Beyond Heavy Metal and Power Rangers : The acclaimed Los Angeles Children’s Chorus is not kids’ play. Its members know how to ‘make music in a beautiful, spontaneous way.’

What Los Angeles choral group is in demand by major orchestras and opera companies, was chosen to represent the United States at a Central European choir festival in 1992 and took first place at this summer’s national choir competition at Princeton University?

Surprise. Praised for its professionalism, at home with a varied repertory that includes Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and contemporary secular and liturgical works, the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus has gained a national reputation for excellence.

And, its members aren’t even old enough to drive.

The group, described by L.A. Philharmonic conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen through a spokeswoman as “one of the best children’s choruses” he has ever worked with, is made up of about 160 young people, ages 8 to 16. Based at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, these junior vocalists give the lie to media images of shallow, minimally focused youth sparked to life solely by MTV, adult-trashing “Home Alone” high jinks or “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.”

Ask Daniel Sanez, 13, in the company’s Concert Choir, the advanced performing group, about his favorite music and he responds: “I like Chopin and Beethoven and I’m very amazed by Bach, his ways of fugue and counterpoint, stuff like that--he must have been a mathematician.”

Ask Intermediate Choir member Quinton Hershiser, 9, son of L.A. Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser, why he is starting his second year with the group, and he enthuses: “My mom is a really talented singer so I inherited that from her, I love to sing everywhere, I play the organ all the time and I listen to classical music all the time.”

(And, yes, he plays baseball. “There’s only one broken window so far,” he says with a grin.)

Shannon Mack, 13, a four-year veteran and a Concert Choir member (his father is Music Center Opera’s Jonathan Mack), likes “really, really modern stuff, plus baroque and chant and motets. I’m not into romantic with the major exception of Strauss. I love Strauss.”

Alto Megan Quinn, 12, points out, however, that they are not so different from their less classically minded peers. Her favorite rock group is Counting Crows. “My friends at school always talk about new bands and concerts.” She giggles. “It’s never like, oh, guess what, they’re playing Mozart.”

Daniel agrees. “I’m open to everything, except for--”

Shannon, Megan and colleague Sherry Wasef, 12, finish in unison: “heavy metal, rap and country.”

Chorus members, boys and girls from the Greater Los Angeles area, are chosen through audition. Depending upon their experience and motivation, they can progress through apprentice and intermediate levels to the professionally performing Concert Choir. Although all come in with some musical background, entry-level experience varies.

“They may be in a school choir and their teacher has recommended them,” said Intermediate Director Stephanie Naifeh. “We also have a core of children who come from our church programs, and then there’s word-of-mouth. You get some with some choral training and some with none.”

A year’s tuition, adjusted annually, is currently $350-$450; scholarships are available to those in need. The church, strongly supportive of the group, provides working facilities and performance space for a nominal fee.

Finding proper texts, teaching singing, diction, tone, new words in many languages and how the orchestra, concertmaster and conductor work are only part of the challenges involved in teaching these young choristers. There are basics that adult choirs don’t have to practice: how to stand and sit still for long periods of time and how to unobtrusively leave the stage. No fidgeting is allowed.

The staff--Naifeh; Rebecca Thompson, who is the company’s founder, Concert Choir director and guiding force; Anne Chesher Tomlinson, director of the Apprentice Choir and accompanist for the Intermediate Choir; Stephanie Hutchinson, pianist, composer and Concert Choir accompanist, and Paul Floyd, Apprentice Choir accompanist--has extensive backgrounds in performance and music education.

“They really do an admirable job of maintaining a high artistic level,” said Robin Thompson, artistic administrator for the L.A. Opera, “in the face of all the things that are working against that: dwindling government support, the lack of music education in the schools. They have an uphill battle.”

“The sham of education . . . is to think that children can’t do this,” said Rebecca Thompson. “If we have adequately trained teachers and enough support, all children can respond to this. For them to have less is a shame.”

James Litton, music director of the American Boychoir in Princeton, N.J., and one of the principal judges who awarded the Concert Choir first place in this summer’s Princeton Invitational Choir Festival, concurs.

“I think many music educators are realizing that children are capable of doing a lot more than has been expected, not only in music and the arts but in many other areas. Music opens up all sorts of mental approaches to excelling.”

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The L.A. choir’s “outstanding characteristic,” in addition to fulfilling technical requirements of execution, tone and interpretation, Litton said, is its ability to “make music in a beautiful, spontaneous way. So many children’s choirs . . . are technically perfect, but you get the feeling they are drilled. Rebecca has instilled in (her singers) a sense of being musicians and making the music come alive.”

John Alexander, artistic director of both the Orange County-based Pacific Chorale and Angeles Chorale, has used the Los Angeles group for several years. It is “the standard bearer for excellence in children’s music in the whole Southern California area,” he said.

The Concert Choir’s most recent public performances include Mahler’s Third Symphony under Salonen this year, and two presentations of Carl Orff’s lusty oratorio, “Carmina Burana,” one on the Los Angeles Master Chorale series, the other during this summer’s Hollywood Bowl season.

“They hold their own,” said Paul Salamunovich, director of the L.A. Master Chorale. “They come on extremely prepared and very disciplined. Their behavior, their training, their musicality is always there. There’s never a slip-up. You have children acting like professionals and singing like professionals. They’re always in control.”

Where that control comes from is evident in rehearsals. Each director has her own style with each level, but all communicate an intense commitment to excellence.

During a recent Concert Choir rehearsal, Thompson quietly stopped the singers. “You’re giving me a more immature children’s sound than I want,” she explained. They worked on vowels for a few minutes. Suddenly, what had been a somewhat muddied sound rang out with astonishing purity.

Hearing the striking difference, the children, standing on risers in T-shirt and jeans, were clearly delighted. Thompson smiled. “That’s worth my whole year to hear,” she told them.

Watching the choristers in concert, an observer is struck by how many are plainly transported by the music they are making. Thompson isn’t surprised.

“I guess I have an idealistic bent that makes me think that all humankind has an affinity for beauty. I think children know when something is lovely. It’s just an intrinsic something that draws them.” The directors strive at “every rehearsal” to give the children “something that is an example of this beauty.

“They have to have an ‘ah, ha!’ moment. If you’ve got 45 minutes of rehearsal and you’re working notes, at some point they have to see all that hard work pay off in (at least) three gorgeous notes. Then they’ll want to come back.”

Shannon Mack puts it slightly differently: “You’re in rehearsal and you’re, like, why am I here, because you’re singing the same little chunk of music forever and getting sick of it. But then--and I know this sounds cheesy, and like, oh, right--I’ve sung a part of music that gets to me and chills run up and down my body and I’m like, whoa, that was cool.”*