MUSIC REVIEW : L.A. Children’s Chorus at Ambassador

Founded in 1986 by director Rebecca Thompson, the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus has been heard around the area singing important bits and pieces.

We have heard them in the bimm-bamm chorus of Mahler’s Third Symphony, the languid spring time of Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” the soaring cantus firmus of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion.” They have participated in Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Berg’s “Wozzeck,” Bizet’s “Carmen” and other works with the Los Angeles Music Center Opera.

Monday, at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, the group and its junior Apprentice Chorus stood essentially on their own in a concert to celebrate their first European tour, which begins July 10. The audience, made up of many family members and supporters, was deliriously happy.

It was not hard to see why. The 8- to 15-year-olds tackled some difficult music with conscientious devotion and a strong technical foundation. Some of them took obvious delight in the words and the music, others looked deeply lost in seriousness. Either attitude proved irresistible.

Artistically, however, the singers are not on a par with the Vienna Choir Boys, which must set the professional standards for this kind of thing. Nor should they be.

The Vienna choir, after all, has had about 400 years more experience than the locals. Moreover, the L.A. chorus consists of mixed voices, with a ratio of perhaps more than three girls to each boy, and that results in a more complex timbre. But they compensated with inspiring moments.

Thompson conducted and pianist Stephanie Hutchinson ably accompanied the older group. Stephanie Naifeh led the apprentices; pianist Mark Anderson provided support.

A small chamber group played in works by Bach and Michael Haydn. Oboist Barbara Northcutt was the sweetly sad soloist in James Mulholland’s tender “Reeds of Innocence,” based on Blake.

Adult singers took the stage when soprano Jennifer Smith and tenor Jonathan Mack offered arias and Don Jose’s and Micaela’s duet from “Carmen.” Mack sounded dry and occasionally ran into vocal problems, his lyricism tending to evaporate under pressure. Smith used her weighty, hollow soprano with intelligence.

Radio announcer Bonnie Grice was the cheerleading host.