Pasadena Chorale To Present Free Holiday Concert Shawn Kirchner's THE LIGHT OF HOPE RETURNING, December 5

The Pasadena Chorale will present the first concert of its 2023-2024 season, Shawn Kirchner's The Light of Hope Returning on Tuesday, December 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Pasadena, Calif.

“The Light of Hope Returning celebrates the ‘turning of the year' in a new folk oratorio combining the winter solstice, Christmas and New Year's themes,” said composer Shawn Kirchner. “We figuratively sit at the fireside of a wise Matriarch soloist as a tale unfolds of the ‘light of hope' waiting on the other side of darkness. Good cheer abounds in the face of tyrant threats and troubled times.”

The Chorale performed the Los Angeles premiere of Kirchner's work in December 2022, and will perform it again this holiday season. The Pasadena Chorale continues to offer all of its concerts at no cost to audiences with its innovative “Listen First, Then Give” ticketing initiative. While tickets are free, a ticket reservation is required to attend a Pasadena Chorale performance and donations are encouraged

In The Light of Hope Returning, poetry is interspersed with carols old and new, decked in folk, bluegrass, or gospel fashion, all enticingly reimagined by Kirchner. The Pasadena Chorale will be joined by the Chorale's new choir of middle schoolers, the High Notes, which recently performed their first public concert. The choirs will also be accompanied by a small band of instruments including piano, strings, flute, saxophone and dulcimer.

Based in Los Angeles, Shawn Kirchner is a composer/arranger/songwriter, singer, and pianist whose choral works are performed throughout the world. A member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC) since 2001, Kirchner has enjoyed an enduring creative relationship with music director Grant Gershon, culminating in his tenure as the LAMC's Swan Family Composer-in-Residence from 2012-2015. Kirchner has also collaborated with such leading ensembles as Conspirare, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Lorelei Ensemble, San Diego Master Chorale, Los Robles Master Chorale, Coro Allegro, Atlanta Master Chorale, Tonality, and Pasadena Chorale.

Ticket reservations and donations for Shawn Kirchner's The Light of Hope Returning can be made at PasadenaChorale.org.

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