LA Children's Chorus Winter Concert Celebrates American Composers

Los Angeles Children’s Chorus – acclaimed for its pure, agile, bel canto sound that has made it one of the most in-demand children’s choirs in the county – presents its popular annual Winter Concert, celebrating American song, on two consecutive Sundays, Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

The program features works by a number of eminent American composers, including Let every breath, a round in the shape note tradition by William Billings, considered the country’s first choral composer; Aaron Copland’s popular Ching-a-ring Chaw; A Christmas Carol by Charles Ives, one of the nation’s first composers to gain international acclaim; and Knee Play 5 from legendary minimalist composer Philip Glass’s groundbreaking 1967 opera “Einstein on the Beach,” universally hailed as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the 20th century.

LACC also spotlights works by several Los Angeles-based composers, Nick Strimple’s A Christmas Lullaby, Wayne Bisbee’s A Cuckoo Flew Out of the Wood, David Montoya’s I Heard a Bird Sing, and L’Dor Vador by former cantor Meir Finkelstein, among them.

Additional highlights include Florida-based David Brunner’s Chauntecleere, based on a poem by William Austin; Be Like the Bird, a haunting round by Abbie Betinis, a Minnesota-based 2009 McKnight Fellow whose music has been hailed by The New York Times as “inventive” and “richly melodic,” Carol of the Field Mice by the Bay Area’s Brian Holmes, set to the poem “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame; and Spanish Ave Maria by Henry Mollicone, who also hails from the Bay Area.

LACC Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson conducts the chorus’ Concert Choir and Chamber Singers. Associate Artistic Director Mandy Brigham leads the Intermediate Choir, Diana Landis leads the Apprentice Choir, and Dr. Steven Kronauer conducts the Young Men’s Ensemble. The choirs will perform separately and combined.

Tickets are $26, $38 and $44; children 17 and under are half price. For tickets and information, please call (626) 793-4231 or visit www.lachildrenschorus.org. Pasadena Presbyterian Church is at 585 East Colorado Blvd., Pasadena.