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LOS ANGELES CHILDREN’S CHORUS HONORS GRANT GERSHON, Thursday, May 22, 2008, 6:00 P.M., at California Club in Los Angeles
(PASADENA, CA) April 22, 2008 – A quartet of eminent artists and arts patrons will be honored at the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus’s (LACC) festive Gala Bel Canto on Thursday, May 22, 2008, at 6:00 p.m., at the California Club in downtown Los Angeles. The honorees include Grant Gershon, music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, assistant conductor of LA Opera and LACC Honorary Board Member, and passionate LACC supporters Kimberly Marteau Emerson and John Emerson, Chair of the Music Center Board of Governors. In addition, fast-rising soprano Khori Dastoor, a Pasadena native, graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and principal artist in residence with Opera San Jose, will be named LACC’s 2008 Distinguished Alumna. Famed mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzmán will host the event, which features a sumptuous three-course dinner and a special performance by the elite LACC Concert Choir conducted by Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson. All proceeds from the gala benefit LACC’s artistic, educational and scholarship programs. Serving as Gala Bel Canto co-chairs are Laura Moyles LaBarge and Eileen Stueck Leech. The honorary committee includes Mayor Bill Bogaard, James Conlon, Pl·cido Domingo, Jeffrey Kahane, Freida Lee Mock, Paul Salamunovich, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jessica Sanders, Eva and Marc Stern, Rebecca Thompson, Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa and John Williams. Cocktail attire for women is suggested; coat and tie are required for men. Los Angeles Children’s Chorus was founded in 1986 and 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, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and The Pasadena Symphony. Under the artistic direction of Anne Tomlinson, LACC also assists the Los Angeles Opera by providing and training children for opera productions that require children’s chorus or soloists. LACC currently has 260 choristers from 60 communities across Los Angeles in five choirs: Concert, Chamber Singers, Intermediate, Apprentice and Preparatory. 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, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland as well as many parts of the United States and Canada. It was 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. Open auditions take place each June. LACC presents its annual Spring Concert, featuring two world premieres, on Saturday, June 7, 2008, 7 P.M. at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. The 260-member choir celebrates one of its own with the world premiere of Etch by distinguished LACC alumna Caroline Park. The second piece to be premiered, L’Amour de moy, is an arrangement of a traditional French Folk Song written by noted Los Angeles-based composer Paul Gibson. LACC Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson conducts the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers. Mandy Brigham leads the Intermediate Choir and also co-directs the Apprentice Choir with Amy Brehm, who leads the Preparatory Choir as well. The choirs will perform separately and combined. LACC’s 22nd Season concludes this summer with the choir’s first tour to China. They will join the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Beijing native Jindong Cai, for a two-week tour entitled, “A Musical Journey to the Olympics,” June 23 through July 6. LACC will give several performances with the orchestra in Shanghai and Beijing, and will appear on its own in Hong Kong. The performances in Beijing are part of the China International Youth Arts Festival. Sponsored by China’s Ministry of Culture and the Beijing Olympic Organization, the festival is one of the most prestigious arts events of the planned Beijing Olympic cultural activities. Tickets to Gala Bel Canto are $300 per person. To purchase individual tickets or a table, please call Lauran Huff at Levy, Pazanti & Associates at 310-201-5033. The California Club is located at 538 South Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles. # # # ABOUT LACC’S GALA BEL CANTO HONOREES Conductor Grant Gershon, appointed music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale in July 2001 and named Associate Conductor/Chorus Master of the LA Opera in June 2007, has garnered tremendous critical acclaim during his tenure with the Grammy-nominated chorus. The Los Angeles Times proclaims that the Chorale “has become the most exciting chorus in the country under Grant Gershon.” The conductor, pianist and vocalist has expanded the Chorale’s repertoire considerably, conducting dozens of world, U.S., West Coast and Los Angeles premieres, including the world premiere recording of Steve Reich’s You Are (Variations) on Nonesuch. His first CD with the Chorale featured the world premiere recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s first choral work as well as Philip Glass’s Itaip·. In February, Gershon and the Chorale made the world premiere recording of Reich's Daniel Variations, written in memory of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. He also conducted the Minnesota Opera’s world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s acclaimed opera, “The Grapes of Wrath.” Gershon has guest conducted the San Antonio Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, Juilliard Opera Theatre, the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Finnish chamber orchestra Avanti!, among others, and is in demand as a pianist for such leading vocalists as Kiri Te Kanawa, Peter Schreier, Rodney Gilfry and Audra McDonald. Since 2003, he has served as Music Director of the Idyllwild Arts Festival Choir. A member of the USC Thornton School of Music Board of Councilors, he was named USC Thornton School of Music Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 2002 and was named an Honorary Board Member of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus in 2005. Gershon served as assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1994-1997, and previously held the post of Assistant Conductor/Principal Pianist with the LA Opera. John Emerson is President of Capital Guardian Trust Company's Personal Investment Management Division and is a director of the company. From 1993 to 1997, he served as Deputy Assistant to President Clinton in the White House, where he was liaison to the nation's governors, coordinator of the administration's efforts to obtain congressional approval of GATT's Uruguay Round agreement, and was responsible for overseeing the administration's policies impacting the state of California (in his autobiography, President Clinton refers to John as his "Secretary of California"). Before joining the 1992 Clinton/Gore campaign, Mr. Emerson served as Chief Deputy and Chief of Staff in the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, and was a Partner at the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips law firm, specializing in business and entertainment litigation and administrative law. He is very active civically in Los Angeles, chairing the Board the Music Center, and serving on the boards of the Metropolitan Los Angeles YMCA, The Buckley School, and Marlborough School. John and his wife, Kimberly Marteau, were honored by People for the American Way Foundation with the 2004 Spirit of Liberty Award for their commitment to progressive causes. Previously John received the Access to Justice award from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. Soprano Khori Dastoor has delighted audiences in venues throughout the country and abroad. Her recent debut as the title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor was described by Opera News as a "moving, increasingly distraught portrayal that offered agile acting and gripping fragility and anguish that was the stuff of art" and hailed by the San JosÈ Mercury News as "one of the most exciting performances I've seen, on any stage, in the past several years." Ms. Dastoor recently appeared as “Miss Wordsworth” in Albert Herring at the Aspen Music Festival under the baton of Maestro Robert Spano and in the role of “Gabrielle” in Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne with Lake George Opera. She has frequently appeared with the community programs division of the Los Angeles Opera, and has performed the role of "Sophie de Palma" in the critically acclaimed revival of Terrence McNally's Master Class at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara. Other favorite roles include the title role in Lakme, Pamina in Die Zauberflote, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Gilda in Rigoletto, and Maria in West Side Story. Deeply committed to new music, Ms. Dastoor created the role of “La Novia” in the world premiere of Lorca: Child of the Moon at the Freud Playhouse and also recently originated the title role in the world premiere of The Tree at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. She also appeared as “Mary” in the world premiere of Paul Chihara's Magnificat with the Angeles Chorale and Debut Orchestra this past year. A native of Pasadena, Ms. Dastoor is currently a principal artist in residence with Opera San JosÈ while simultaneously concluding doctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she is the recipient of the Dean's Award for the School of Arts and Architecture. Upcoming engagements include a performance as the soprano soloist in the Brahms' Requiem with the Angeles Chorale, the roles of “Despina” (Cosi Fan Tutte), “Adina” (L'elisir d'Amore), and “Micaela” (Carmen) with Opera San Jose, and a return to the Lake George Opera Festival as “Mabel” (The Pirates of Penzance) and “Lauretta” (Gianni Schicchi and Buoso's Ghost).
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