Los Angeles Master Chorale
About this Artist
The Los Angeles Master Chorale is the “the finest by- far major chorus in America” (Los Angeles Times) that turns “precision into wonder” (The New Yorker). Hailed for its powerful performances, technical precision, and artistic daring, the Chorale is led by Grant Gershon, Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director; Associate Artistic Director Jenny Wong; and Interim President & CEO Terry Knowles. Its Swan Family Artist-in-Residence is Reena Esmail. Created by legendary conductor Roger Wagner in 1964, the Chorale is a founding resident company of The Music Center and choir-in-residence at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
The fully professional choir is a diverse and vocally dynamic group that reaches over 175,000 people a year through its concert series at Walt Disney Concert Hall, its international touring of innovative works, and its performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and others.
In 2022, the Chorale won a Best Choral Performance Grammy®Award for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Deutsche Grammophon recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (with the National Children's Chorus, Los Angeles Children’s Choir, and Pacific Chorale). Other recordings include The Sacred Veil by Eric Whitacre (Signum Records) and national anthems/the little match girl passion by David Lang (Cantaloupe Records). The Chorale is featured on the soundtracks of many major motion pictures, including Jungle Cruise, and the Star Wars films The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
Throughout 2018, 2019, and 2022 the Chorale toured its production of Lagrime di San Pietro; directed by Peter Sellars, it earned rave reviews across the globe. Süddeutsche Zeitung called the 2019 Salzburg Festival performance “painfully beautiful,” while the Sydney Morning Herald praised Lagrime di San Pietro as “stunning…Their voices soared to the heavens.” After the Chorale performed in London, The Stage called Lagrime a “balm for the soul.”
In the 2022/23 season, the Chorale performed its second collaboration with Sellars, Music to Accompany a Departure. Invited once again to open the 2023 Salzburg Festival, with Augsburger Allgemein raving “Flawless intonation, exact accentuation and text intelligibility, light-flooded transparency and an almost unearthly tonal richness and differentiation rounded off an astonishing listening and sound experience," and Süddeutsche Zeitung remarking that “…Grant Gershon leads to brilliant sonority."
Committed to increasing representation in the choral repertoire, the Chorale announced in 2020 that it will reserve at least 50% of each future season for works by composers from historically excluded groups. This commitment to inclusion runs through the entire organization, which recently ratified a five-year plan to improve representation at the staff and board levels, to build a more diverse roster of singers, and to reach a wider audience.
The Chorale’s education programs include Voices Within residencies that encourage students to write and perform their own songs, and an expansive Oratorio Project for high school students. The Chorale also presents an annual High School Choir Festival, which brings teenagers from around Southern California to perform in Walt Disney Concert Hall. In May 2023, the High School Choir Festival will celebrate 35 years as one of the longest-running and widest reaching arts education programs in Southern California.
The Chorale returned to Grand Park last July for the first time in three years to host Big Sing 2022, the cherished group-sing event enjoyed from people throughout Los Angeles.