Los Angeles Master Chorale Announces 60th Anniversary Season

Los Angeles Master Chorale has announced its landmark 60th Anniversary Season at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

This milestone 2024-25 season celebrates the rich tapestry of choral music history while commemorating the Chorale's own continued evolution with performances of cherished classics, and groundbreaking contemporary compositions and new commissions. 

“Singing brings us together in ways that are both profound and joy-filled,” said Gershon. "The Master Chorale has been doing this with unparalleled artistry for 60 years. This year we celebrate that constantly evolving legacy with music from across the ages and across the globe—over 40 composers from William Byrd to Rufus Wainwright. We are recommitting to the classics while fostering new generations of brilliant composers by presenting 25 newly commissioned works over 5 years—AKA 25 in 5. This season we also launch L.A. SINGS!, celebrating harmony and unity where YOU are the choir at Disney Hall and beyond!”

In the 2023-24 season, the Chorale launched 25 in 5, Gershon's visionary commissioning program. Over the course of five seasons, the Chorale is inviting 25 composers to create new works of varying scale and complexity for the Chorale and its education programs. As part of the commitment made in 2020 by the Chorale to reserve at least 50% of each season for works by composers from historically underrepresented groups in classical music, there will be an emphasis on inviting composers who represent diverse backgrounds and perspectives, enriching the choral repertoire with a mosaic of cultural influences. For the 2024-25 season, these new works are by Jason Max Ferdinand, Reena Esmail, Rufus Wainwright, and Doug Aitkin. The program represents an unprecedented commitment by the Chorale to explore a comprehensive range of new possibilities for choral ensemble.

"It means so much that the community has supported the Los Angeles Master Chorale for six decades, making it a cultural cornerstone of the region," said Scott Altman, Los Angeles Master Chorale President & Chief Executive Officer. "The depth and breadth of the 2024-2025 Season is remarkable and reflects our vibrant community. The 60th Anniversary Season connects us to voices who created this world-class ensemble, celebrates artists who define current chorale excellence, and champions the next generation of singers, composers, and conductors. I am so excited to share this season of incomparable music with everyone!"

Fulfilling the Chorale's vision to be a leader in engaging the many communities that make up Los Angeles, the 2024-2025 season includes the launch of L.A. SINGS!, a set of group singing experiences that invites our entire community to make music with the Chorale. The concerts and/or events that are part of the L.A. SINGS! initiative this season are: All You Need Is Love (November 10); Carols on the Plaza (December 16); Messiah Sing-Along (December 16); and the High School Choir Festival (Spring 2025).The Chorale will use popular and familiar songs and compositions to deepen its connection to the community and demonstrate the transformative power of choral music as L.A. SINGS! together. 

The Los Angeles Master Chorale opens the 2024-2025 season with Sing Joyfully | 60th Anniversary Celebration Concert, which features a cappella pieces from the Renaissance to present day. The concert opens with William Byrd's ebullient Sing Joyfully, and the Chorale will take Byrd at his word by joyfully singing choral showpieces by Anton Bruckner, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla. The second half of the program celebrates the 30th anniversary of Morten Lauridsen's classic O Magnum Mysterium (written for the Chorale), along with glorious music of Elinor Remick Warren, Moses Hogan and Leonard Bernstein among many others. 

The Master Chorale's 60th Anniversary Season continues with the launch of L.A. SINGS! As the largest professional choir in the country, the Chorale is dedicated to transforming L.A. into a city of singers and nurturing our vibrant choral ecosystem. Led by Grant Gershon and MUSE/IQUE Artistic & Music Director Rachael Worby, All You Need Is Love is a mega sing-along at Disney Hall, celebrating our ability to come together and find harmony in our differences. This marks the first collaboration between the Chorale and the highly innovative MUSE/IQUE, with songs including Stand By Me, What A Wonderful World, Ain't No Mountain High Enough, along with popular choral work. No singing experience required!

LIGHTSCAPE is a groundbreaking, multimedia collaboration between the artist Doug Aitken, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This multidisciplinary project is centered on an original film/artwork with newly composed music that explores the idea of the West Coast moving into a rapidly escalating technological future. LIGHTSCAPE is a large-scale film that will also exist as a series of original short films and pulses on social media. It will premiere with a live-to-picture performance at Disney Hall featuring Grant Gershon leading the Chorale with the LA Phil New Music Group, capping off the daylong new-music fest, Noon to Midnight. Next it will move to the Marciano Art Foundation as an installation with live musical activations for the duration of the Getty's PST ART: Art & Science. A 25 in 5 commission.

The Chorale presents an eclectic lineup of holiday events in December including Festival of Carols, featuring magnificent arrangements of traditional carols spanning the globe, alongside contemporary classics sung with the virtuosity and flair only the Los Angeles Master Chorale can deliver.

In celebration of our 60th Anniversary, the Chorale presents the rarely performed Mozart version of Handel's Messiah. Mozart re-orchestrated Handel's masterwork and created a new sound world infused with warmth and symphonic grandeur. The Mozart-Handel Messiah is an extraordinary tribute across time from one great artist to another. 

All of Los Angeles is invited to sing at the Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center for Carols on the Plaza | L.A. SINGS! At this annual free community event, everyone can raise their voices with the Chorale singing holiday favorites including Deck the Halls, Frosty the Snowman, Joy to the World, and more, all led by Grant Gershon.

Messiah Sing-Along | L.A. SINGS! is a classic holiday tradition that promises to renew the spirit and infuse the Christmas season with the grace and grandeur of a musical masterpiece. Sing along with the Chorale and revel in the magic, relish the tradition, and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Extraordinary rising conductor, composer, and educator Jason Max Ferdinand joins the Los Angeles Master Chorale for Lift Every Voice | Jason Max Ferdinand Conducts! This powerful program, presented on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, features music curated by Ferdinand to tell our stories, bring hope in challenging times, and share joy. This concert includes a world premiere by Jason Max Ferdinand, a 25 in 5 commission. 

In March, Associate Artistic Director Jenny Wong leads Carl Orff's epic and propulsive Carmina Burana, along with the world premiere of a vibrant new work by Swan Family Artist-in-Residence Reena Esmail. Carmina Burana's evocative lyrics, drawn from medieval poetry, speak of love, lust, and the inexorable wheel of fate. Esmail's new work will be based on a variety of folk songs representing different languages and traditions of the Indian subcontinent. A 25 in 5 commission.

The Chorale presents the highly anticipated U.S. premiere of Rufus Wainwright's Dream Requiem in May. Dream Requiem merges two long standing creative visions — Wainwright's fascination with Byron's poem Darkness, depicting global upheaval after the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption, and his lifelong admiration for the great Requiems of Verdi, Berlioz and Britten. Navigating themes of societal and environmental collapse, the transformative power of upheaval, and the mourning of lost dreams, Dream Requiem intertwines Byron's narrative with the ritual of the Latin requiem liturgy. Dream Requiem is co-commissioned by Los Angeles Master Chorale, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Palau de la Musica Catalana Barcelona, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, RTE Orchestra Dublin, Royal Ballet London, and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. A 25 in 5 commission.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale concludes its monumental season with New Renaissance, a capstone concert for the 60th Anniversary. With this virtuoso and eclectic program, the Chorale highlights the connection between music of the Renaissance and new works that represent the current renaissance of choral music here in Los Angeles. We begin with an exploration of the great Tudor composer William Byrd, represented by his Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets of 1611. The second part of the program points toward the future with works by several influential L.A. based composers who are particularly close to the Chorale, including Matthew Brown, Eric Whitacre, Dale Trumbore, Reena Esmail, Germaine Franco, Michael Abels and Darita Seth. 

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