Sweet Sounds of the Season

Nothing gets visions of sugarplums dancing in your head like holiday tunes. Today you’ll have a chance to OD on the sweet sounds of Christmas at the 30th annual L.A. County Holiday Program (which is also being televised live on KCET Channel 28) at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The free 12-hour concert, featuring musical and choral groups from all over L.A. County, begins at 9 a.m. and ends with a 2-hour finale starting at 7 p.m.

J. Foster, executive director of the sponsoring L.A. County Music and Performing Arts Commission, says the pavilion will be open for audience members to come and go as they please throughout the day. (Music Center parking is also free today.)

A sample of the program lineup: the Salvation Army Pasadena Tabernacle Band and Timbrel Brigade (which kicks off the program at 9), the Rhythm Kings & Dance Ensemble, West Valley Sweet Adelines, Compton Boychoir, Whittier Women’s Chorus, Gay Men’s Chorus, Danza Floricanto/USA, L.A. Chamber Ballet and the Swiss Singing Society.

The finale, a two-hour concert-like performance of popular merry melodies lead by conductor John Alexander, includes the Valley Master Chorale, KTE Children’s Choir, Los Angeles Children’s Choir and the Dominguez Hills Jubilee (gospel) Choir performing with the L.A. Chamber Orchestra.

Every year the commission gets hundreds of requests from groups desiring to participate, and each year the quality of the performers gets better, Foster says. Foster, who has been with the commission since 1974, goes out and auditions most of the groups during spring and summer in preparation for the one-day holiday show.

“There’s a lot of competition to get on the program,” Foster says. “This is a big performance . . . and it’s a lot of pressure for a volunteer group.”

Foster’s criteria for choosing holiday performers begins with ability: “They have to be able to do it,” he says, “they can’t just be someone off the street. . . . For some (who audition) it’s like a family reunion (they get together just to audition for the holiday program). I don’t choose them.”

Some of the groups, Foster says, regularly sing at church services or other functions. But as long as they “show they are capable of doing the performance,” they can be chosen for the holiday program. Other considerations include location and ethnicity. “We try to represent the entire county,” Foster says, “and try to spread around the ethnicity to reflect what’s going on in the county.”

Giving the event a “multicultural character” is a major concern, Foster adds.

Foster says the holiday extravaganza is usually as exciting for the participants as for the audiences.

“They’re all volunteers,” Foster says of the choral and orchestral groups, “That’s the key word. But it’s not only exciting, it must also be a little scary, especially for the children. Last year they played to more than 18,000 people.”

But at show time, stage fright apparently melts away like desert snow, because the young performers always “do extremely well,” Foster says. In fact, the only glitches in the live shows over the years have resulted from a lack of cooperation by Mother Nature.

“If our performers don’t arrive on time, that’s a major disaster,” Foster laments. And such an incident occurred several years ago during a downpour. A “major choir” that had a half-hour segment didn’t show up, Foster recalls, and it took some improvising to fill the gap and keep the show running smoothly on the air.

“That’s why no one does live television anymore,” Foster says. “This is show biz in that respect.” But since the weather is usually mild, “it doesn’t happen very often; it generally runs smoothly.”

Among the hosts of the KCET telecast are A Martinez, Patty Ecker, Carmen Zapata, Huell Howser and Mario Machado.

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown Los Angeles. Call (213) 974-1343. Admission and parking are free.