LACC Announces 25th Anniversary Events

Los AngeLes Children's Chorus (LACC), considered one of the world's foremost children's choirs, honors its history of artistic excellence and embraces exciting new opportunities as it commemorates its milestone 25th Anniversary in 2010-11.  The year-long celebration features a series of concerts and musical partnerships with some of the region's leading arts organizations on stage and screen - silver and small - and in recordings.

"For 25 years, Los AngeLes Children's Chorus has played a vital role in LA's vibrant cultural scene," says David Scheidemantle, Chair of LACC's Board of Directors.  "The sound of children's voices raised in song is like no other.  Because of the exceptional training provided by LACC's artistic staff and the tremendous talent and dedication of each child who sings in the choir, LACC has become a leader among its peers, performing at the highest echelon."

"This anniversary season provides us an opportunity to reflect on LACC's strong roots and its considerable artistic arc over the past quarter of a century," says LACC Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson, who this year celebrates her 15th season at the choir's helm.  "We will continue our traditional focus of building LACC's signature bel canto tone through timeless repertoire and a new work for treble ensemble by multimedia composer and multimedia artist/LACC alumna Caroline Park."

Reflecting its long and fruitful partnership with the preeminent LA Philharmonic, LACC opened the season on a particularly high note with an appearance on the orchestra's critically acclaimed performance of the dramatic opera "Carmen" conducted by Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl on August 1.  Other community partnerships this season include engagements with the Azusa Pacific University's "Artists Concert Series," November 15; Pasadena Symphony and POPs, December 4, 2010; and the Angeles Chorale, March 26, 2011. LACC's Concert Choir also gives its first performance as a special guest at the Music Center's highly regarded Spotlight Awards, April 30, 2011.

The choir presents its own traditional Winter Concert at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, December 5 and 12, 2010, and annual Spring Concert, which this year features a major anniversary musical celebration at Ambassador Auditorium, May 14, 2011.  In addition, the choir stages a series of master classes for its members with the esteemed Chanticleer, the United States Army Chorus, Radcliffe Choral Society and LACC Founder Rebecca Thompson. A tour to the Mid-Atlantic region, with stops in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New Jersey, caps LACC's season.

On the recording front, LACC is featured on the Los Angeles Master Chorale's new all-Nico Muhly recording 'A Good Understanding' conducted by Grant Gershon that was released by Decca in September 2010.  The chorus plans to self-produce a holiday album this season as well.

LACC hits the big screen later this season when Freida Lee Mock and Jessica Sander's documentary film Sing China!, chronicling LACC's 2008 tour to China just prior to the Beijing Olympics, is released commercially in selected theatres around the country.  It was screened at the free "Family Flicks" series of new and classic family-friendly films from around the world co-presented by UCLA Film & Television Archive and Hammer Museum, September 19, 2010.  Sing China! and two previous documentaries about LACC by Mock and Sanders, the Academy Award-nominated Sing! and Sing Opera!, will broadcast as a limited series on primetime PBS next year.

Described as "astonishingly polished," "hauntingly beautiful," and "one heck of a talented group of kids," the Los AngeLes Children's Chorus is recognized for its exceptional artistic quality and technical ability. Founded in 1986 and led by Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson, LACC performs with such leading organizations as LA Opera, LA Phil, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, LA Master Chorale, LACO, Pasadena Symphony and POPs and Calder Quartet. The chorus' 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.  Choir members receive intensive training that includes weekly or twice weekly rehearsals, individual vocal coaching and comprehensive musicianship classes.  LACC has toured North and South America, China and Europe, and commissioned and produced the world-premiere of Keepers of the Night, an opera by Peter Ash and Donald Sturrock.  The chorus appears on Plácido Domingo's Deutsche Grammophon recording "Amore Infinito" ("Infinite Love") and has been featured twice on NBC's "The Tonight Show," most recently with pop artist John Mayer, and Public Radio International's nationally syndicated show "From the Top."  LACC is also the subject of a trilogy of documentaries by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock, the Academy Award-nominated Sing!, about a year in the life of the choir; Sing Opera!, documenting the production of Keepers of the Night; and Sing China!, chronicling its groundbreaking tour to China just prior to the Beijing Olympics. 

PERFORMANCES DETAILED

The Los AngeLes Children's Chorus 25th Anniversary Season began auspiciously when it joined forces with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale for a performance of Bizet's dramatic opera Carmen conducted by Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl on August 1, 2010.  Critics proclaimed LACC  "a delight" and "first-rate," and hailed the performance as "dazzling" and "gripping."

The UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Hammer Museum teamed up to present "Family Flicks," a free matinee screening series of new and classic family-friendly films from around the world that opened with the LACC documentary Sing China! September 19, 2010, at the Hammer Museum.  Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Frieda Lee Mock and Jessica Sanders, it follows LACC on the trip of a lifetime to perform in Beijing at the pre-Olympic International Youth Arts Festival.  This inspiring and heartwarming film, packed with amazing musical performances, captures the adventurous spirit and personal stories of the Chorus' young singers as they explore a new culture and prepare for their big night.  The directors, and representatives from the Los AngeLes Children's Chorus made a personal appearance at the screening.  Sing China!, the latest in a trio of documentaries about the acclaimed chorus that also includes Sing! and Sing Opera!, all of which will be shown as a series on primetime PBS next year, began a limited commercial run in Idaho and will continue to be shown commercially in cities around the country beginning this fall.

On September 26, 2010, LACC made a special appearance at the Los Angeles Master Chorale's gala, "Bravo, Grant," honoring the Chorale's esteemed music director, Grant Gershon, on the occasion of his 10th Anniversary with the Disney Hall resident choir.  A fundraiser for the Master Chorale, the event was held in Disney Hall's BP Hall.  Other artists paying tribute to Gershon that evening were leading sopranos Suzanna Guzmán and Elissa Johnston, and composer/pianist Ricky Ian Gordon.

Anne Tomlinson next leads LACC's Chamber Singers in a concert for Azusa Pacific University's prestigious "Artist Concert Series," which features leading artists from across the county, on November 11, 2010. 

LACC is showcased on two different programs in December, beginning with its third guest appearance with the Pasadena Symphony and POPS for its holiday concert December 4, 2010, 7 PM, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.  In addition to LACC, the program, conducted by Grant Cooper, features vocalist PatRick Mason and the beloved Donald Brinegar Singers performing such classics as Jingle Bells, and Sleigh Ride, music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Home Alone, The Polar Express and a performance of The Night Before Christmas narrated by actress, author and television host and LACC alumna Alison Sweeney. 

On December 5 and 12, 2010, 7 PM, LACC presents its popular annual Winter Concert at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, a holiday tradition.  The concert includes an eclectic range of classical, folk and contemporary works, such as Abbie Betinis' From Behind the Caravan:  Song of Hâfez, sung in traditional Persian scansion; Personent Hodie arranged for treble choir by Rutter; J.S. Bach's beautiful aria Bist du bei mir; the traditional Hebrew folk song S'vivon; James Gordon's ethereal and oft-recorded Frobisher Bay, about whaling in the Canadian arctic; Nigra Sum (I Am Black) by Pablo Casals; the spiritual Goin' Up Yonder by Walter Hawkins; Benjamin Britten's Fancie, set to the text from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice; Mark Sirett's Tyrley, Tyrlow; and the holiday carol God Bless the Master of this House.

Additionally, LACC has announced plans to release a self-produced holiday CD featuring favorite archival recordings of live performances throughout the years.

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