings of philosopher Paul Wittgenstein. Co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Lincoln Center, and the Friends of the Ensemble Modern, the four-movement piece is scored for 18 singers, four virtuoso percussionists, four virtuoso pianists plus strings and winds.  The Chorale premiered it in October 2004 in Disney Hall, which the choir then followed with a recording on Nonesuch that was release in September 2005 to international critical acclaim.  In October 2006, the Chorale also gave the East Coast premiere of the work at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, marking the choir’s solo debut at Lincoln Center as well.

Reich was recently called “the most original musical thinker of our time” by The New Yorker, and “among the great composers of the century” by The New York Times.  From his early taped speech pieces It’s Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) to his and video artist Beryl Korot’s digital video opera Three Tales (2002), Reich’s path has embraced not only aspects of Western Classical music, but the structures, harmonies, and rhythms of non-Western and American vernacular music, particularly jazz.  “There’s just a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history and Steve Reich is one of them,” states The Guardian (London).  Reich’s 70th birthday is also being celebrated with performances at major performing arts institutions in New York and London. In October 2006 in Tokyo, Reich was awarded the Preamium Imperial award in Music.  This important international award is in areas in the arts not covered by the Nobel Prize.  Former winners of the prize in various fields include Pierre Boulez, Lucian Berio, Gyorgy Ligeti, Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Richard Serra and Stephen Sondheim.

Tickets to the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s concert range from $19 to $129.  Student Rush seats are $10 and are available at the box office two hours before the performance.  For tickets and information, please call (800) 787-5262 (outside California call 213-972-7282), log on to www.lamc.org or visit the box office at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., located at 111 South Grand Avenue at First Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Event Steve Reich 70th Birthday Tribute
Los Angeles Master Chorale
Grant Gershon, conductor
Performance Date Sunday, January 28, 2007, 7 p.m.  (Listen Up! pre-concert talk, 6 p.m.)
Program STEVE REICH: Daniel Variations
STEVE REICH: You Are (Variations)
+ a selection of Early Renaissance Motets
Theater Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Ticket Prices $19 - $129
Student Rush seats available at box office two hours before the performance.
Ticket Information 800-787-5262; outside California call 213-972-7282
www.lamc.org or at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office

Program, prices and artists subject to change.

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Resources online

2-23-06

Inside California call toll free 800-787-5262  |  Outside California call 213-972-7282

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Photo Steve Cohn