LA Master Chorale debuts Bach's St. Matthew Passion March 7

Los Angeles Master Chorale - Walt Disney Concert Hall Debut of
Bach's St. Matthew Passion

Grant Gershon, Conductor
Musica Angelica
Los Angeles Children's Chorus
Pablo Cora, as the Evangelist
Steve Pence, as Jesus
Kristen Toedtman, Adriana Manfredi, Leslie Inman, altos
Tamara Bevard, Deborah Mayhan, soprano
Jon Lee Keenan, tenor
Abdiel Gonzales, baritone

Performance Date:
Sunday, March 7, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
(Listen Up! pre-concert talk with Grant Gershon and KUSC's Alan Chapman, 6 p.m.)

Program:
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
St. Matthew Passion

Venue:
Walt Disney Concert Hall
111 S. Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Ticket Prices:
Concert Tickets: $19 - $124; Student Rush seats available at box office two hours before the performance

Ticket Information:
213-972-7282
www.lamc.org

(Tickets can no longer be purchased at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office except on concert days starting 2 hours prior to the performance.)

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The Grammy-nominated LOS ANGELES MASTER CHORALE, currently celebrating its 46th season, has been cited as a national leader for its innovative and dynamic programming. Los Angeles Times states the Chorale “has become the most exciting chorus in the country under Grant Gershon.”

Since its founding in 1964, LAMC has presented more than 500 concerts, including choral music from the earliest writings to the most recent contemporary compositions. In 2003 the Chorale became one of two resident companies in Walt Disney Concert Hall, launching a period of incredible artistic and organizational growth.

The Chorale has premiered 61 new works - 41 world premieres and 25 works commissioned by or through the LAMC ¬- and has recorded 6 CDs. The Chorale's most recent recording with Gershon, Daniel Variations, was released on Nonesuch in spring 2008. LAMC performs a season of seven concerts at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, plus two performances of the Messiah Sing-Along; and the family-friendly Holiday Wonders concert in December; and also performs regularly with the L.A. Philharmonic.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale has more than 1,000 subscribers, serves over 40,000 audience members of all ages, and provides education outreach to approximately 13,000 children each year. In 2008,one of the Chorale's highly successful outreach programs, “Voices Within,” earned the coveted Chorus America Education Outreach Award.

Los Angeles Master Chorale Music Director GRANT GERSHON
is equally at home with symphonic and choral music, opera, and musical theater. He was named Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 2001, and also serves as LA Opera Associate Conductor/Chorus Master. During his tenure with the Chorale, he has led over 60 programs at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Gershon has also expanded the choir's repertoire considerably, conducting dozens of world, U.S., West Coast and Los Angeles premieres. His Nonesuch recording with the Chorale of Steve Reich's You Are (Variations) was honored with the WQXR Gramophone America Award in 2006. The New York Times, Washington Post and Newsday, among others, selected it as one of the top ten classical recordings of 2005. In 2002 he made his first CD with the Master Chorale, featuring the world premiere recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen's first choral work as well as Philip Glass's Itaipú (RCM 12004).

Gershon has also served as chorus master on two Grammy Award-nominated CD's, Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic Special Editions) and Ligeti's Grand Macabre (Sony Classical). He has appeared on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center leading the LA Master Chorale, and on the Making Music Series at Zankel Hall. Gershon conducted the Minnesota Opera's world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's acclaimed opera The Grapes of Wrath, led subsequent performances of the work with the Utah Symphony and also conducted the cast recording released in 2008 on P.S. Classics. In May 2009 he made his highly acclaimed Los Angeles Opera debut leading eight performances of Verdi's La Traviata.

Gershon received his bachelor of music degree cum laude in piano performance from USC, and currently serves on the USC Thornton School of Music Board of Advisors.

LOS ANGELES CHILDREN'S CHORUS - led by Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson
and described as “astonishingly polished,” “hauntingly beautiful,” “a homogenous blanket of sound that is smooth, silky” and “one heck of a talented group of kids” - is recognized throughout the country for its exceptional artistic quality and technical ability. Founded in 1986, LACC performs frequently with leading music ensembles, including the LA Phil, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Calder Quartet, Pasadena Symphony and LA Opera.

The chorus's roster includes more than 350 children aged 6-18 from 60 communities across Los Angeles in six choirs and “First Experiences in Singing” classes for young singers. LACC's intensive training program includes weekly or twice weekly rehearsals, individual vocal coaching and comprehensive musicianship classes.

LACC has toured Brazil, China Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, as well as many parts of the United States and Canada. Among its numerous accomplishments, LACC produced a commissioned world-premiere opera, Keepers of the Night, by composer Peter Ash and librettist Donald Sturrock in 2007 and appears on "Amore Infinito" ("Infinite Love"), a Deutsche Grammophon CD of songs based on poems by the late Pope John Paul II and performed by Plácido Domingo, which was released worldwide in March 2009.

LACC is also featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary, “Sing!” and sequel documentaries “Sing Opera!” and “Sing China!” by award-winning filmmakers Freida Lee Mock and Jessica Sanders. LACC has appeared twice on NBC's “The Tonight Show,” including, most recently, in June 2009, with Grammy Award-winning pop artist John Mayer, and has been featured on Public Radio International's acclaimed nationally syndicated radio show “From the Top,” hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O'Riley.

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 from the early Baroque through the early Classical era. The ensemble has garnered tremendous critical acclaim: review, "Musica Angelica soars in a Baroque gem… a triumph… " (Los Angeles Times ); a "world class Baroque orchestra" (KUSC FM); and "a serious and important early-music ensemble, the best of its kind in these parts" (music critic Alan Rich).

Since its inception in 1993, Musica Angelica has produced an annual subscription season of orchestral and chamber concerts in venues throughout Los Angeles County featuring known masterworks, rarely heard gems and many of the world's leading Baroque musicians. Guest conductors have included Rinaldo Alessandrini, Giovanni Antonini, Harry Bicket, Paul Goodwin, and Jory Vinikour, among others.

Concertmaster/Resident Artistic Director Elizabeth Blumenstock, the noted Baroque violinist, programs Musica Angelica's chamber music series. Musica Angelica's first international tour took place in March 2007 in a joint venture with Haselböck's noted European orchestra, the Wiener Akademie of Vienna. Musica Angelica's most recent recording is Handel's Acis and Galatea released in 2007 on the Germany-based New Classical Adventure (NCA) label. Musica Angelica, which collaborates with the Los Angeles Opera, Long Beach Opera, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Norton Simon Museum, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, among other musical organizations, was co-founded by the late Michael Eagan, one of the world's foremost lute players, and the late gambist Mark Chatfield.

Artists, program and ticket prices subject to change.