Los Angeles Master Chorale to Open 2021-22 Season at Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Los Angeles Master Chorale, led by Grant Gershon, Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director, will make its long-awaited return to Walt Disney Concert Hall and welcome back concertgoers on Saturday, September 25 and Sunday, September 26, 2021 with its season kick-off concert, Invitation, featuring works by L.A.-based composers Nilo Alcala and Shawn Kirchner, "Together at Last" from Swan Family Artist-in-Residence Reena Esmail, and Morten Lauridsen's rendition of Sure on This Shining Night. On September 25, all teachers are invited to attend for free and can call the box office in advance of the concert for information on how to receive their tickets. Details are available here.

Gershon joins Associate Artistic Director Jenny Wong in leading the co-curated concert that features a total of 17 works that encompass music from the 12th to the 21st centuries, and explores themes of resilience, wholeness, and searching for harmony in every sense of the word. This mix represents an overarching goal of the Master Chorale's season: to celebrate a multiplicity of voices that reflect the full range of both traditional and evolving choral music in the world today.

Appropriately, the program opens with the ancient plainchant Veni creator spiritus, which is a summoning of the creative spirit, and concludes with "Together at last," the final movement of Reena Esmail's Quarantine Madrigals (with poetry by Master Chorale alto Amy Fogerson).

The complete program includes:

PLAINCHANT Veni creator spiritus

HEINRICH SCHÜTZ Selig sind die Toten

SAUNDER CHOI Invitation to Love

MARQUES L.A. GARRETT My Heart Be Brave

Arr. William Hawley Beautiful River (Shall We Gather at the River)

Arr. William Dawson There is a Balm in Gilead

KO MATSUSHITA O lux beata Trinitas

HILDEGARD VON BINGEN Spiritus sanctus vivificans

JOSEF RHEINBERGER Abendlied

JUDITH BINGHAM The Darkness is no Darkness

arr. SHAWN KIRCHNER Bright Morning Stars

arr. SUSAN BRUMFIELD No Time

MORTEN LAURIDSEN Sure on this Shining Night

arr. UNDINE SMITH MORRE We Shall Walk through the Valley in Peace

CARLOS GUASTAVINO Quién fuera como el jazmin

NILO ALCALA Tiptipa Kammakem

REENA ESMAIL Together at Last

The Master Chorale's 2021-22 season celebrates the uplifting power of voices united in song with repertoire that encompasses a wide range of composers, styles, periods, and points of view, including beloved masterworks from Rachmaninoff, Handel, and Bach; music by the Master Chorale's Swan Family Artist-in-Residence, Reena Esmail; and works from medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen to contemporary artists Derrick Skye, Gabriel Kahane, and Anna Thorvaldsdóttir.

The 2021-22 season also marks 20 years of the highest artistic aspiration under the direction of Grant Gershon. The outstanding skill and artistry of the Master Chorale singers and the range of programming of this year's tremendous concerts reflect the impact he's had on the ensemble and organization.

Pay-what-you-can tickets for "Invitation" are available here.

Subscriptions for the Master Chorale's 2021-22 season start at $117 and are available now by phone, 213-972-7282, or online at lamasterchorale.org/subscribe. Single tickets are available now at 213-972-7282 or online at lamasterchorale.org.

All programs, artists and dates are subject to change.

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