On April 29, 2015, Angel City Chorale performed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s 50th Anniversary celebration. The second concert in a series of three events celebrating the history of art in Los Angeles, the evening’s diverse program featured local artists performing music by influential Angelenos past and present, including Igor Stravinski, Arnold Schoenberg, world-renowned choral composer Morten Lauridsen, and LACMA’s own music director, Mitch Glickman.
ACC opened the show with the world premiere of Glickman’s new work, “Converging Light,” described as “an aural kaleidoscope of Los Angeles” and representing the multicultural diversity of L.A. (rather like ACC). With a complicated musical accompaniment consisting of more than thirty percussion instruments and no pre-existing recording to follow, rehearsals for this piece became an intense group effort to interpret a vocal score full of sonic layering, dissonances, and rapid, unexpected changes in time signature. Following the incomparable Sue Fink’s lead, and with many other members contributing their musical and technological expertise to create and distribute practice tracks, the choir spent weeks working on the complex rhythmic structure and finding the perfect sound and emotional content for the hitherto unheard piece of music.
In stark contrast to this challenging, avant-garde composition, the other two pieces the choir sang, both by Morten Lauridsen, felt both personally and universally familiar. Dr. Lauridsen has been described as a mystic, his music as transcendent. ACC had the honor of working with the celebrated composer once before, when they recorded “Sure On This Shining Night” for their album “The Road Home.” The choir was once again graced by his presence in rehearsal for this show, where he regaled the group with funny stories about his early days as a young composer, and demonstrated the feeling he wanted for his songs on the piano with such sensitivity and tenderness that numerous singers reported getting goosebumps, and even being moved to tears.
On the night of the show, the choir buzzed with energy as they waited behind a screen projecting a slideshow of the past 50 years at LACMA. They had heard the accompanists for their first piece only once before, at the dress rehearsal a few hours earlier, and were excited for it all to come together at last. The screen was raised, and the choir brought Glickman’s aural kaleidoscope to life. Dr. Lauridsen then spoke for a few minutes before stepping over to the piano to accompany the choir on “Sure On This Shining Night.” The choir followed with an a cappella rendering of Lauridsen’s magnificent “O Magnum Mysterium,” a piece inspired by a 17th century painting. So gorgeous was its sound that the audience hardly dared to breathe before the final note had completely died away. Lauridsen later said that the performance was “spot on,” “beautifully shaped and sung,” and that Sue Fink is a “great, great, conductor.” Mark Swed, classical music critic for the L.A. Times, wrote: “Angel City Choral (sic) offered warm performances of Lauridsen’s “O Magnum Mysterium” and “Sure on This Shining Night,” which have the essence of old music made shiningly new.” Way to go ACC!
