NEWS: L.A. Master Chorale unveils 2017-2018 season

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Southern California News Group

Members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale perform in “Lagrime di San Pietro” last fall. A possible tour of the production, which received widespread critical acclaim, was part of the Master Chorale’s presentation of its 2017-18 season at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
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Once upon a time, not so many years ago, classical music organizations made a big deal of announcing their upcoming seasons. Most were a waste of time. The presentations weren’t well done (I can still remember Plácido Domingo reading the media release at one such occasion) and the news could have just as easily been disseminated by emailing a release, which is what usually happens these days.

This morning the Los Angeles Master Chorale revived the old tradition with a concise, informative event that included — for a change — some genuine news, well presented by Artistic Director Grant Gershon, President and CEO Jean Davidson and others who will be involved in the upcoming season, the Master Chorale’s 54th and Gershon’s 17th as the ensemble’s AD.

You can read the media release HERE but among the news items were:

• The Chorale has now remade itself as a fully professional ensemble. At 100 members it’s one of the largest fully professional choral groups in the world.

• Gershon will conduct six of the nine concerts (12 performances) in the upcoming season, which begins on Sept. 23 and 24 with Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Orff’s Carmina Burana and concludes on June 9 and 10, 2018 with Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem and works by Caroline Shaw and David Lang. The Bernstein piece is part of a world-wide celebration of the centennial of Lenny’s birthday (Aug. 25, 2018).

• In addition to the main season the LAMC will headline “Big Sing California,” a project led by LAMC Artist-in-Residence Eric Whitacre. The year-long event begins with a mass sing in Grant Park on June 24 as part of the 2017 Chorus America conference and will conclude in July, 2018 when people around the world will join together via a live stream to sing with the Whitacre and the Master Chorale performing in Disney Hall.

• The world premiere of dreams of the new world by Ellen Reid combined with one of the most iconic minimalist works: Terry Riley’s In C. Gershon and the Master Chorale will be joined by the “Wild Up” ensemble on May 13. It will be Reid’s second world premiere locally in 2018. She will be featured in Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concerts with a LACO “Sound Investment” commission on Feb. 24 and 25 (INFO)

• In the second installment of the LAMC’s “Hidden Handel” cycle, Gershon and 80 singers will sing Israel in Egypt in collaboration with visual artist Kevork Mourad. A clip on Mourad’s vision for this piece and his artistic style is HERE.

• Gershon will lead performances of Handel’s Messiah on Dec. 17 and the 27th annual “Messiah Sing-Along” on Dec. 18. This year is the 275th anniversary of the work’s premiere.

• Maria Guinand, conductor of Venezuala’s Schola Cantorum and head of the choral portion of the country’s El Sistema program, will lead a program on Oct. 29 of Latin American music as part of the annual “Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead)” remembrance.

• Jenny Wong, the Master Chorale’s new assistant conductor, will lead a concert of Bach’s Six Motets on Dec. 10 and Whitacre will lead “Festival of Carols” concerts on Dec. 2 and 9.

Gershon ended the gathering by telling those assembled that plans are being developed to take the production of Orlando di Lasso’s Lagrime di San Pietro (Tears of St. Peter) on the road. My preview of the concert is HERE. Mark Swed’s L.A. Times review is HERE. Details to come, we are promised.
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(c) Copyright 2017, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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LA Opera announces 2015-2016 season

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
The Los Angeles News Group
San Francisco Opera, Moby Dick,
Jake Hegge’s opera “Moby-Dick” will be part of the 2015-16 Los Angeles Opera season.
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There’s a healthy dose of the familiar to Los Angeles Opera’s 30th anniversary season, which was formally unveiled yesterday, but enough new and/or interesting to make the 2015-2016 schedule worth considering when laying out your long-range plans.

The season will have six productions, totaling 38 performances, and two recitals — including a 30th anniversary gala pairing of Plácido Domingo and Renée Fleming on March 16, 2016 with James Conlon conducting the LA Opera Orchestra — in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. There will also be five offerings (13 performances) in the company’s “Off Grand” series (i.e., locales outside the Pavilion).

As has been the case in recent years, LAO Music Director James Conlon will conduct four of the six Pavilion productions. He won’t be leading the opening offering — Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci — nor the last production, Puccini’s La Boheme (see below for details on these).

Among the Pavilion highlights:
• The Los Angeles premiere of Jake Hegge’s Moby-Dick, with Jay Hunter Morris singing the title role. This was originally a co-production of five companies, including San Diego Opera — I loved it when I saw it there. Opens Oct. 31 for six performances.
• A revival of the highly successful 2013 Barrie Kosky production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, featuring sets that evoke the silent-film movie era. Opens Feb. 13, 2016 for six performances. Another in the “don’t-miss” category.
• The season-opening double bill will revive the company’s Woody Allen production of Gianni Schicchi, with Domingo singing the title and Grant Gershon, LAO’s resident conductor, leading the orchestra. After intermission, in an idea that only Domingo would think of, he will change clothes, wipe off makeup and pick up the baton to conduct Pagliacci. Opens Sept. 12 for six performances.
• The season concludes with Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel making his company debut leading the final two performances of La Boheme on June 10 and 12, 2016. Italian born conductor Speranza Scappucci makes her company debut leading the first four performances. Opens May 14 for eight performances.

Among the “Off Grand” productions
• Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet will perform Glass’ score to the classic 1931 film Dracula (starring Bela Lugosi) Oct. 29-31 at the recently restored Theatre at Ace Hotel, a 1927 Spanish Gothic movie palace in downtown Los Angeles that was once a United Artists flagship movie theatre.
• The world premiere of Anatomy Theatre by PulitzerPrize-winning composer David Lang and visual artist Mark Dion will mark the second collaboration between LAO and the Beth Morrison Projects at REDCAT (the Roy and Edna Disney/Cal Arts Theatre) located in the Disney Hall complex. June 16-19, 2016. Incidentally, the first of these collaborations, Dog Days, opens June 11 (2015). Information: www.laopera.org

Read the 2015-2016 media release HERE.

LAO’s 2015-2016 Web site is HERE.
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(c) Copyright 2014, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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CLASSICAL MUSIC: Another busy week with concerts by LACO, Master Chorale and L.A. Phil

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
Los Angeles Newspaper Group

My column on upcoming concerts by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Philharmonic is HERE. Incidentally, the composer of the Viola Concerto is Aaron Jay Kernis, not Arnold — mea culpa!

Performance details:
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Jeffrey Kahane, conductor and pianist
Rameau: Overture to Zaïs; Dances from Les Boréades & Dardanus
Kernis: Viola Concerto (LA premiere); Paul Neubauer, violist
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor
Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. in Alex Theatre, Glendale
Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in Royce Hall, UCLA
Information: www.laco.org

• Los Angeles Master Chorale: Grant Gershon, conductor
Music by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Josquin des Prez, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Orlando di Lasso and John Tavener.
Nov. 16, at 7 p.m. in Walt Disney Concert Hall
Information: www.lamc.org

• Los Angeles Philharmonic; Cristian Măcelaru, conductor
Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole; Elgar: Enigma Variations
Penderecki: Concerto Grosso for Three Cellos. Claudio Bohórquez, Arto Novras and Li-Wei Quin, soloists
Nov. 14 and 15 at 8 p.m.; Nov. 16 at 2 p.m.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Information: www.laphil.com
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(c) Copyright 2014, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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NEWS: Domingo, Koelsch ink long-term extensions with LA Opera

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

Barring unforeseen circumstances (e.g., illness, death or artist pique), Los Angeles Opera has solidified its senior management core for the next five years by announcing long-term contract extensions for General Director Plácido Domingo and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Koelsch.

Domingo, who has been in his present position since 2003 but whose tenure traces to the company’s founding in 1986 when he sang the title role in LAO’s inaugural production of Verdi’s Otello, has extended his contract through the 2018-2019 season. Koelsch, who joined the LAO staff in 1997 and was named CEO in 2012, has extended through 2018.

They join Music Director James Conlon, who has a contract through June 2018, and Resident Conductor Grant Gershon, who recently extended his contract through June 2017. In today’s announcement, the company also named John Nuckols, who has been with LAO since 2002, to the new position of Executive Vice President through June 2018.

The executive staff includes Faith Raiguel, who has been Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since 2008, and Diane Rhodes Bergman, who has been Vice President of Marketing and Communications since 2011.

Domingo, now 73, continues to be a workhorse. This month he will appear as Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata, his 26th different role with LAO. He has also conducted 15 operas to date with the company and continues to appear as singer and conductor all over the world. During his role as LAO General Director, he founded what is now the Domingo-Colburn-Stern Young Artist Program and recently oversaw the 22nd Operalia vocal competition (for good measure, he conducted the LAO Orchestra in the final round). LINK

Koelsch oversees all aspects of artistic planning for the company, including repertoire development, music administration, the casting of artists, and the selection of guest conductors. He has overseen the creation of more than 32 new productions, including five world premieres, and seven television recordings for LA Opera, including Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, which won two Grammy Awards upon its DVD release. He is also in charge of every aspect of the company’s strategic resources, including board development, fundraising, branding, marketing, public relations and educational administration.

My qualifiers in the first paragraph are worth noting. I’m sure the Vienna State Opera thought it was in fine administrative shape until its General Music Director, Franz Welser-Möst, resigned abruptly today LINK. Nothing is for sure in the music world.

Read the complete LAO media release HERE.
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(c) Copyright 2014, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: Indoor, outdoor concerts clash in first weekend of June

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

Style: "p25+-Ipro"
Michael Feinstein will open his second season as the Pasadena Pops’ principal conductor on June 7 at the Los Angeles County Arboretum.
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We’re at that odd time of the year for classical music when seasons collide. In June we’re wrapping up indoor seasons and beginning the outdoor concerts that are so much a part of Southern California life and, unfortunately, they all collide next weekend.

On the indoor scene:
• The Pasadena-based Angeles Chorale will conclude its 2013-2014 season at UCLA’s Royce Hall on June 7 at 8 p.m. when long-time artistic director and now resident guest conductor Donald Neuen makes his final appearance with the Angeles Chorale. The ensemble will be joined by the UCLA Chorale, UCLA Philharmonia and piano soloist Neal Stulberg in an all-Beethoven program: Mass in C Major, Choral Fantasy and the “Hallelujah” chorus from Christ on the Mount of Olives. Soloists for the mass will be soprano Sarah Grandpre, alto Sarah Anderson, tenor Daniel Suk, and bass Michael Dean. Information: www.angeleschorale.org

• The Pasadena Master Chorale’s final concert this year will feature Carl Orff’s ever-popular Carmina Burana on June 7 at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Pasadena. Artistic Director Jeffrey Bernstein will conduct the work’s two-piano chamber version. Soprano Krystle Casey and Baritone Ryan Thorn will be the soloists. Information: www.pasadenamasterchorale.org

• On June 8, Pasadena Pro Musica concludes its 50th season at 4 p.m. at Pasadena’s Neighborhood Church as Artistic Director Stephen Grimm leads a program of music by Mozart. Soloists include soprano Paula Rasmussen, who sang with PPM as a young chorister and has since gone on to an international opera career. Information: www.pasadenapromusica.org

• The Los Angeles Master Chorale wraps up its 50th season on June 8 at 7 p.m. at Walt Disney Concert Hall as Artistic Director Grant Gershon leads world premieres of pieces by the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Conductor Laurate Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Lang, and the Chorale’s composer-in-residence, Shawn Kirschner, along with music by Gabriela Lena Frank and Francisco Nuñez. Gershon’s new title came with welcome news that he is extending his contract with LAMC through 2019-2020. Information: www.lamc.org

On the outdoor front, Michael Feinstein returns for his second season as the Pasadena Pops’ principal conductor, leading the group’s opening concert on June 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles County Arboretum. The program will include a treasure trove of lost works that Feinstein has unearthed in places ranging from libraries to garages as he continues to build “The Great American Songbook.” Feinstein will conduct three of this summer’s concerts and sing in a fourth. Information: www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org
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(c) Copyright 2014, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

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