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Los Angeles Master Chorale Announces 2007|08 Season at Walt Disney Concert Hall

World Premieres of Works by Louis Andriessen, David O and Ricky Ian Gordon, Great Opera Choruses, Choral Music by LA’s Hottest Composers, Two of Haydn’s Final Masses, First-Ever Performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass at Disney Hall and Second Installment of “LA is the World” Among Highlights of Choir’s 44th Season

Music Director Grant Gershon Conducts 12 Concerts and Special Events, Including Music of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Eric Whitacre, Henryk Górecki, Judith Weir, Jan Sandström, Steven Stucky, Morten Lauridsen, Beethoven, Britten, Brahms and Handel

Musica Angelica, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Conductor Jeffrey Kahane, Composer/Pianist Morten Lauridsen, Sopranos Elissa Johnston and Mary Wilson, Mezzo-soprano Paula Rasmussen, Tenor James Taylor, Baritone Jesse Blumberg, Bass-baritone Eric Owens and Mexican Folk Harp Master Sergio “Checo” Alonso Are Featured Guest Artists

 

The Los Angeles Master Chorale demonstrates its peerless musical agility during its 2007|08 season at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with 12 programs and special events that embrace the Southland’s vibrant musical diversity, reach deep into the vault of choral classics and bring to life contemporary new works. Grant Gershon, celebrating his seventh year as the Chorale’s Music Director, weaves a lush choral landscape with great opera choruses, an exciting sampling of LA’s hottest composers, and three world premieres — “The City of Dis” by Louis Andriessen, Concert Suite from “The Grapes of Wrath” by Ricky Ian Gordon, and a work by David O written in collaboration with the choir and Mexican folk harp master musician Sergio “Checo” Alonso for the second installment of the Chorale’s multi-year initiative “LA is the World,” which unites master musician immigrants, composers and the Chorale.

More than half of the ensemble’s 44th season features music by living composers, including esteemed Los Angeles-based artists Esa-Pekka Salonen, Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre, in addition to O, as well as Henryk Górecki, Steven Stucky, Judith Weir and Jan Sandström. Also showcased are such masterpieces as Beethoven’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage and A German Requiem by Brahms with soloists soprano Elissa Johnston and bass-baritone Eric Owens. Bach’s sublime Mass in B Minor, presented for the first time in Disney Hall, features the exceptional artistry of Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, in its second collaboration with the Master Chorale, as well as soloists soprano Mary Wilson, mezzo-soprano Paula Rasmussen, tenor James Taylor and baritone Jesse Blumberg. In addition, the Chorale, a resident company of the Music Center, is one of numerous organizations participating in the Southland’s inaugural “Festival of New American Musicals,” which runs May-June 2008.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) and the Chorale continue their acclaimed collaboration “Homage to Haydn” — a multi-year initiative that showcases all six of Haydn’s famous final Masses over three seasons, culminating in 2009, the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death. LACO Music Director Jeffrey Kahane conducts the combined forces in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War in the fall, and Gershon leads them in Haydn’s Maria Theresa Mass in the spring.

Other highlights include two performances of the Messiah Sing-Along plus the Chorale’s 19th Annual High School Choir Festival.

“Every concert this season is unique,” says Gershon. “We are juxtaposing pillars of the classical repertoire with new works in a very organic manner. The link in the repertoire is the human voice. Hearing the Chorale’s incredible voice — which is a truly remarkable instrument — inside Disney Hall is an experience like no other.”

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

Beethoven’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage and A German Requiem by Brahms Open Season on October 14

Launching its 2007|08 season, symbolically, with a voyage, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Music Director Grant Gershon, opens its concert series at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Sunday, October 14, 2007, at 7:00 p.m., with Beethoven’s choral gem Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. The seven-minute cantata, which features an impressionistic setting of two poems by Goethe, is followed by the program’s centerpiece — A German Requiem by Brahms, considered his greatest choral composition and one of the most beautiful and touching pieces in the vocal repertoire. Adding to the work’s rich choral layering are guest soloists Elissa Johnston, soprano, and Eric Owens, bass-baritone, both of whom have previously appeared with the Chorale.

While A German Requiem, which will be sung in German, deals with the subject of death, it is warm and consoling, offering a very human perspective and a message of hope that transcends religious beliefs. Just 33 years old when he completed the bulk of his magnum opus, Brahms himself wrote, “As for the title, I must admit I should like to leave out the word ‘German’ and refer instead to ‘Humanity.’” Seeking to comfort the living in the face of death, he used the text of Martin Luther’s German vernacular translation of the Bible rather than the traditional Catholic liturgical text for the requiem mass, which connotes images of the terror of the Last Judgment. The work’s melodic orchestral and choral palettes, arranged in seven movements that are ripe with intimacy and hope, continue to resonate with audiences today, nearly 150 years after Brahms conducted its debut in the Bremen Cathedral on Good Friday 1869.

World Premiere of Louis Andriessen’s “The City of Dis,” Commissioned by Chorale, Paired with Haydn’s Mass in Time of War on November 18

The Los Angeles Master Chorale journeys to a musical war zone when it pairs Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and God Protect Us From War by Veljo Tormis with the world premiere of Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s “The City of Dis,”from La Commedia, an opera under construction based on Dante’s literary masterpiece Divine Comedy, on Sunday, November 18, 2007, at 7:00 p.m., at Disney Hall. Gershon conducts both the Andriessen and Tormis pieces. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) joins the Chorale for Mass In Time of War, the third “Homage to Haydn” collaboration by the organizations in two years, which LACO’s Music Director, Jeffrey Kahane, conducts.

Andriessen, one of Europe’s eminent and most influential composers, combines propulsive energy, economy of material and distinctive sonorities often dominated by pungent wind and brass, pianos and electric guitars. He is noted for exploring, in relation to music, the subjects of politics, time, velocity, matter and mortality. “The City of Dis,” commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, is the first of five sections of his opera La Commedia. The other sections are: 2. “Racconto dall'Inferno,” 3. “Lucifer,” 4. “Garden of Delight” and 5. “Paradiso.” The Chorale’s debut of “The City of Dis” is part of a series of premieres related to the opera. On October 24, 2004, Ensemble musicFabrik and RAI presented the world premiere, in Germany, of "Racconto dall'Inferno." (There were subsequent performances in Italy and the Netherlands). On March 24, 2006, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented the U.S. premiere of "Racconto dall'Inferno" as part of the Minimalist Jukebox Festival, which LA Weekly described as “a glistening, infernal travelogue… wow.” The Netherlands Opera, the main commissioner, will present the world premiere of the complete work, La Commedia, on June 12, 2008, in Amsterdam as part of the Holland Festival, with a U.K. premiere to follow on October 1, 2008.

Says Andreissen of his choice of text for the work, “La Commedia — I prefer to use Dante’s original title, as ‘Divine’ has been added long after his death — is a book that has been part of my life for more than 25 years. It combines complexity, intellectualism, horror, beauty, multi-layeredness, allusions, historical and mythological references, and, above all, irony. I’ve tried to capture the amusing and human aspects of the text. Perhaps the best description is closer to something by Fellini, part nightmare and part dream.”

Estonian composer Veljo Tormis, born in 1930, is a master of large-scale choral compositions that create tension with repetitious sound. God Protect Us From War takes as its text a collection of Finnish folk poetry, Kanteletar, compiled in 1840-1841. Tormis uses chant-like melodic motifs and the underlying tone of a tam-tam, or gong, to create the impression of an ancient prayer wrapped in a hushed mysterious veneer.

“Homage to Haydn” is a multi-year initiative that showcases all six of Haydn’s famous final Masses over three seasons, culminating in 2009, the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death. Mass in Time of War, a plea for peace, expressing terror and joy, was composed in 1796 when Napoleon was at the gates of Vienna and the western world was on the edge of chaos. Haydn himself titled the piece in recognition of the threat from the Napoleonic wars, but the beginning drum roll is the only hint of a martial spirit. Otherwise, the mass is joyful and uplifting. After writing more than 100 symphonies, Haydn turned late in life to choral music and religious themes. Written when the composer was at the height of his powers, the mass is a profound work that also delights audiences.

LACO was founded in 1968 as an artistic outlet for the film and recording studios' most gifted musicians. Since then, the 40-member orchestra has gained a reputation for both virtuosic music making and dynamic programming. Renowned pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane has led the group since 1997, continuing the standard of excellence set by the orchestra's first four music directors: Sir Neville Marriner, Gerard Schwarz, Iona Brown, and Christof Perick. The orchestra performs repertoire ranging from Baroque masterpieces to new works commissioned annually by its Sound Investment program. LACO maintains its local presence with an annual home season of 15 concerts at two historic theaters, the Alex in Glendale and UCLA's Royce Hall. KUSC’s Jim Svejda recently praised LACO as "America's finest chamber orchestra."

LACO Artistic Director Jeffrey Kahane also serves as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Green Music Festival in Sonoma County, having recently completed his tenth and final season as Music Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony. In addition, Kahane plays with and conducts the St. Louis, Chicago and Toronto Symphony orchestras. During the 2006|07 season, he fulfilled his long-cherished dream of performing all 23 of the original Mozart piano concertos as part of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Two Matinees of “Holiday Wonders” Ring on December 8 and 15

Adding a festive ring to the holiday season, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Gershon, offers two matinees of “Holiday Wonders,” its signature yuletide family concert, on Saturday, December 8, 3:00 p.m., and Saturday, December 15, 2007, at 3:00 p.m., at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The show rings with carols and memory-making sing-alongs, making it one of the city’s most popular holiday traditions — and best values — for children and adults of all ages. Plus Santa himself may drop in to conduct a number or two. Tickets for children 17 and under are priced at only $12 for this concert.

Music of Britten and Susa Resounds at Annual Holiday Concert December 9

Two quintessential, seasonal, companion works — Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols and Conrad Susa’s Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest — anchor the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s annual holiday concert on Sunday, December 9, 2007, at 7:00 p.m. Conducted by Gershon, the program also includes carols from the old and new worlds.

Britten composed A Ceremony of Carols during a five-week, trans-Atlantic crossing from America to England on a cargo ship in 1942, in the midst of the most brutal conflict of the century. Written for chamber choir and harp, the celebratory, dance-like work, based on medieval and 16th century poetry, intertwines unusual harmonies and otherworldly melodies to evoke the struggle between good and evil while transporting listeners from a frozen landscape to an enchanted realm. Disney Hall’s sparkling acoustics provide an apt setting for the piece, which Britten intended to be performed in churches and cathedrals, embracing their unique acoustical properties.

In 1992, Susa, inspired by a collection of traditional Spanish carols sung in the Southwest, wrote Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest as a companion piece for Britten's A Ceremony of Carols. It honors the riches of the spirit in the face of poverty by telling the story of the nativity through the eyes of peasants, appealing to the child within each of us. Susa's choice of instrumentation evolved from his "overriding image of a Southwestern piñata party for the new baby." Harp, guitar and marimba accompany the choir.

Messiah Sing-Along Reigns December 10 and 16

Angelenos get two cracks at the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s popular Messiah Sing-Along on Monday, December 10, 2007, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, December 16, 2007, at 7:30 p.m., at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The audience takes over as the chorus for the evening, providing rousing vocal support for a team of four professional soloists from the Chorale.

“I am always amazed by the incredible quality of the audience’s singing,” says Gershon, who conducts. “But everyone is welcome — whether they think they can sing or not — to sample this fun holiday tradition. Everyone walks away uplifted, including me!” Scores are available for sale at the door.

Early Music Fills Disney Hall February 10

Disney Hall reverberates with Spanish Renaissance and Mexican Baroque choral works, including motets by Tomás Luis de Victoria and Manuel de Zumaya, on February 10, 2008, 7:00 p.m., at Disney Hall. The a cappella program, conducted by Gershon, features 40 voices from the Chorale.

“This is music from the cathedrals of Spain and the New World —some of the most evocative and haunting music of the era,” states Gershon. “It has the power to transport listeners in a very personal way.”

Musica Angelica Joins Chorale for Bach’s B Minor Mass on March 9

The famed Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra joins forces with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, under the baton of Gershon, to perform Bach’s incomparable B Minor Mass on Sunday, March 9, 2008, at 7:00 p.m., at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The concert, which marks the first time the work has been set in Disney Hall, features period instruments and a reduced number of singers, reflecting the original spirit of the piece. With a dazzlingly complex musical structure and harmonies 200 years ahead of their time, Bach’s mass is a supreme test of singers. Featured soloists are soprano Mary Wilson, mezzo-soprano Paula Rasmussen, tenor James Taylor and baritone Jesse Blumberg.

“It’s the ultimate musical experience to hear the B Minor Mass live,” states Gershon. “There’s a terrific sense of excitement and elation in the virtuoso movement as well as movements that are deeply profound with a kaleidoscope of harmonic language. It pulls the listener to another realm of consciousness.”

Musica Angelica is led by Music Director Martin Haselböck, the internationally renowned organist, conductor, and composer. Regarded as Southern California's premier Baroque ensemble, Musica Angelica presents wide-ranging programs encompassing music written from the early Baroque through the Classical era and has also presented the world premieres of more than ten “new music” works. Since its inception in 1993, Musica Angelica has produced an annual subscription season of orchestral and chamber concerts in venues throughout Los Angeles County, programming a mixture of known masterworks along with rarely heard gems, and featuring many of the best Baroque musicians from across the country and Europe. Musica Angelica, based in Santa Monica, collaborates with leading performing arts institutions in Southern California including the Los Angeles Opera, Long Beach Opera, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Norton Simon Museum.

Music of Haydn and Górecki Scheduled for April 6

The Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra deliver the second “Homage to Haydn” collaboration of the season with the Maria Theresa Mass on Sunday, April 6, 2008. The program, conducted by Gershon, also includes the Five Marian Songs Op. 54 by Henryk Górecki. “These two works share great tenderness and communicate with the audience in a warm and comforting manner,” Gershon says.

Considered the most personal of Haydn’s late masses, the Maria Theresa Mass was commissioned by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II to celebrate the name-day of his wife, Princess Maria Hermenegild. After its premiere in 1799, it was hailed for its vigorous and colorful choral writing and continues to engage audiences with its chamber music-like quality.

Five Marian Songs by Górecki create a sense of calm and peace with its slow moving pace and sonorous vocal range. Explains Gershon, “It’s like a down comforter — it just envelopes you.”

Premiere of David O Work Marks 2nd “LA Is the World” Installment and LA’s Leading Composers Are Featured in Almost a cappella Program May 4

Celebrating the amazing vitality of the current choral scene in Los Angeles and beyond, Gershon and the Chorale highlight the choral music of Esa Pekka Salonen, Morten Lauridsen, David O and Eric Whitacre — considered among LA’s top composers — along with works by Steven Stucky, Sweden’s Jan Sandström, Poland’s Henryk Górecki, and Scotland’s Judith Weir, on Sunday, May 4, 2008, at 7:00 p.m., at Disney Hall. The centerpiece of the concert is the second pan-cultural installment of “LA is the World,” which features a collaboration among Los Angeles-based composer David O, Mexican folk harp master Sergio “Checo” Alonso, and the Chorale, premieres.

“This is definitely a tasting menu of what’s hot in choral music,” says Gershon. “Every piece is a winner — the best of the best, plus it shows the Chorale in all its glory. For choral ‘true believers,’ it may be the most exciting concert of the season.”

Regarding the premiere of David O’s work, Gershon says, “David vast and compelling body of work consistently embraces the wonderfully eclectic spirit of Los Angeles. A versatile artist, he draws from a huge range of musical styles. I’m looking forward to working with him and Checo to craft this new piece. This is a very exciting collaboration for the Chorale.”

O is an award-winning composer, performer and musical director whose work has been featured at Disney Hall, Kennedy Center, the Mark Taper Forum and the Hollywood Bowl, among other venues. He was previously featured as a pianist for the Chorale’s concerts “The New Broadway” and “Toon Tunes” at Disney Hall, and is the co-creator of “Voices Within,” the Chorale’s educational outreach program through which children are taught collaborative skills while writing songs together. Some of his most unique work includes non-traditional theatre pieces for which he serves as both musical director and composer. Recently, he created an entirely a cappella score for Hippolytos, a new translation of Euripides’ tragedy commissioned to inaugurate the Fleischman Theatre at the newly-refurbished Getty Villa in Malibu. In addition, O was the composer, musical director, and on-stage pianist/percussionist for A Noise Within’s production of Ubu Roi, for which he received the 2006 Ovation Award for Sound Design in a Large Theater. His choral compositions include Dadme, which was commissioned by the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts, for the opening of “The Rock is Art” installation, and “Elements,” which will be premiered by the Sacramento Master Singers in March 2007. The versatile composer’s original musicals include The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip and The Legend of Alex, both commissioned by Center Theatre Group’s P.L.A.Y. Program. O has served as musical director on countless musicals in the Los Angeles area, including the world premiere of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World and the West Coast premiere of Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party. For each of these productions, he received the LA Weekly, LA Drama Critics’ Circle, and Garland awards for Musical Direction. He recently served as musical director for 13, a new musical by Jason Robert Brown and Dan Elish, which ran at the Mark Taper Forum.

In addition to the O premiere, the almost a cappella program includes such major works as Salonen’s first choral work, Two Songs to Poems of Ann Jäderlund, of which the choir gave the U.S. premiere and recorded to great acclaim in 2002, Lauridsen’s Three Nocturnes, for which the composer himself will collaborate as pianist, When David Heard by Whitacre and Cradle Songs by Stucky. Others pieces slated are Two Human Hymns by Weir, Górecki’s Lobgesang (Song of Praise) and Biegga luohte (Yoik to the Mountain Wind) by Sandström, who is little know outside of the choral inner circle but whose piece, Gershon notes, “reflects the folk singing from the far north of Sweden and goes like a freight train!”

Season Closes May 18 with Great Opera Choruses, Including World Premiere of Concert Suite from “The Grapes of Wrath” by Ricky Ian Gordon

Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale close the 44th season with a varied selection of great opera choruses on Sunday, May 18, 2007, 7:30 p.m., at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Spotlighting the versatile workhorse of opera — the chorus — Gershon conducts pieces ranging from Verdi’s “Va pensiero” from Nabucco to the world premiere of American composer Ricky Ian Gordon’s Concert Suite from “The Grapes of Wrath,” his critically acclaimed opera. The concert is part of the inaugural “Festival of New American Musicals,” in which numerous Southern California arts organizations will participate during May/June 2008.

“The chorus is a major feature of Ricky’s opera,” explains Gershon, who conducted its world premiere in February 2007 with the Minnesota Opera and will conduct the Utah Opera’s production in May 2007. “It’s a very powerful score that, at times, has a Copland-like quality that conjures up the full experience of America and has a combination of optimism, wistfulness and tragedy. Ricky is very excited about creating this suite, which will weave together the big choral numbers from the opera, hitting all of the opera’s high points.”

Ricky Ian Gordon has composed for the concert hall, opera stage and theatre and served as composer-in-residence at The Lyric Opera of Chicago. In addition to The Grapes of Wrath, his credits include My Life with Albertine, Dream True, The Tibetan Book of the Dead and Only Heaven. His songs have been performed and recorded by such internationally known singers as Renee Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Deborah Voight, Andrea Marcovicci, Harolyn Blackwell and Betty Buckley. Gordon is considered one of the most talented of the handful of young theatrical composers often designated as heirs to the musical legacy of Stephen Sondheim, who revolutionized musical theater with complex, groundbreaking musicals such as Sweeney Todd, Pacific Overtures, and Into the Woods. Gordon has been praised for the lyrical quality of his music and for bridging the worlds of theater and art song. The New York Times said, “If the music of Ricky Ian Gordon had to be defined by a single quality, it would be the bursting effervescence infusing songs that blithely blur the lines between art song and the high-end Broadway music of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim… It’s caviar for a world gorging on pizza.” Born on May 15, 1956, Gordon grew up on Long Island. His father was an electrician and his mother was a former singer. Gordon's family history was documented in Home Fires, a book by Donald Katz.

Special Event

High School Choir Festival Set for April 18

The Chorale opens the doors of the Walt Disney Concert Hall to the city free-of-charge for its 19th Annual Los Angeles Master Chorale High School Choir Festival on Wednesday, April 18, 2008. One of the largest high school choir festivals in the nation, it showcases the remarkable vocal talents of more than 900 high school students from some two dozen Southland schools in a massive choir conducted by Grant Gershon. 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 2007|08 season at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, please 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.

Program, prices and artists subject to change.

2-05-07

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