For the past couple of months, Mystic Pete — KXLU radio personality, friend of All is Yar, and all-around man about town — has been trying to get me to back on the air at KXLU.  For various reasons, I hadn’t been able to make it work on my end; however, when we all learned of the sad news of Paul Salamunovich’s passing, I suggested to Mystic Pete that we do a tribute show to the great choral maestro, and he readily agreed.

It seems only fitting that tonight on KXLU, the radio station on the campus of Loyola Marymount University, we celebrate the life of someone  who was such a huge part of the LMU community for many decades and who was an inaugural inductee into the LMU Faculty Hall of Fame.  Be a part of it from 6-8pm at 88.9FM in Los Angeles and/or streaming worldwide at kxlu.com.

Joining us will be a very special guest:  Lesley Leighton, Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Artistic Director of Los Robles Master Chorale (among other distinguished positions).  Dr. Leighton has the distinction of having sung for Mr. Salamunovich in all of his most notable choirs: Loyola Marymount University, St. Charles Borromeo, USC, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Tonight, she’ll be sharing some of her remembrances of the man and the musician.  In addition, she’ll be bringing along recordings from her own personal collection of the Maestro conducting — and even singing — some of the music with which he is most closely associated.  I’ll be adding some familiar favorites as well as some less common releases into that mix.

I hope you can join us.

RELATED POST:

• Morten Lauridsen shares a truly amazing story about visiting Paul Salamunovich in the hospital

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Photo credit:  courtesy of Lesley Leighton