Los Angeles Master Chorale Launches 2009-10 Season October 18, 2009

Los Angeles Master Chorale Launches 2009-10 Season with
Mozart Requiem and Los Angeles Premiere of John Adams’
Choruses from the Death of Klinghoffer
Conducted by Music Director Grant Gershon

Sunday, October 18, 2009, 7 p.m., at Walt Disney Concert Hall
Celebratory Post-Concert Gala Caps Evening

The Los Angeles Master Chorale opens its 46th season with the pairing of the sublime Mozart Requiem and the Los Angeles premiere of John Adam’s Choruses from the Death of Klinghoffer, based on his 1991 opera about the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and murder of passenger Leon Klinghoffer, on Sunday, October 18, 2009, 7:00 p.m., at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Music Director Grant Gershon conducts these two dramatically different but complementary works that both grapple with universal issues. Gershon joins KUSC’s Alan Chapman for “Listen Up!,” a pre-concert discussion at 6 p.m.

“I’m very excited about presenting these two works on the same program,” states Gershon. “Although Mozart’s work was written over 200 years ago, and John’s less than 20, they share a powerful operatic element and have extremely compelling back stories. They also serve to showcase the Chorale’s extraordinarily diverse artistic capabilities.”

Capping the evening is a post-concert gala held in BP Hall, featuring an elegant supper, dancing to the Dean Mora Trio and the Chorale’s signature Surround-Sing, in which singers encircle guests and perform selected works, creating a powerful and moving musical experience.

John Adams’ opera The Death of Klinghoffer, called by Newsweek a “work that fires the heart,” premiered in Brussels in 1991 in a Peter Sellars production during the final weeks of the Gulf War. Never before performed in Los Angeles, the opera tells the story of the 1984 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro by four Palestinian commandos and the subsequent murder of wheelchair-bound Jewish American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. The Choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer, approximately 30 minutes in length, serve to support and articulate the story, standing apart form the action and adding, in the composer’s words, “an important dramatic perspective to the more immediate and often violent emotional plane that framed the actual kidnapping story.” It is a choral meditation on the tragic events and their causes, and was librettist Alice Goodman’s second collaboration with Adams, preceded by the acclaimed opera Nixon in China.

Mozart’s Requiem, written in 1791, was the composer’s final composition. Gershon calls the masterpiece “one of the most beautiful and dramatic of all choral works.” Long shrouded in mystery, the Requiem, commissioned by an Austrian nobleman who originally took credit for the work, was unfinished at the time of the composer’s death. In this performance, the Master Chorale will present the completion of the work by the renowned pianist and musicologist Robert Levin.

Long-time Chorale supporter the Bank of New York Mellon is sponsoring the gala and concert. The concert is part of the 8th Annual Daniel Pearl World Music Days, an international network of concerts using the power of music to reaffirm our commitment to tolerance and humanity.

Tickets to the concert range from $19 to $124. Student Rush seats are $10 and are available at the box office two hours before the performance. For tickets and information, please call (213) 972-7282, or visit www.lamc.org. (Tickets can no longer be purchased at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office except on concert days starting 2 hours prior to the performance.) The Walt Disney Concert Hall is located at 111 South Grand Avenue at First Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Event: Los Angeles Master Chorale – 2009-10 Season Opening Concert & Gala
Grant Gershon, Conductor
Performance Date: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
(Listen Up! pre-concert talk with Grant Gershon, composer John Adams and KUSC’s Alan Chapman, 6 p.m.)
Program: JOHN ADAMS Choruses from the Death of Klinghoffer
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Requiem

Venue: Walt Disney Concert Hall 111 S. Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90012
Ticket Prices: Concert Tickets: $19 - $124; Student Rush seats available at box office two hours before the performance
Gala Tickets: _$500 per person (includes seating at concert)_____
Ticket Information: 213-972-7282
www.lamc.org
(Tickets can no longer be purchased at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office except
on concert days starting 2 hours prior to the performance.)

Official Website: http://www.lamc.org