Streamed LA Chamber Orchestra Concert eatures Works By Caroline Shaw, Nina C. Young And More

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), ranked among the world's top musical ensembles, presents a new LACO AT HOME digital program featuring selections from two of the Orchestra's critically acclaimed SESSION performances, innovative music experiences produced in collaboration with Four Larks that explore classical music's cutting-edge sounds and challenge traditional concert-going expectations.

It will be livestreamed on Friday, May 22, 8 pm (Pacific Time), and subsequently available on demand. The program, subject to change, includes Entr'acte by New York-based composer, vocalist, violinist and producer Caroline Shaw, who cites the music of Franz Joseph Haydn as her inspiration for the work, and Nina C. Young's Memento Mori, a meditation on life and the perception of time, with musical material drawn from Bach's The Art of the Fugue, from a live SESSION performance curated by former LACO Creative Advisor Andrew Norman on May 24, 2018 at Angel City Brewery's Beer Hall in downtown L.A.'s Arts District. It also features Juan Pablo Contreras' celebratory Ángel Mestizo, for harp, double quintet and percussion, from a live SESSION performance curated by LACO Artist Educator Derrick Spiva Jr on October 8, 2018, at Hauser & Wirth in downtown L.A. LACO AT HOME was introduced in late March of this year to offer special and expanded web content. The livestreamed event is offered free of charge through the generous financial support of LACO donors. All broadcasts can be live-streamed at laco.org/broadcasts and streamed on-demand at laco.org/on-demand.

SESSION, introduced during LACO's 2017-18 season, has quickly become one of LACO's signature programs and has been lauded by critics. The Los Angeles Times proclaims, "You could sum up the program as a long paragraph of sentences written entirely in lower case, ending with a sudden exclamation point." It further states, "This was a concert that mattered in ways a concert needs to matter by offering the right music, the right concept and a meaningful place to be." LA Weekly declares, "L.A. Chamber Orchestra's ongoing SESSION series offers a unique chance to witness adventurous chamber music performed in breweries, art galleries and other atypical locations where the listener can drink, relax and mingle with other like-minded cultural adventurers in a non-formal, non-academic setting."

SESSION has been made possible, in part, by the generosity of LACO donors, including Ruth Eliel and Bill Cooney, Howard and Judith Jelinek, Leslie Lassiter, and Clare Baren and David Dwiggins.

Four Larks, creative producers and art directors of SESSION, is noted for blurring the lines between dance, theater and opera. The organization, based in in downtown L.A., works variously as chamber-pop band, physical theatre ensemble and immersive space-makers. Four Larks has garnered acclaim for its award-winning "junkyard operas" that combine large-scale immersive design with innovative orchestration and dynamic physical theatre. Composer/Director Mat Sweeney and Creative Producer Sebastian Peters-Lazaro have been creating original work as Four Larks since 2008 alongside an international collective of collaborators.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is led by Jaime Martín, currently in his debut season as Music Director. Martín builds upon LACO's rich legacy as a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks and, with eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, a champion of contemporary composers. Headquartered in the heart of the country's cultural capital, LACO is "more important with each passing year," (Los Angeles Times), "America's finest chamber orchestra" (Public Radio International) and "one of the world's great chamber orchestras" (KUSC Classical FM). Martín's appearance as LACO's Music Director Designate in early 2019 was described by the Los Angeles Times, as "a thrilling performance, and the orchestra played like it was having the time of its life," adding, "he will make fans very quickly." Overseas, he has been praised as "a visionary conductor, discerning and meticulous" (Platea Magazine), and London's The Telegraph said, "his infectious enjoyment of the music communicated to the orchestra and audience alike." The Orchestra has made 32 recordings, including, most recently, a 2019 BIS Records release of works for violin and chamber orchestra that features Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and the world premiere recording of Pierre Jalbert's Violin Concerto (a LACO co-commission). LACO, with offices located in downtown Los Angeles, has toured Europe, South America and Japan, and performed across North America.

This special broadcast is all about supporting Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's stellar musicians, and we ask that viewers consider making a donation to LACO in support of the artists on screen. To make a donation, visit LACO.org/donate or call (213) 622-7001, EXT. 4. To enjoy LACO AT HOME's programs and features, visit www.LACO.org/laco-at-home.

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