LA Master Chorale Pays Tribute to Composer Morten Lauridsen, 3/14 Doc Screening

The Los Angeles Master Chorale
(LAMC) continues its epic 50th Anniversary Season with a heartfelt
two-part tribute to National Medal of Arts recipient Morten Lauridsen, the
choir’s Composer In Residence from 1995 to 2001, the composer most closely
associated with the renowned chorus and the most frequently performed American
choral composer in modern history.  The
tribute begins with an exclusive screening of the award-winning documentary
film “Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen” and
post-screening conversation with Lauridsen, film director Michael Stillwater
and LAMC Music Director Grant Gershon on Friday, March 14, 2014, 8 pm, at the
historic Alex Theatre in Glendale.  The
tribute concludes with the Chorale’s highly anticipated all-Lauridsen concert
featuring some of his most well known works conducted by Gershon with one work
accompanied by composer himself on piano on Sunday, March 16, 2014, 7 pm, at
Walt Disney Concert Hall.  Lauridsen has
been hailed for composing “radiantly beautiful music,” (Wall St. Journal) with “freshness and an affecting emotional pull
to it that explains its popularity with singers and audiences across the pond”
(Daily Telegraph).

The concert repertoire reflects the
extremely fruitful relationship between the composer and the Chorale, which
produced such sublime Lauridsen “hits” as O
Magnum Mysterium and Lux Aeterna,
resulting in the Chorale’s Grammy®-nominated best-selling recording Lux Aeterna (RCM 1998).  The Chorale performs O Magnum Mysterium as well as such Lauridsen gems as Mid-Winter Songs, Ave Dulcissima Maria, Canticle/O Vos Omnes, Nocturnes, Madrigali and Les Chansons des Roses. 

 “Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten
Lauridsen” documents this LA-based living legend who spends summers composing
on the remote Waldron Island in the Pacific Northwest, and features intimate
interviews with him in California, Scotland and Washington, interwoven with
performances of his masterworks and commentaries by music contemporaries.  Revealed through the lens of his passion for
nature and music, Lauridsen expresses a presence of fierce compassion and
unwavering dedication to the craft of composition.  Winner
of two Best Documentary awards and an Audience Choice Award, the film was
praised as 'a heartening rarity' by Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal.

Concert tickets ($29-$129) and film
tickets ($15) are available at www.lamc.org or (213) 972-7282.  The Walt Disney Concert Hall is located at
111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012. 
The Alex Theatre is located at 216 North
Brand Boulevard, Glendale, CA 91203.