In Strong Voice

Choral music is an important part of the fabric of Southern California’s classical music scene. In part, it’s trickle-down inspiration, coming from that august organization, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, founded by Roger Wagner. Wagner, who died in 1992, spent his last years in East Ventura County and also graced local audiences by leading the Los Robles Master Chorale (nee Moorpark Master Chorale) in concert.

Last month, the L.A. Master Chorale, led by Paul Salamunovich since 1991, staged a concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to pay tribute to its founder. The occasion was the ensemble’s 35th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of Wagner’s own touring chorale. (That group continues, under the leadership of Wagner’s daughter, Jeanine.)

Ironically, the day after the Wagner tribute, Robert Shaw, the “other” 20th century American choral icon, passed away. Was it the end of an era--or are we in the flowering of a new era for choral music? The general popularity of the medium may have been higher in years past, but the establishment of choral groups around the country perpetuates the art form, in Ventura County as elsewhere.

This Sunday afternoon in the St. James Chapel of St. John’s Seminary, Salamunovich will appear as guest conductor with the Ventura County Master Chorale in a performance of Mozart’s mighty “Requiem.” Salamunovich is a worthy successor to Wagner, in whose groups he sang beginning in his teen years. He’s currently up for a Grammy, nominated for the L.A. Master Chorale’s recording of Morton Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna.”

The soloists for the Mozart are notable in their own rights. Soprano Camille King was heard as a soloist in the New West’s “Messiah” in December, and bass Louis Lebherz and mezzo-soprano Adelaide Sinclair have impressive resumes as well.

Tenor Jonathan Mack has provided generous operatic service in Europe and the Southland, with the Music Center Opera. There are Ventura connections, as well: He offered a memorable reading of Schubert’s song cycle “Die Schone Mullerin” at the Ventura Chamber Music Festival and sang on the recent Crystal records release of John Biggs’ “Songs of Laughter, Love and Tears.”

This concert promises to be one of the highlights of the musical season in the area. The choral beat goes on.

The Symphonic Periphery: New West Symphony’s concert season is slipping into high gear this month on orchestral themes and then some. Two weekends back, the symphony served up a bold and balanced offering in Oxnard and Thousand Oaks, with a program framed by Stravinsky (his tasty, nonthreatening “Danses Concertantes”) and a rousing treatment of Mozart’s “Jupiter Symphony.” In-between came Beethoven Romances and a Bach Double Concerto, played with dash and subtlety by the young Canadian-bred violinist siblings Lara and Scott St. John.

This weekend, more activities pour in from the periphery. The symphony’s newly launched chamber concert subseries continues Sunday in the humbly scaled jewel of a performing arts center in Simi Valley. This time around, the theme is “America the Beautiful,” and the repertoire is a one-two-three punch of beloved and respected American composers--Copland, Bernstein and Gershwin. What’s intriguing is that the material chosen is off the beaten path, showing programmatic roads less traveled by those composers.

The following weekend, Feb. 26-28, the New West veers away from things American--at least North American--and offers a new twist on its annual “Musics Alive!” series. In this, the seventh annual edition of the chamber music series based on world music influences and contemporary sounds, three events have been corralled into a mini-festival.

It opens Feb. 26 with “Tango Party!” at the Pierpont Inn, featuring Pepe Motta’s troupe of dancers and instrumentalists. The Argentine connection extends itself further with Saturday night’s “Argentina Alive!” a more serious musical event at Ventura City Hall, with music by Ginastera and everybody’s favorite nuevo tango composer, Astor Piazzolla.

Closing the festival Feb. 28 at the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, “Indonesia Alive!” will make good on the event canceled at the last minute last spring, with a program featuring noted Eastern-minded octogenarian composer Lou Harrison.

DETAILS

Ventura County Master Chorale, with guest conductor Paul Salamunovich, Sunday at 4:30 p.m. in the St. James Chapel of St. John’s Seminary Chapel, 5012 Seminary Road in Camarillo. Tickets are $15 and $18; 653-7282.

New West Symphony Chamber Concert: America the Beautiful, Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Simi Valley Performing Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Ave. in Simi Valley. Tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors and students, and $14 for children; 581-9940.