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Press Releases
LA Children's Chorus and Vox Aurea Present Free Concert
The sounds of Finland come to Southern California when the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (LACC) hosts the acclaimed Finnish Children’s choir Vox Aurea (“The Golden Voice”) for an international choral exchange culminating in a free concert featuring Vox Aurea and LACC’s Concert Choir on Tuesday, July 21, 2009, at 7:00 p.m., at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. Vox Aurea, which has performed in LA only once before in 1995, performs for this rare Southland appearance a range of traditional Finnish folk songs and classical selections. The choirs will perform separately and in a combined choir.
Founded in 1968 and considered one of the world’s top children’s choirs, Vox Aurea is led by senior conductor Pekka Kostiainen, who is also a renowned composer, and assistant conductor Sanna Salminen, a noted folk music expert. The touring group features 43 girls and one boy. LACC Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson conducts the Concert Choir.
Vox Aurea sings several works by Mr. Kostiainen, including a series of Finnish folk melodies arranged for double choir. Folk songs from South Africa, Angola, Spain, Bulgaria, arranged by Ms. Salminen, as well as the traditional medieval work Vox nostra resonet (Our voices are resonating) and Harold Arlen’s Over the Rainbow are also on the program.
LACC performs works inspired by sacred writings, poetry and the human experience. Their portion of the program includes J.S. Bach’s Kommt Seelen, dieser Tag, Mendelssohn’s Surrexit pastor bonus, and Robert Harris’s This Little Light of Mine. Also featured are LA- based composer Paul Gibson’s Suite: Alice Through a Looking-Glass, based on the poetry of Lewis Carroll, and Randall Thompson’s Choose Something Like a Star, based on the poetry of Robert Frost. Among a selection of folksongs focusing on the human experience, LACC performs Jasmine Flower (China), Sail Away (American) and Ah si mon moine (Quebec).
The program concludes with a joint performance by Vox Aurea and LACC of California composer Kirk Meechem’s Sing all ye Joyful with text from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
The free concert launches LACC’s nine-day “Heartland Tour” to the Mid-West. Highlights of the tour to Wisconsin and Michigan include performing the National Anthem at Miller Park in Milwaukee for the Milwaukee Brewers versus Atlanta Braves baseball game, a featured performance at the acclaimed MidSummer’s Music Festival in scenic Ellison Bay, and an appearance in Sturgeon Bay, WI. The tour concludes with appearances at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Illinois. LACC will also participate in a workshop presented by Professor Robert Harris at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Vox Aurea, based in Jyväskylä, Finland, has performed around the globe, dazzling audiences in the USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, Greece, South Korea, Latvia and Spain, and has recorded five CDs, which include both classical works and extremely demanding modern choral repertoire. The singers, who range in age from 11 to 18, participate in training choirs then undergo rigorous auditions before joining Vox Aurea. The choir was founded by music educator Torsten Lindfors, who was succeeded by Kari Ala-Pöllänen. In 1994, Mr. Kostiainen assumed the choir’s artistic helm.
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, founded in 1986 and currently concluding its 23rd season, is noted throughout the country for its exceptional artistic quality and technical ability. It frequently performs with such leading musical ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Under the direction of Artistic Director Ms. Tomlinson, LACC also assists Los Angeles Opera by providing and training children for opera productions that require children’s chorus or soloists. LACC currently serves more than 290 choristers from 60 communities across Los Angeles in five choirs (Concert, Chamber Singers, Intermediate, Apprentice and Preparatory) and one new class for young singers, First Experiences in Singing. The intensive training program includes weekly or twice weekly rehearsals. All children receive individual voice coaching and take comprehensive musicianship classes. LACC has toured Brazil, China, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland as well as many parts of the United States and Canada. It is featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary film, “SING!,” which chronicles a year in the life of the choir and is shown periodically on PBS stations nationwide, and the recently-released documentary “SING OPERA!.” LACC is also featured on "Amore Infinito" ("Infinite Love"), a Deutsche Grammophon CD of songs based on poems by the late Pope John Paul II and performed by Plácido Domingo, which was released worldwide in March 2009. LACC performs on one of 12 tracks that also include Domingo in duet with Andrea Bocelli, Vanessa Williams and Katherine Jenkins. On June 4, 2009, the choir made its second appearance on “The Tonight Show,” collaborating with the John Mayer Trio. Open auditions for LACC take place each May. For more information on the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, please call (626) 793-4231 or visit www.lachildrenschorus.org.
Founded in 1968 and considered one of the world’s top children’s choirs, Vox Aurea is led by senior conductor Pekka Kostiainen, who is also a renowned composer, and assistant conductor Sanna Salminen, a noted folk music expert. The touring group features 43 girls and one boy. LACC Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson conducts the Concert Choir.
Vox Aurea sings several works by Mr. Kostiainen, including a series of Finnish folk melodies arranged for double choir. Folk songs from South Africa, Angola, Spain, Bulgaria, arranged by Ms. Salminen, as well as the traditional medieval work Vox nostra resonet (Our voices are resonating) and Harold Arlen’s Over the Rainbow are also on the program.
LACC performs works inspired by sacred writings, poetry and the human experience. Their portion of the program includes J.S. Bach’s Kommt Seelen, dieser Tag, Mendelssohn’s Surrexit pastor bonus, and Robert Harris’s This Little Light of Mine. Also featured are LA- based composer Paul Gibson’s Suite: Alice Through a Looking-Glass, based on the poetry of Lewis Carroll, and Randall Thompson’s Choose Something Like a Star, based on the poetry of Robert Frost. Among a selection of folksongs focusing on the human experience, LACC performs Jasmine Flower (China), Sail Away (American) and Ah si mon moine (Quebec).
The program concludes with a joint performance by Vox Aurea and LACC of California composer Kirk Meechem’s Sing all ye Joyful with text from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
The free concert launches LACC’s nine-day “Heartland Tour” to the Mid-West. Highlights of the tour to Wisconsin and Michigan include performing the National Anthem at Miller Park in Milwaukee for the Milwaukee Brewers versus Atlanta Braves baseball game, a featured performance at the acclaimed MidSummer’s Music Festival in scenic Ellison Bay, and an appearance in Sturgeon Bay, WI. The tour concludes with appearances at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Illinois. LACC will also participate in a workshop presented by Professor Robert Harris at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Vox Aurea, based in Jyväskylä, Finland, has performed around the globe, dazzling audiences in the USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, Greece, South Korea, Latvia and Spain, and has recorded five CDs, which include both classical works and extremely demanding modern choral repertoire. The singers, who range in age from 11 to 18, participate in training choirs then undergo rigorous auditions before joining Vox Aurea. The choir was founded by music educator Torsten Lindfors, who was succeeded by Kari Ala-Pöllänen. In 1994, Mr. Kostiainen assumed the choir’s artistic helm.
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, founded in 1986 and currently concluding its 23rd season, is noted throughout the country for its exceptional artistic quality and technical ability. It frequently performs with such leading musical ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Under the direction of Artistic Director Ms. Tomlinson, LACC also assists Los Angeles Opera by providing and training children for opera productions that require children’s chorus or soloists. LACC currently serves more than 290 choristers from 60 communities across Los Angeles in five choirs (Concert, Chamber Singers, Intermediate, Apprentice and Preparatory) and one new class for young singers, First Experiences in Singing. The intensive training program includes weekly or twice weekly rehearsals. All children receive individual voice coaching and take comprehensive musicianship classes. LACC has toured Brazil, China, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland as well as many parts of the United States and Canada. It is featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary film, “SING!,” which chronicles a year in the life of the choir and is shown periodically on PBS stations nationwide, and the recently-released documentary “SING OPERA!.” LACC is also featured on "Amore Infinito" ("Infinite Love"), a Deutsche Grammophon CD of songs based on poems by the late Pope John Paul II and performed by Plácido Domingo, which was released worldwide in March 2009. LACC performs on one of 12 tracks that also include Domingo in duet with Andrea Bocelli, Vanessa Williams and Katherine Jenkins. On June 4, 2009, the choir made its second appearance on “The Tonight Show,” collaborating with the John Mayer Trio. Open auditions for LACC take place each May. For more information on the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, please call (626) 793-4231 or visit www.lachildrenschorus.org.
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