While I’m excited to be returning to Walt Disney Concert Hall tonight, I’m bummed that my 2022 Hollywood Bowl summer is now officially over (wipe away a tear . . . sniffle, sniffle). So before we move on to the 2022/23 indoor season, let’s take a moment to reflect on how awesome the summer has … Continue reading
The Los Angeles Master Chorale has announced its 2021-2022 season, featuring 10 different programs played over 14 nights. It will mark the group’s post-shutdown return to Walt Disney Concert Hall. Large works conducted by Artistic Director Grant Gershon will include Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil (Nov 20 & 21, 2021), Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Pärt’s Te Deum (March 20, … Continue reading
The music of Igor Stravinsky takes over Walt Disney Concert Hall for three different sets of programs over the next two weekends, led by one of its most ardent advocates, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and played by one of its best orchestral interpreters, the Los Angeles Philharmonic along with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and various other … Continue reading
The Los Angeles Master Chorale opened their 2016-17 season with staged performances of Orlando di Lassos’s Lagrime di San Pietro (Tears of St. Peter), a Renaissance-era work unknown to most singers and audience members alike, even the most ardent aficionados of choral music. I spoke to Artistic Director Grant Gershon at the time. We discussed … Continue reading
When the Los Angeles Master Chorale originally planned Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis for January of its 2016/17 season, the two performances, let alone the inauguration of a new President of the United States, were still more than a year away. There was no political statement, expressed or implied, in its scheduling, no inherent message of defiance or rebellion in its libretto. … Continue reading
The term “unknown masterpiece” is one usually ascribed to works that haven’t seen the light of day for decades or centuries before somehow being unearthed: a Bach aria stashed amidst birthday cards in a Weimar library or a $5 thrift store painting that may end up being a long-lost Jackson Pollack. Lagrime di San Pietro (Tears of … Continue reading
Jean Davidson is six months into her job as President & CEO of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and in some ways, she’s still settling in. She’s lived much of the past two decades in New York. Her most recent ten years were spent as the administrative yin to the artistic yang of acclaimed choreographer … Continue reading
Timothy Mangan, renowned classical music critic and friend of All is Yar, recently published a piece in the Orange County Register titled “Concert etiquette baffling? Here’s a hand.” It does a splendid job demystifying and explaining the classical music and opera attendance experience for newbies and veterans alike. The two biggest topics he covers: appropriate dress and … Continue reading
Tonight, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale are performing Carmina Burana at the Hollywood Bowl. While it isn’t done with the frequency of, say, Beethoven’s 9th, I can’t think of a full-blown choral work that sees the Hollywood Bowl stage more often. So even though I couldn’t make it to the Bowl this evening, I’m … Continue reading
Earlier today, the Los Angeles Master Chorale announced that Jean Davidson will be its new President and CEO beginning August 31, 2015. She takes over the position from Terry Knowles, who is retiring at the end of this season after having led the organization for the past 15 years. Ms. Davidson comes to the Master Chorale from New York … Continue reading
Delaram Kamareh is not a big believer in doing exactly what everyone thinks a soprano should do, and by extension, what they think SHE should do. As we chat over a bite to eat, she recalls a recent conversation with a would-be agent: “It was pretty clear that we weren’t a good fit for each other. … Continue reading
It’s been a fun and interesting week. I’ve been spending a few days in Las Vegas for the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, checking out the endless forest of 100″ 8k super-mega-ultra-uber-HD TVs, robots that sing and/or play beer pong, and acres of other mind-blowing/mind-numbing technology that will grace our homes, offices, and bodies (“wearable technology” … Continue reading
If you’re trying to pack ’em into a concert hall for a choral concert, the usual course of action involves programming a warhorse, preferably one with a big orchestra. Carmina Burana. Beethoven’s 9th. A requiem by Verdi or Mozart. The Los Angeles Master Chorale has an alternate formula that works just as well: program something written … Continue reading
Tant y a feme scet bon taire! Femme est dehors religiouse, Dedanz poignaunt e venimose . . . (When it comes to women, men, hold your tongue! On the outside she’s religious, On the inside keen and venomous . . .) — excerpt from “The Vices of Women,” 13th Century poem, used in the … Continue reading
This coming Sunday marks the final concert of the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s landmark 50th Anniversary Season. For the occasion, Music Director Grant Gershon has put together a typically forward-looking program of works by Shawn Kirchner, David Lang, Francisco Núñez, Gabriela Lena Frank, and – last but certainly not least – Esa-Pekka Salonen. All … Continue reading
All is Yar 