Eric Whitacre News

Combining music and spoken word in the splendor of Shove Chapel by candlelight, this award-winning event has become a cherished holiday tradition. The eclectic programming honors old and new in the choral art, featuring music from medieval to modern, both sacred and secular. Through the interweaving of poetry, story, and song, Wintersong explores mystery, timelessness, the juxtaposition of light and dark, and our spiritual connection to the natural world. Featured on this year's program:

The National Children's Chorus of the United States (NCC), one of the world's leading treble choirs, announces Season 2017/2018 entitled Building Bridges, featuring a stunning array of musical selections, world premieres and professional collaborations.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica presents Red Hen Press: Poetry Through Voice, a musical showcase of renowned artists featuring Grammy Award-winning soprano Hila Plitmann, Grammy Award-winning composer Eric Whitacre, California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia, Salastina, and Red Hen poets Elise Paschen and Douglas Manuel on Sunday, December 10 at 4:00pm in The Edye.

Angel City Chorale (ACC), the globally renowned Los Angeles choir led by Founder-Artistic Director Sue Fink, will present its 24th annual holiday concert event and sing-along, A NEW Home for the Holidays, during the first weekend in December.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale will perform five festive Christmas concerts in Walt Disney Concert Hall in December. The choral programs are a much-loved Los Angeles holiday tradition and these concerts frequently sell out.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel opened the 2017/18 season with a special program that showcased Mozart's precocious talents with the Opening Night Concert & Gala: Mozart - The Early Years, Tuesday, September 26, 7 pm, at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The Phoenix Chorale presents a powerful program of music for the final concerts of Artistic Director Charles Bruffy's amazing 18-year tenure on October 27-29 in Sun City, downtown Phoenix and Paradise Valley. The performances include music that is intimately significant to Charles and the 28 members of the Chorale and promises to be an emotionally moving opening to the 2017/18 Season.

The Colorado Springs Chorale proudly announces the launch of its 61st performance season with an Oktoberfest event on Oct. 6 from 6 to 10pm, and its fall concert entitled, REFORMERS & REBELS: Music for a Changing Tide, on Friday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church in downtown Colorado Springs. The concert features the Chorale and the Chamber singers with a professional orchestra in music of Bach and Monteverdi, along with popular spirituals, and contemporary selections by Ives, Whitacre and Barnett.

Single tickets for the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 2017/18 season are now on sale. The season opens on September 23 and continues through to June 2018 in Walt Disney Concert Hall with nine concert programs presented over this time. Tickets start at $29 and are available to purchase online from lamasterchorale.org, by phone from 213-972-7282, or in person from the box office at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at The Music Center, of which the Master Chorale is a resident company. It will be the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 54th concert season and Grant Gershon's 17th season as the Kiki and David Gindler Artistic Director.

The multidisciplinary duo Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya and the LEIMAY Ensemble return to BAM Fisher with FRANTIC BEAUTY, the newest evening-length work representing the mid-point in their BECOMING pentalogy. Combining the LEIMAY Ensemble's signature physicality layered over vivid visual landscapes, this world premiere reflects on society's pursuit of and relationship to beauty.

Artistic leaders and managers of choirs from North America will gather in Los Angeles this month for Chorus America's 2017 Conference held Wednesday, June 21 through Saturday, June 24. The conference is being held at the Omni Hotel on Grand Avenue and is hosted by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, a resident company of The Music Center and choir-in-residence at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Chorus America is a 2,000-member national advocacy, research, and leadership development organization based in Washington, D.C.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale launches into summer with a free group singing event called Big Sing L.A. in Grand Park on Saturday, June 24 at 1 PM.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale brings works by six Los Angeles composers together on a concert program celebrating the 20th anniversary of Morten Lauridsen's choral masterwork Lux Aeterna June 17-22 in Walt Disney Concert Hall. The concerts will include world premieres by Billy Childs and Moira Smiley, and a U.S. premiere by Artist-in-Residence Eric Whitacre, performed alongside Lux Aeterna. The program will also feature Iri da Iri by Esa-Pekka Salonen and Shawn Kirchner's Heavenly Home: Three American Songs. The Master Chorale's full roster of 115 singers will be accompanied by a 47-piece orchestra and Artistic Director Grant Gershon will conduct.

On Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 7:30 pm Concerts at Saint Thomas presents the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys in their final concert of the season featuring a rare performance of George Shearing's Songs and Sonnets from Shakespeare.

The 105-voice Los Robles Master Chorale (LRMC), led by Artistic Director Lesley Leighton, concludes its 29th season with back-to-back matinee and evening performances of “Lauridsen & Co,” an inspirational program of choral music by living composers.

Join the West Valley Chorale April 7, for a musical tribute to great American composers. Led by Artistic Director Ken Goodenberger, a long-time Theater Works musical director and performer, the 70-voice Chorale will perform a concert of outstanding American music, exploring the genres of Folk, Classical, Spiritual, Sacred and Broadway Music. Leonard Bernstein, George Cohen, Randall Thompson, Eric Whitacre and Moses Hogan are some of the featured iconic composers. The concert also includes a salute to America's Armed Forces in a grand patriotic medley! 

The Theatre @ Boston Court presents THE HOUSE IN SCARSDALE: A MEMOIRE FOR THE STAGE, a world premiere play written by Dan O'Brien and directed by Boston Court's Co-Artistic Director, Michael Michetti. The House in Scarsdale is presented on the Main Stage at Boston Court Performing Arts Center in Pasadena, CA.

A new play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan (The Kentucky Cycle, All the Way, Hacksaw Ridge), written in direct response to the immigration policies of the Trump administration, reveals how those policies might lead to a terrifying, seemingly inconceivable, yet inevitable conclusion.Building the Wall opens at the Fountain Theatre onMarch 18, the first in a series of productions set to take place at theaters across the U.S. as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere.

The votes have been tallied and the results are in for the Phoenix Chorale's final concert of the season, MIX TAPE.  Audiences submitted nearly 250 of their favorite choral selections and voted on their top ten favorite pieces, with the most popular songs to be performed at the Phoenix Chorale's MIX TAPE concerts, April 28-30 (detailed schedule below).   

Pilgrim Festival Chorus (PFC), the region's principal community chorus, presents a spring concert, Retrospectives, on Saturday, April 29 at 7:30 pm at St. Bonaventure Church, 803 State Road, Plymouth, and Sunday, April 30 at 4 pm at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, 842 Tremont Street, Duxbury.