LACC Makes 'Artist Concert Series' Debut, 11/15

The critically acclaimed Los AngeLes Children's Chorus (LACC) makes its debut on Azusa Pacific University's esteemed "Artist Concert Series" with a program of choral gems presented during the choir's notable 25-year history on Monday, November 15, 2010, 7:30 pm, at Munson RecitAl Hall on the university's Azusa campus.  A question and answer session with choir members and Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson, who conducts the concert, follows the performance.

The program opens with the antiphonal work "Chantez a Dieu" by Toronto composer Eleanor Daley and also includes Ruth Watson Henderson's Come Ye Makers of Song, based on the text from "Come Ye sons of Art" by Henry Purcell, which is a rhythmically buoyant work that employs various vocal and compositional techniques to emulate instrumental colors, and the lush, harmonic Estonian piece Vaid See on Armastus, which LACC performed this past summer with the Estonian TV Girls' Chorus while touring to Scandinavia.  

Other choral gems on the program from LACC's illustrious history include, Hoj, hura hoj, replicating mountain echoes, by Czech composer Otmar Macha; I Shall Keep Singing by Bay Area composer BrIan Holmes on the text of Emily Dickinson's poem of the same name, originally commission by the Peninsula Women's Chorus in honor of their director as a testament to the power of song; and the closing aria of Bach's Cantata #199 "Wie freudig is mein Herz," a lilting song of joy. 

Setting the mood for the upcoming holidays are Benjamin Britten's "This Little Baby" from his well-known Ceremony of Carols; John Rutter's setting of the 15th century Finnish work Personent Hodie, Gustav Holst's In the bleak midwinter; and Canadian composer Mark Sirrett's haunting Tryley, Trylow.  Closing the concert is a lively Kenyan song of praise, Wana Baraka.

Tickets are $13 and $7 for seniors.  For tickets and information, please call (626) 815-5494 or visit www.apu.edu.  Azusa Pacific University is located at 901 East Alosta Avenue, Azusa, CA 91702.