Los Angeles Master Chorale Performs "Holiday Wonders" Family Concert

Los Angeles Master Chorale Decks Disney Hall with Seasonal Favorites at “Holiday Wonders” Family Concert

Concert, Conducted by Music Director Grant Gershon, Features Beloved Holiday Classics Plus Music Written and Performed by Children of the Voices Within Chorus

Santa Claus Makes Special Appearance

Adding a festive note to the holiday season, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Music Director Grant Gershon, offers two matinees of “Holiday Wonders,” its signature yuletide family concert, on Saturday, December 6, and Saturday, December 13, 2008, at 3:00 p.m., at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Trumpets will sound and the magnificent Disney Hall organ will also fill the hall with good cheer, plus Santa himself may drop in to conduct a number or two! The show rings with carols and memory-making sing-alongs – including Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, The First Noel and Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer – making it one of the city’s most popular holiday traditions for children and adults of all ages. The Chorale performs beautiful arrangements of such favorites as Angels We Have Heard On High, O Holy Night, John Rutter’s Gloria, O Tannenbaum, and Joy to the World. In addition, the talented Los Angeles Master Chorale Voices Within Children’s Choir sings several original choral works written by local fifth and sixth graders.

The Voices Within Children’s Choir is comprised of alumni from the Chorale’s Voices Within programs at Walter Reed Middle School, North Hollywood; Pio Pico Span School, Los Angeles; Plasencia Elementary School, Los Angeles; Mt. Washington Elementary School, Los Angeles; Delevan Drive Elementary School, Los Angeles; Rockdale Elementary School, Los Angeles; and McKinley School, Pasadena. Voices Within is a 10-week, in-school artist residency program created by the Chorale, during which fifth- and six-grade students collaborate to write original lyrics and music for songs based on academic themes. A trio of teaching artists from the Chorale, including a lyricist, a composer and a singer/performer, guides the creative process.

The students will perform three original pieces, including Rome, The Eternal City, written by Walter Reed Middle School sixth grade students Lior Azariya, Michelle Florentine, Dominick Flores, Rolando Jimenez, Melisa Moreno, Andrew Newfield, Alberto Sanchez and Talibah West, and arranged by Max Kinberg. It reflects upon the juxtaposition of the old and the new in Rome.

Searching For the Land of Life, about an explorer in the Congo who dreams of a safe place for all living creatures, was written by Walter Reed Middle School sixth graders Andrew Ajalat, Nafees Bermudas, Diego Cabral, Keyana Horne, Bryce Rackham, Alexandra Resnick, Anna Suskin, and Makenzie Vega, and arranged by David O.

The third student composition, A Special Joy, which captures a child’s thoughts about life in China, was arranged by David O and composed by Rockdale Elementary School fifth graders Marie Logan, Rebeccah Sanhueza, Annie Tan, Susan Tan, Emily Lozano, Tiffany Amaya, Regal Tabtimsri, and Daniel Perez.

Holiday Wonders is sponsored in part by The Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Inc., and Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts.