Eric Whitacre

The extraordinary Los Angeles Master Chorale, under the direction of Grant Gershon, will present “Composers From the Left Coast,” a concert featuring four west coast composers. Here’s the program:

Morten Lauridsen | Mid-Winter Songs
Ingram Marshall | Savage Alters (LA Premiere)
David O | A Map of Los Angeles
Eric Whitacre | Cloudburst

Those of you who came to the National Youth Choir of Great Britain concert in August and heard me conduct Cloudburst know that Disney Hall truly rocks the free world. And the other pieces on the program are just stunning – Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs are among my favorite pieces ever for mixed choir, and David O’s A Map of Los Angeles brought down the house when it was premiered here two years ago. I’m so honored to be part of this program.

The Master Chorale has just let me know that I can offer a 25% discount to my friends, so if you will be in the area, and you are my friend (if you’re reading this, you’re my friend) then click it here for tickets:

Composers From the Left Coast; tickets for friends of EW

The concert begins at 7:00, but Grant Gershon, David O, Morten Lauridsen and I will all give a pre-concert talk beginning at 6:00. Hope to see you there!

Here’s a re-post of me conducting Cloudburst last March:

And here is the official press description from the Master Chorale:

Composers from the Left Coast

Los Angeles Master Chorale
Sunday, November 22 at 7 pm
Walt Disney Concert Hall

Part of the West Coast, Left Coast Festival, an LA Phil Festival at Walt Disney Concert Hall in November- December 2009, this concert spotlights four Left Coast composers. Mid-Winter Songs by our beloved Morten Lauridsen (premiered by the USC Chamber Singers with Grant Gershon in the chorus), based on Robert Graves’ passionate poetry, is rhythmically and harmonically propulsive. A Map of Los Angeles will be reprised after its stunning success two seasons ago. Originally part of the LA is the World commissioning project, Map celebrates the diversity of Los Angeles in an exuberant, yet intimate, snapshot. Ingram Marshall is a New Yorker who “found his voice” when he came to the West Coast in the 1970s. In Savage Altars he juxtaposes ancient texts for choir, violin, viola and prerecorded sounds to achieve a beautiful and wistful tapestry of sound. Eric Whitacre’s extraordinarily evocative Cloudburst is, in the composer’s words, “a celebration of the unleashed kinetic energy in all things.”