Jeffrey Kahane Leads LA Chamber Orchestra, 2/25

Music Director Jeffrey Kahane serves as musical "tour guide" for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's annual "Discover" concert on Saturday, February 25, 2012, 8 pm, at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, which this season features a special one-night-only exploration of Bach's Magnificat, a pinnacle of choral literature.

Performing with the Orchestra are The University of Southern California Thornton Chamber Singers, the school's premier choir, directed by Jo-Michael Scheibe, and five exceptional young soloists: Charlotte Dobbs, soprano, Zanaida Robles, soprano, Janelle DeStefano, mezzo soprano, Ben Bliss, tenor, and Daniel Armstrong, baritone. Providing the audience with a deeper understanding and appreciation of this seminal masterwork, Kahane begins the evening by illustrating the intricacies of Bach's first oratorio and how the composition illuminates the text, which is taken directly from the Gospel of Luke. After intermission, the Orchestra, soloists and chorus perform the full work. The purpose of the discussion component for the annual "Discover" concert is to help audiences hear major works with new "ears."

Bach's Magnificat also holds special meaning for Kahane, who is currently celebrating his 15th annviersary with LACO, since it is one of the pieces that initially drew him to a conducting career. In addition, the concert highlights LACO's ongoing commitment to collaborate with LA-based cultural institutions by featuring rising singers from LA Opera Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program as well as the talented chorus of the USC Thornton School of Music, both among the nation's top training programs for musical artists.

Tickets ($25-$110) are on sale now and may be purchased online at laco.org, by calling LACO at 213 622 7001, or at the venue box office on the night of the concert, if tickets remain. Student rush tickets ($10), based on availability, may be purchased at the box office the day of the concert.

Baritone DANIEL ARMSTRONG is an alumnus of LA Opera's Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program. He made his LA Opera debut in 2007 in Luisa Fernanda, with subsequent appearances as Schaunard in student performances of La bohème, the Jailor in Tosca, Pinellino in Gianni Schicchi, the Registrar in Madama Butterfly, Moralès in student performances of Carmen, the Second Priest in The Magic Flute, the Raven in The Birds, Marquis d'Obigny in La traviata, Fiorello in The Barber of Seville. He sang the role of the Fourth Thug in world premiere of Daniel Catán's Il Postino in 2010, and most recently appeared as Count Paris in Romeo et Juliette. Armstrong studied at Pepperdine University, where his operatic roles included Bob in The Old Maid and the Thief, Betto in Gianni Schicchi, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro.

American tenor BEN BLISS is in his first year of LA Opera's Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program where he sings the role of Benvolio in Romeo et Juliette under the baton of Plácido Domingo and Parpignol in La bohème conducted by Patrick Summers. He also covers the roles of Ferrando in Così fan tutte and Albert in Albert Herring, both conducted by James Conlon. A native of Prairie Village, Kansas, Bliss relocated to Southern California to attend Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and the Chapman Conservatory of Music where he earned a minor in vocal performance. There he sang the title role in Britten's Albert Herring and Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute. He also performed Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin and Les nuits d'été by Berlioz with conductor Daniel Wachs. While at the Conservatory, he began his ongoing study with Patrick Goeser and performed in master classes with William Burden and Vinson Cole. After graduating from Chapman, Bliss's senior thesis film, which he wrote and directed, screened at 20 international film festivals and garnered several awards. During his three years working in television production at Paramount Studios, he won first place in two national commercial directing competitions.

Praised for her "rich seamless voice" and "passionate delivery," mezzo-soprano JANELLE DeSTEFANO enjoys the entire gamut of classical singing, from opera and oratorio to recital and chamber music. She has rendered dramatic performances in Handel's Dixit Dominus, Mozart's Requiem, Respighi's Laud to the Nativity and Szymanowsky's Stabat Mater. Her operatic repertoire includes the title role in The Rape of Lucretia, Cinderella in La cenerentola, I Capuletti e i Montecchi (Romeo), Così fan tutte (Dorabella) and The Magic Flute (Third Lady). A personal interest in zarzuela and Spanish art song led to her European debut at the 2007 International Festival of Interpretation of Spanish Song in Granada, Spain, and she was featured in the Spanish art song concert series for the 2008 Mannes Summer Institute in New York. Her performances with El Mundo for the San Diego Early Music Society and the Da Camera Society received critical acclaim. Recent appearances include Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Bach Collegium San Diego), Bach's The Passion According to St. Matthew (La Jolla Symphony & Chorus), Beethoven's Choral Fantasy (Los Angeles Philharmonic) and the "Beethoven 9 for Japan" benefit concert. DeStefano debuted at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 2010 as the alto soloist in Handel's Messiah, a role she reprises with LAMC in 2011. In 2012, she sings Mahler's Rückert Lieder with the Santa Monica College Symphony. A winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, San Diego District, and the National Association of Teachers of Singing and Musical Merit Foundation competitions, DeStefano graduated with honors from the USC's Thornton School of Music, earning a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Performance. She is an associate professor of voice at Santa Monica College and lives in Los Angeles with husband Joe and baby Graziana.

Praised in Opera Now for her "angelic lyric soprano voice," CHARLOTTE DOBBS made her European debut in 2009 as Corinna in Il viaggio a Reims at the Pesaro Rossini Festival and first appeared with Chicago Opera Theater as Servilia in La clemenza di Tito with Jane Glover in a new Christopher Alden production. She has sung the role of the Governess in the Chateauville Foundation's The Turn of the Screw conducted by Lorin Maazel, the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro with Curtis Opera Theater and Juno in La calisto at Juilliard. Her operatic roles also include Amina in La sonnambula, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, the title role in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, Nuria in Ainadamar, Iphigenie in Aulide and Elettra in Idomeneo. Dobbs made her Kimmel Center and Carnegie Hall debuts in Nielsen's Third Symphony with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in 2008 and last year made her Colorado Symphony Orchestra debut in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under Jeffrey Kahane. She has appeared in a concert performance of Dido and Aeneas with Chicago's Music of the Baroque and has been featured at the New York Festival of Song and the Marlboro Music Festival. An avid performer of new music, she has premiered works by John King, John Halle, Matthew Suttor, Snorri Sigfús Birgisson, Mark Dancigers and Timothy Andres, and was featured on the "21st Century Liederabend" at the Kitchen this spring in Paola Prestini's Oceanic Verses. In recent years, she has participated in master classes with Alberto Zedda, Wolfgang Holzmair, Matthew Polenzani and Dawn Upshaw. Born in Boston, she considers her musical birthplace Emmanuel Music, that city's venerable Bach ensemble. She received an M.M. from both Juilliard and Curtis and a B.A. from Yale, where she studied modernist literature and musicology.

ZANAIDA ROBLES has been active as an award-winning conductor, educator, vocalist and composer since 1998. She is on the faculty of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, where she has taught choral and solo vocal music since 2005. She sings professionally with Pacific Chorale and the John Alexander Singers, and she is the soprano section leader and soloist for the Coventry Choir at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. She has sung professionally under the batons of such conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pierre Boulez, John Mauceri, Carl St. Clair, Marin Alsop, John Alexander, Leonard Slatkin and Gustavo Dudamel. Robles is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Choral Music at the USC Thornton School of Music. Her secondary fields of study are sacred music, choral arranging and jazz studies. She holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from California State University, Northridge, where she was graduate assistant to the director of choral studies for two years. She received a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from California State University, Long Beach, where she was the first recipient of the four-year Dean's Scholarship for Distinction in the Arts.

The UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THORNTON CHAMBER SINGERS is the premier choral ensemble at the USC Thornton School of Music directed by Jo-Michael Scheibe, chair of USC Thornton's department of Choral and Sacred Music. The Chamber Singers, in conjunction with the USC Thornton Concert Choir, has performed in recent years with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. They perform regularly in concert halls around the country and around the world, including tours of South Korea in 1994, Poland in 1997 and China in 2006. During the 2010–11 academic year, the Chamber Singers were featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and with the Shoah Foundation Gala where they performed with Grammy® and Academy Award-winning artist Jennifer Hudson. In January 2009, Dale Warland led them in a concert titled Choral Music as an Agent of Social Change, and in February 2011, Robert Reynolds directed the West Coast premiere of Heinz Werner Henze's Muses of Sicily. In November 2009, the Chamber Singers were joined by the USC Thornton Concert Choir and USC Thornton Symphony in a magnificent performance of Bach's Mass in B minor under the direction of Helmuth Rilling. In October 2009, members of the Chambers Singers and Concert Choir joined Andrea Bocelli in his performance and DVD Recording of My Christmas for PBS. The mixed-voice ensemble gave the keynote performance at the 2005 national conference of the American Choral Directors Association at Walt Disney Concert Hall. In 2002, the Chamber Singers won the Grand Prix of a prestigious international choral competition in Tours, France.

LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (LACO), proclaimed "America's finest chamber orchestra" by Public Radio International, has established itself among the world's top musical ensembles. Since 1997, LACO has performed under the baton of acclaimed conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, hailed by critics as "visionary" and "a conductor of uncommon intellect, insight and musical integrity" with "undeniable charisma." Under Kahane's leadership, the Orchestra maintains its status as a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks and a champion of contemporary composers. During its 43-year history, the Orchestra has made 30 recordings, toured Europe, South America and Japan, performed across North America, earning adulation from audiences and critics alike, and garnered seven ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming. Headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, LACO presents seven Orchestral Series concerts at both Glendale's Alex Theatre and UCLA's Royce Hall, five Baroque Conversations concerts at downtown Los Angeles' Zipper Concert Hall, three Westside Connections chamber music concerts at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, three Family Concerts at the Alex Theatre and an annual Discover concert at Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium. In addition, LACO presents a Concert Gala, an annual Silent Film screening at Royce Hall and several fundraising salons each year. LACO was founded in 1968.

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