Producer Don Hahn To Be Honored By LA Children's Chorus at Gala Bel Canto
By: Kaitlin Milligan Apr. 05, 2019
Los Angeles Children's Chorus (LACC), one of the nation's leading youth choral institutions, honors Don Hahn, the acclaimed Academy Award-nominatedproducer of such blockbuster Disney films as The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Maleficent, and philanthropists Jennifer and Joe Sliskovich at Gala Bel Canto on Wednesday, April 24, 2019, at 5:30 pm, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The celebration features musical tributes by some 200 young singers from five LACC ensembles led by Artistic Director Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, a three-course dinner and a live auction. Proceeds from the annual fundraiser benefit Los Angeles Children's Chorus' outstanding artistic, educational and scholarship programs.
Hahn, who has produced some of the most successful and globally beloved animated films of our time, receives LACC's Bel Canto Award. His films have earned 18 Academy Award nominations, including Beauty and The Beast, which was the first full-length animated feature to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. He also received an Oscar-nomination for The Little Matchgirl. During his career, Hahn has directed such legends as Itzhak Perlman, Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones, and his documentaries Earth, Oceans, and African Cats, for Disneynature films, of which he serves as executive producer, are among the top five nature movies of all time. In addition, Hahn, hailed as a "Renaissance man" (Animation Magazine), has published numerous books on animation and other topics.
The Sliskoviches, both attorneys and entrepreneurs who have championed LACC for nearly two decades, are recipients of LACC's Rebecca Thompson Founder's Award. As cherished LACC alumni parents, former board members and Gala Bel Canto co-chairs and committee members, they are among LACC's most passionate and dedicated supporters. Their son Gregory and daughter Natalie are alumni of LACC, with Greg a founding member of the Young Men's Ensemble and Natalie a member of LACC's Chamber Singers. Through their keen leadership, advocacy and generosity, Jennifer and Joe have made possible for a generation of choristers the same extraordinary LACC experience that influenced their children so significantly. Marc
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Andrea Greene Willard (San Marino) is chairing Gala Bel Canto. The gala committee members are Rashmi Bansal (Pasadena), Elizabeth Grossman Besch (La Cañada Flintridge), Andrea Bland (Pasadena), Annie Yeager Higgins (Pasadena), Jena Liddy (Pasadena), Corina Madilian (Glendale), Laurie Modean (San Marino), Mariel Mulet (San Marino), Cheryl R. Scheidemantle, Ph.D. (Pasadena), Helen Kim Spitzer (San Marino), Elizabeth Voxman (San Marino) and Jill Westbrook Roberts (San Marino).
Los Angeles Children's Chorus, widely recognized for its artistic excellence, has been lauded as "hauntingly beautiful" (Los Angeles Times), "astonishingly polished" (Performances Magazine) and "one of the world's foremost children's choirs" (Pasadena Star News). Founded in 1986 and led by Artistic Director Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, who began his tenure in August 2018, LACC presents its own concerts and regularly performs with such organizations as LA Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale and Jacaranda, among others. The Chorus serves 400 children ages 6 to 18 in seven choirs - Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Mixed Voices Choir, Young Men's Ensemble, Intermediate Choir, Apprentice Choir and Preparatory Choir - and a First Experiences in Singing program and First Experiences in Choral Singing Ensemble for 6-8-year-olds. LACC, recipient of Chorus America's 2014 Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, tours internationally, is the subject of three documentaries and has appeared on NBC's "The Tonight Show," PBS's "Great Performances,"BBC Radio, Public Radio International's "From the Top" and is featured on John Williams' latest recording, John Williams & Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection.
Gala tickets are $400 per person with sponsorship packages available. The Millennium Biltmore Hotel
is located at 506 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90071. For tickets and information, please call (626) 793-4231, ext. 118, or visitwww.galabelcanto.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Don Hahn
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