Los Angeles Master Chorale to Perform MOZART'S REQUIEM at Disney Hall
The event will feature 62 professional singers, four vocal soloists, and a full orchestra, showcasing a dramatic meditation on mortality through Mozart's masterpiece.
Fresh off the Oscars broadcast before a global audience, the Los Angeles Master Chorale will return to Walt Disney Concert Hall for a program pairing Mozart's enduring Requiem with the West Coast premiere of Fanny Mendelssohn's rarely performed Oratorio on Scenes from the Bible.
The performance takes place on one night only, Sunday, April 19, at 7 p.m., led by conductor Grant Gershon, the Chorale's Kiki and David Gindler Artistic Director, with 62 of the Master Chorale's professional singers, four vocal soloists, and a full orchestra.
Mozart's Requiem, written in 1791 in the final months of the composer's life, remains one of the most powerful works in the choral canon - a dramatic meditation on mortality that continues to resonate more than two centuries later. Unfinished at the time of Mozart's death at age 35, the work was later completed by his student Franz Xaver Süssmayr and has since become a cornerstone of the choral repertoire. The piece has also become deeply embedded in popular culture, appearing in many films including X-Men, Captain America, Watchmen, and The Incredibles.
Last year, the Los Angeles Master Chorale brought the Requiem's emotional power to millions of viewers during the In Memoriam segment of the 97th Oscars, an impressive appearance that led to the ensemble's return for the 98th Oscars broadcast this month. As the largest and most celebrated professional choir in the United States, and with a second Grammy Award win for Best Choral Performance this year, the Master Chorale is one of the country's leading interpreters of major choral repertoire.
West Coast premiere of rediscovered Fanny Mendelssohn work
If Mozart's Requiem represents the most celebrated tradition of sacred music, the first half of the program offers something far rarer. In a striking historical pairing, Fanny Mendelssohn's Oratorio on Scenes from the Bible premieres on the West Coast, a major work composed during Berlin's devastating cholera epidemic of 1831-32.
Written when the composer was 26, the dramatic oratorio reflects the fear, grief, and spiritual reckoning that gripped the city during the outbreak. Mendelssohn herself survived the epidemic, while many in her circle did not. Despite its scale and ambition, the work remained unpublished during her lifetime - a reflection of the limited opportunities available to women composers in the 19th century and the overshadowing fame of her brother, Felix Mendelssohn. Some of her works were even published under his name.
"It's been incredibly rewarding to prepare this major work of Fanny Mendelssohn for this performance," says Gershon. "Her writing for chorus, orchestra, and soloists is brilliant and inspiring. Frankly, it's an egregious slight to her place in music history that we are only now beginning to fully celebrate her genius. I cannot wait to share this beautiful score with our audiences."
The oratorio has only recently begun to re-enter the repertoire, making the Los Angeles performance a rare opportunity to hear the piece live.
Soloists
The performance features four acclaimed vocal soloists:
Addy Sterrett, soprano
Jessie Shulman, mezzo-soprano
Kyuyoung Lee, tenor
Steve Pence, bass
Pre-concert conversation
Audience members are invited to attend the Listen Up! pre-concert conversation, featuring KUSC host Alan Chapman with Grant Gershon, exploring the history and musical significance of both works. The talk begins at 6 p.m., one hour before the performance, in BP Hall.
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