Elements
Featuring The West Coast Premiere of
Grammy-Winning Composer Christopher Tin’s New Song-Cycle
The Drop That Contained the Sea
Saturday, June 7 & Sunday, June 8, 2014
LOS ANGELES, CA – April 2, 2014 – Angel City Chorale (ACC) will reunite with acclaimed Composer Christopher Tin at its upcoming spring concerts, Elements, on Saturday, June 7, and Sunday, June 8, 2014 at the Wilshire United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. Conducted by ACC Founder and Artistic Director Sue Fink, the first half of the concerts will feature selections that explore the four elements in a variety of musical styles including pop (Earth, Wind & Fire), classical (Brahms), as well as spirituals (“Ain’a That Good News”). The second half of the program features the West Coast Premiere of Tin’s new song cycle, The Drop that Contained the Sea, the much-anticipated follow-up to Tin’s Grammy Award-winning album, Calling All Dawns, which was hailed by critics as a masterpiece. Tin’s new classical/world music fusion work features stunning juxtapositions of rhythms and cultures. Songs depict global visions of water from the snows of Mongolia to the rains of Africa. Each of the 10 pieces is sung in a different language, including Proto-Indo-European, Turkish, and Xhosa. ACC also performed the West Coast premiere of Tin’s Calling All Dawns at its 20th Anniversary Concerts last spring.
Elements will start at 7:00pm, on both evenings, at the historic Wilshire United Methodist Church (4350 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010). The audience is invited to join the performers for a dessert reception after each performance. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door, with discounts for children (ages 5-12) and seniors. Advance tickets are available via the ACC website here. For additional information on ACC, please visit www.angelcitychorale.org.
“Angel City Chorale is thrilled to collaborate once again with Los Angeles’ own Christopher Tin, who I believe is the most brilliant composer of our time,” says Fink. “We are incredibly lucky to be the very first to sing this sweepingly cinematic music that captures the vibrancy and color in divergent world cultures while finding deep streams of commonality between us all.”
In addition to the upcoming Elements concerts, Angel City Chorale also recently recorded with Tin at famed West Los Angeles studio The Village, on his new album, The Drop that Contained the Sea. Tin’s new work features the return of many of the guest artists who performed on Calling All Dawns, and several new ones as well. In addition to ACC, performing on the new album are the Grammy Award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir, a capella quartet Anonymous 4, the Grammy-winning Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares, and Portuguese folk artist Dulce Pontes. ACC sang on 6 of 10 tracks on the album. It is scheduled for a May 2014 release. Prior to the spring concerts, ACC will also perform onstage at the World Premiere of The Drop that Contained the Sea at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Sunday, April 13, 2014, before bringing the work home to ACC’s Los Angeles audience.
The fully orchestrated Los Angeles performances will feature a live ensemble including strings, French horn, trumpets, harp, piano, synthesizers, upright and electric bass, and percussion. Also on the Elements program, in contrast to Tin’s work, ACC will perform the beautiful a capella choral piece Earth Song, by well-respected Composer and USC Composition Professor Frank Ticheli. The Elements concert date also coincides with World Oceans Day, which is held annually on June 8th. The planet’s biggest celebration of the ocean, its aim is to remember the life-giving role of oceans.
oAbout Angel City Chorale –
Angel City Chorale, conducted by Founder/Artistic Director Sue Fink, is a multi-talented, multi-cultural group of 160 men and women that truly reflects the spirit of Los Angeles, the city it calls home. Recognized for its signature blend of musical styles and commitment to community, Angel City Chorale strives to give back to the Los Angeles community through the gift of song, donations and volunteerism. Offering a diverse selection of musical material including classical, jazz, folk, gospel, rhythm and blues, and more, ACC performs two concerts seasonally, Spring and Winter, to standing-room only crowds at the historic Wilshire United Methodist Church. In addition to its scheduled performances, ACC has performed at venues throughout Los Angeles, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Dolby Theatre (formerly the Kodak Theatre), Nokia Theatre at LA Live, Staples Center, and the Shrine Auditorium. ACC has also recorded four highly acclaimed albums, which are available on CD through various online retailers found here.
ACC maintains a strong sense of community involvement, including taking its annual holiday concert repertoire directly to service organizations and those most in need, in Los Angeles, through its annual Tour of Hope program every December. ACC has also taken its music and outreach program to international audiences. In August 2011, ACC traveled to Cape Town, South Africa to perform concerts benefiting the Amy Biehl Foundation, an organization working to bring sports, arts, music, and education programs to the children of South Africa’s townships. Angel City Chorale is a California Non-Profit Public Benefit Corporation and 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Sue Fink, ACC Founder and Artistic Director –
As founder, artistic director and conductor, Sue Fink brings a dynamic energy to ACC that helps distinguish it from other choral groups. While attending UCLA, Fink studied conducting and toured with internationally renowned musician and choral director, Roger Wagner. She established the Oriana Renaissance Ensemble and the Los Angeles Women’s Community Chorus, serving as conductor for both groups prior to founding Angel City Chorale. As a singer-songwriter she has toured extensively, released two CDs, and has won international songwriting contests. She maintains a private voice studio in Los Angeles; composes and arranges for choral groups; and writes songs for television and movies. As a respected vocal coach, Fink has worked with well-known recording artists including Brian Wilson (Beach Boys), Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder, singers from Weezer, Foo Fighters, and more. She has released three solo albums and four with ACC.
Christopher Tin, Composer –
American Composer Christopher Tin is a two-time Grammy Award-winner. His work covers diverse terrain: from thrilling fusions of orchestral and world music to brooding reinventions of ‘90s electronica, to award-winning scores for film, video games and commercials. His classical crossover album, Calling All Dawns, was released in 2009. Hailed by critics as a masterpiece, Calling All Dawns won two Grammys at the 53rd Grammy Awards for “Best Classical Crossover Album,” and “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists” for the song “Baba Yetu,” which made history as the first video game theme to win a Grammy. The song was originally composed in 2005 for the theme song to the legendary Civilization IV video game. Tin’s music has been performed live by the National Symphony Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Philharmonia, Metropole Orchestra, and thousands of amateur ensembles around the world. He currently lives in Santa Monica, CA.
Links –
• Angel City Chorale – www.angelcitychorale.org
• Angel City Chorale on Facebook – www.facebook.com/
• Angel City Chorale on YouTube – www.youtube.com/user/
• Angel City Chorale on Twitter – @AngelCityChoral
• Angel City Chorale on SoundCloud – https://soundcloud.com/
• Christopher Tin – www.christophertin.com
# # #
For more information, photos, to schedule an interview, or request complimentary tickets, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.
# # #
“One of the most engaging and entertaining evenings of music you can hear in Los Angeles.” - T-Bone Burnett
