Master Chorale Prepares for a Change in Direction

With the Los Angeles Master Chorale preparing for its final concert under longtime music director Paul Salamunovich, successor Grant Gershon announced next season’s programming and his plans for the ensemble.

The 2001-02 offerings will have a contemporary bent with works by Phillip Glass, Gyorgy Ligeti and Henryk Gorecki juxtaposed with more traditional repertory by Mozart, Bach and Brahms and music dating to medieval times. Gershon’s relationships with contemporary composers have also led to two season highlights: the world premiere of “Broken Charms” by USC’s Donald Crockett and the U.S. premiere of a work by Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen written last fall for the Swedish Radio Chorus.

Gershon also said he is talking with Minimalist Steve Reich about a commission to be presented in the spring of 2004, during the chorale’s inaugural season as a resident company of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Reich will come aboard officially when he finds a suitable text, Gershon said.

“[Choral music] is in the midst of a renaissance. Two or three generations of the most interesting composers on the planet have been turning to choral music which, for a long while, was seen as outdated or stuffy,” Gershon told The Times in an interview. “They seem to share my fascination with the human voice; I’m in the right place at the right time.”

Collaborations with other groups are integral to Gershon’s game plan. The new music director and Salonen are discussing co-productions, events in which the chorale is an equal partner rather than a “hired gun” for Philharmonic programming, Gershon said. An association with the Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary’s College will begin next spring. The chorale may also team with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Gershon is discussing special projects with the Los Angeles Opera’s new principal conductor, Kent Nagano.

Gershon, a native Angeleno who has been assistant conductor at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and assistant conductor and principal pianist at the Los Angeles Opera, will assume his Master Chorale post July 1. Though he has guest-conducted for the Master Chorale and other choral groups, this is his first time as music director of a chorus.

“The programming is very ambitious,” Gershon said. “But that’s why I was hired: to use this opportunity to redefine not only the Master Chorale but what a major chorus can be. The L.A. Master Chorale, the largest independent chorus of our kind in the U.S., needs to be in a leadership role in the global musical community. “

For the chorale’s 38th season, the number of subscription concerts has been upped from six to seven: five at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, one at UCLA’s Royce Hall and one at the Pasadena United Methodist Church. The schedule also includes a family holiday event Dec. 1 and the Master Chorale’s annual “Messiah” sing-along, on Dec. 17.

Next season will begin Sept. 29 with Tallis’ multi-part “Spem in Alium,” Bruckner’s “Te Deum,” and Glass’ “Itaipu” for chorus and orchestra, three monumental works not frequently performed. It will end on June 1 with a major Handel oratorio “Israel in Egypt.”

The March 16 concert illustrates one of Gershon’s programming goals, linking seemingly disparate pieces from different eras. Titled “Expressions of Love,” it frames Salonen’s “quite sensual” a capella U.S. premiere with Schubert’s “testosterone-filled” “Songs for Male Chorus” (“written for his drinking buddies”) and Schumann’s “Songs for Women’s Voices and Piano.”

Also on the program: “Suite de Lorca” by 20th century composer Rautavaara, who, like Salonen, is Finnish. Rautavaara based his piece on works by poet Federico Garcia Lorca, which Gershon called a nod to the Spanish-speaking audience.

Gershon has been formulating a vision since his appointment was announced last June. He plans to hold concerts in smaller, less traditional venues and, in two to four years, to form a more intimate ensemble of five to 24 singers as an adjunct to the 120-person chorale.

The move to Disney Hall in the fall of 2003 figures prominently in his plans as well. “The new hall puts the choir in the same room with the audience rather than placing it onstage,” Gershon said. “That makes the sound more immediate. And when it comes to enhancing our visibility and building audiences, what a fabulous opportunity.”

There are two remaining Master Chorale events in the 2000-01 season: “Thanks for the Memories: A Farewell Concert to Paul Salamunovich” on April 20 and the 12th annual high school choir festival on April 27. That will be the last public performance by Salamunovich in his role as Master Chorale music director, a post he has held for the last decade.

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For a complete schedule: (213) 972-7282.