Los Angeles Master Chorale to Present REJOICE! CEREMONY OF CAROLS, 12/8

The Los Angeles Master Chorale adds warm musical cheer to the holiday season with "Rejoice! Ceremony of Carols," featuring Music Director Grant Gershon conducting four seasonal classics - Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, Respighi's beautiful Laud to the Nativity, filled with the rich imagery of the nativity story, Stephen Paulus's Christmas Dances, and selections from Vaughan Williams' Nine Carols for Men's Voices - on Sunday, December 8, 2013, 7 pm. The annual Rejoice! concert, hailed as "a grand display of choral magic" and an "enchanting way to embrace the arriving holiday season" (International Review of Music), is part of the noted county-wide "Britten 100/LA: A Celebration" curated by LA Opera. Gershon and KUSC Host Alan Chapman participate in ListenUp!, the pre-concert talk at 6 pm, free to ticket holders.

Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, which he composed in 1942 while sailing to England from the United States, instantly joined the ranks of treasured holiday repertoire. Similarly, Paulus, a prolific composer hailed as "a bright, fluent inventor with a ready lyric gift" (The New Yorker) and "exceptionally imaginative" (The New York Times), wrote the lush 25-minute Christmas Dances for flute, harp and chorus in 2008 and has seen it become a seasonal phenomenon in just a few short years. The Chorale presented Laud to the Nativity on its first-ever holiday concert in December 1965 and has been closely associated with it over the past five decades. Vaughan Williams' piece rounds out the program with selections from the timeless carols God rest you merry, As Joseph was a-walking (Cherry Tree Carol), Mummer's Carol and The First Nowell.

Tickets range from $29 - $119. Group rates are available. For tickets and information, please call (213) 972-7282, or visit www.lamc.org. (Tickets cannot 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.

Photo by: Steve Cohn

Don't Miss a Classical Music News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...