Running Choristers 2013. Photo credit: JP Candelier
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (LACC), led by highly regarded Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson and acclaimed for its agile bel canto sound that has made it one of the nation’s most in-demand children’s choirs, announces its 2015-16 season, entitled “New Horizons,” featuring works new to the chorus as well as beloved LACC repertoire from its extensive musical archives developed over the past three decades. During its 30th Anniversary Season, the chorus appears in a number of high profile engagements, continuing to build upon its longtime partnerships with such leading music organizations as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Pasadena Symphony, and also presents an array of notable concerts, recitals, workshops and special events with leading artists from the choral world. LACC, which serves children ages 6 to 18 from 50 Southland communities, is described as “hauntingly beautiful” (Los Angeles Times) and lauded as “one of the world’s foremost children’s choirs” (Pasadena Star News), “astonishingly polished” (Performances Magazine), “extraordinary in its abilities” (Culture Spot LA), and “one heck of a talented group of kids” (LA Weekly).
Among numerous season highlights, LACC joins LA Opera for three opera productions at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion: Franco Zeffirelli’s epic production of Puccini’s Pagliacci, conducted by Plácido Domingo (Sept. 12, 20, 24, 17 and Oct. 3, 2015); Mozart’s The Magic Flute, conducted by James Conlon (February 13, 20, 24, 28 and March 2 and 6, 2016); and LA Opera’s original production of Puccini’s La Bohème, led by Speranza Scappucci (May 14, 19, 22, 25, 28 and June 5, 2016) and Gustavo Dudamel (June 10 and 12, 2016). It performs Bach’s popular Cantata No. 140, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” (“Sleepers Awake”) with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, led by Jeffrey Kahane, for the Orchestra’s popular “Discover” concert at Ambassador Auditorium (January 23, 2016); sings Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Dudamel, at Walt Disney Concert Hall (March 3, 4, 5 and 6, 2016); rings in the holiday season as part of the Pasadena Symphony’s popular “Holiday Candlelight” at Pasadena’s All Saints Episcopal Church (December 19, 2015); and performs at the National Kodály Convention in Long Beach (March 10, 2016).
Additionally, LACC opens its anniversary season with a recital by rising opera star and LACC alumna Lauren Libaw at Zipper Hall, heralded for her “warmth of tone and intensity of expression” (The New Yorker), (September 19, 2015); presents its signature Winter Concert, featuring an eclectic array of art songs, folksongs and classical works from around the globe (December 6 and 13, 2015); and hosts a special 30th Anniversary celebratory Spring Concert, including a guest appearance by LACC Founding Music Director Rebecca Thompson and an alumni chorus comprised of former choristers from across the country, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church (May 21, 2016). The chorus also honors five-time Academy Award-winning film composer John Williams, with whom LACC has long enjoyed a fruitful relationship, for his immeasurable contribution to the arts, at its annual Gala Bel Canto fundraiser (March 16, 2016). In addition, LACC hosts the American Boychoir, recognized as the finest boys’ choir in the country, (October 21, 2015), and presents a workshop with famed choral conductor Maria Guinand, Artistic Director of Venezuela’s Schola Contorum, (October 11, 2015), and a masterclass with USC Thornton School of Music’s influential Christian Grases, who himself studied under Guinand, among others, (March 6, 2016) at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. The season concludes with LACC’s first tour to Japan.
“LACC is proud to be part of such a diverse range of compelling artistic collaborations with some of the world’s leading conductors,” says Tomlinson, currently in her 23rd season with the organization. “We are also pleased to showcase the chorus’s artistry at our own concert series celebrating our 30th Anniversary Season. These appearances serve to enhance LACC’s comprehensive music education program that encourages a deeper appreciation of the choral art and the shared experience of creating fine choral music.”
The chorus’s level of excellence is particularly notable because, unlike adult choirs, each fall marks a new beginning – literally – for LACC as its members advance through LACC’s training ensembles to its premier Concert Choir, elite Chamber Singers and innovative Young Men’s Ensemble.
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus is recognized throughout the country for its exceptional artistic quality and technical ability. Founded in 1986 and led by Tomlinson since 1995, LACC serves more than 400 children through six choirs and a First Experiences in Singing program. LACC, recipient of Chorus America’s 2014 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, the nation’s highest choral honor, has toured North and South America, Africa, China, Australia and Europe. It appears on the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s critically acclaimed Decca recording A Good Understanding, and Plácido Domingo’s Deutsche Grammophon recording Amore Infinito (“Infinite Love”). The subject of a trilogy of documentaries by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Mock, LACC is featured in the Academy Award-nominated Sing!, about a year in the life of the choir; Sing Opera!, documenting the production of the LACC-commissioned family opera Keepers of the Night; and Sing China!, chronicling its groundbreaking tour to China just prior to the Beijing Olympics. LACC has performed with John Mayer on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” and has also been featured on PBS’s “Great Performances,” BBC Radio, and Public Radio International’s nationally syndicated show “From the Top,” among other credits.
Performances Detailed Chronologically
Launching its 30th Anniversary Season and celebrating one of its own, Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (LACC) presents rising opera star/noted alumna Lauren Libaw (’05) in recital on Saturday, September 19, 2015, 7 pm, at Zipper Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Libaw, a soprano praised for her sparkling, “bright-toned” voice (New York Times) as well as her “warmth of tone and intensity of expression” (The New Yorker), performs an array of art songs and arias with accompanist Dan Schlosberg. With members of LACC’s Chamber Singers, she also sings Mozart’s “Laudate Dominum” from the Vespers, considered one of the most beautiful arias ever written. Proceeds benefit LACC.
LACC joins LA Opera for the first of three opera productions this season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion – Franco Zeffirelli’s epic production of Puccini’s Pagliacci conduct by Plácido Domingo on Sept. 12, 20, 24, 17 and Oct. 3, 2015. The 18 LACC choristers featured in the production include Grant Anderson, Caelan Carter, Mateo Coleman, Sophie David, Jack Fagan, Jamie Felix-Toll, Cameron Ito, Beckett Ledahl, SE Lee, Rachel Loh, Micah Luna, Reese Owen, Mia Patzakis, Drew Quishenberry, Allison Rayer, Sofia Robert, Soren Ryssdal and Sarah Wong.
Famed choral conductor María Guinand, Artistic Director of Venezuela’s Schola Contorum and leading interpreter and champion of Latin American choral music of the 20th and 21st centuries, leads a workshop on Latin American music hosted by LACC on Sunday, October 11, 2015, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. For more than three decades, she has served as Associate Conductor and Advisor of Choral Symphonic Performances and Activities for El Sistema, the world-renowned music-training program in Venezuela. She has also been a professor and conductor for 28 years in the Masters Degree Program for Choral Conductors at the University Simón Bolívar and is a recipient of the Helmuth Rilling Preis (2009), the Robert Edler Preis für Chormusik (2000), and the Kulturpreis of the InterNationes Foundation (1998), three of the most distinguished prizes in choral music conducting.
Building upon its long history of presenting other children’s choirs from the U.S. and abroad, LACC hosts a choral exchange and concert with the illustrious American Boychoir, recognized as America’s premier boys’ choir and noted for its blend of musical sophistication, spirited presentation, and ensemble virtuosity, on Monday, October 21, 2015, 7 pm, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. The concert also includes performances by LACC’s Concert Choir and Young Men’s Ensemble.
LACC presents its popular annual Winter Concert, “Let Beauty Awake,” on two consecutive Sundays, December 6 and 13, 2015, 7 pm, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, the chorus’s home venue. The program features Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Let Beauty Awake, part of a song cycle of nine songs set to poems by Robert Louis Stevenson and the inspiration for the concert’s theme, and the inspiring Choose Something Like a Star set to the beloved poem by Robert Frost by American composer Randall Thompson. Other works include a selection of holiday favorites as well as Misa Pequena by highly regarded composer/conductor Francisco Nunez of the Young People’s Chorus of New York and sung in Spanish, the Cuban lullaby Ciclo Coral infantil “Desde mi alegra jardin” by Enrique Feliu, Mozart’s Solemn Vespers, and Claude Debussy’s moving art song Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maison, with a text highlighting the despair and challenges of French children living through WWII.
In other seasonal offerings, LACC makes its eighth guest appearance in matinee and evening performances of the Pasadena Symphony’s popular Holiday Candlelight concert led by conductor Grant Cooper on Saturday, December 19, 2015, 4 pm and 7 pm, at Pasadena’s All Saints Church. The program, featuring Broadway diva Christina Saffran, The Donald Brinegar Singers and the LA Bronze handbell ensemble, rings in the holidays by candlelight in the church’s architecturally exquisite and acoustically sonorous setting.
LACC joins the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, led by Music Director Jeffrey Kahane, for the Orchestra’s popular “Discover” concert, a special one-night-only exploration of Bach’s popular Cantata No. 140, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” (“Sleepers Awake”) on Saturday, January 23, 2016, at Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium. Other featured guest artists include soprano Teresa Wakim, tenor Colin Ainsworth, bass Andrew Craig Brown and the venerated USC-Thornton Chamber Singers. With Kahane – lauded for his “eloquence” (The New York Times) ¬– serving as musical “tour guide,” the evening is designed to lead patrons to a greater understanding and appreciation of the historical and cultural significance of this and other cantatas composed by Bach.
LACC shares the stage with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Dudamel, for four performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, one of his sunniest and most unconventional works, on March 3, 4, 5 and 6, 2016, at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
For its second LA Opera appearance this season, LACC is featured in six performances of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, transporting audiences into an enchanted world where good faces the forces of darkness, under the masterful baton of James Conlon, February 13, 20, 24, 28 and March 2 and 6, 2016, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
On March 6, 2016, LACC’s Young Men’s Ensemble participates in a masterclass with internationally known Venezuelan conductor/composer Christian Grases, assistant professor at USC Thornton School of Music where he has conducted the Thornton Concert Choir since 2010. The influential conductor has been hailed for displaying “the same kind of beautiful hand gestures and podium excitement that we see from Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel” (Class Act).
LACC is one of the featured choirs performing at the 2016 National Kodály Convention on March 10, 2016, in Long Beach.
Five-time Academy Award-winning film composer John Williams, with whom LACC has long enjoyed a fruitful relationship, receives LACC’s “Bel Canto Award,” for his immeasurable contribution to the arts, presented at the chorus’s annual Gala Bel Canto fundraiser on Tuesday, March 16, 2015 (location to be determined). Chaired by Cheryl Scheidemantle, the event, which spotlights distinguished honorees from the worlds of the arts, philanthropy and the chorus’s alumni community, draws supporters from across the Southland and also showcases the remarkable talents of LACC’s choristers. Proceeds benefit the chorus’s artistic, educational and scholarship programs.
In its final LA Opera appearance of the season, LACC participates in eight performances of LA Opera’s original production of Puccini’s timeless classic La Bohème, a masterpiece of the Italian lyric tradition, led by Speranza Scappucci on May 14, 19, 22, 25, 28 and June 5, 2016, and Gustavo Dudamel, in his LA Opera debut, on June 10 and 12, 2016, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
Embracing its deep roots and highlighting its rich history, LACC presents a special 30th Anniversary “edition” of its popular Spring Concert, including performances by all six of LACC’s training and premier choirs as well as a guest appearance by LACC Founding Music Director Rebecca Thompson and performances by an alumni chorus comprised of former choristers from across the country, May 21, 2016, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. The program features a vibrant mix of music both contemporary and traditional from LACC’s extensive musical archives.
Capping its 30th Anniversary Season, in June 2016, LACC embarks on its first tour to Japan, continuing its proud tradition of touring nationally and internationally to reach a global audience with its remarkable artistry. In addition, the Young Men’s Ensemble tours to the East Coast.
Reaching New Singers
For children interested in joining LACC’s ranks, open auditions for the renowned chorus take place June 2-5, 2016, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. No previous training in music or singing or audition preparations are required. Auditions for the Young Men’s Ensemble take place in mid-August.
LACC also offers its popular program First Experiences in Singing, eight- to ten-week, non-auditioned, non-performing classes that introduce six- and seven-year-old children to the wonders and excitement of singing and music. The 45-minute weekly classes are designed to assist budding singers with vocal and musical skill development, expose them to general music and rhythmic concepts, and introduce them to bel canto singing, the vocal style for which LACC is noted. Classes are held at Pasadena Presbyterian Church each fall, spring and summer.
Graduates of Level I of First Experiences in Singing are eligible to continue to Level II and Level III classes, which are ten weeks in length. Children completing Level III may then join LACC’s newest ensemble, First Experiences in Choral Singing, now in its fourth season. The ensemble is designed to assist children in developing their vocal, aural, musical and choral skills in preparation for auditions for the Preparatory Choir. The curriculum and repertoire focuses on developing the upper range of the treble voice, introducing acute listening skills, creating an awareness of musical phrasing, reading from an octavo and learning extended rehearsal decorum. The ensemble performs for parents twice a year.
This fall, Level I classes run eight consecutive Wednesdays, from September 30 to November 18, 2015, at 4:15 pm. Level II classes run ten consecutive Wednesdays, from September 16 to November 18, 2015, at 5:15 pm.
LACC Supporters
LACC’s 2015-2016 concert season and core educational program are made possible, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, and the Pasadena Tournament of Roses® Foundation. LACC is also deeply grateful to generous lead patrons Helen and Peter Bing and the hundreds of individual, foundation and corporate donors whose dedicated support sustains the chorus’s annual choral music program for children.
For additional information on LACC, its auditions or programs, please call (626) 793-4321 or visit www.lachildrenschorus.org.
