Los Angeles Children's Chorus Hosts Finnish Children's Choir with Free Concert July 21, 2009

LOS ANGELES CHILDREN’S CHORUS HOSTS INTERNATIONAL CHORAL EXCHANGE WITH FINNISH CHILDREN’S CHOIR VOX AUREA CULMINATING IN FREE CONCERT

Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 7 P.M., at Pasadena Presbyterian Church

Concert also Launches LACC’s “Heartland Tour” to Mid-West

The sounds of Finland come to Southern California when the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (LACC) hosts the acclaimed Finnish Children’s choir Vox Aurea (“The Golden Voice”) for an international choral exchange culminating in a free community concert featuring Vox Aurea and LACC’s Concert Choir on Tuesday, July 21, 2009, at 7:00 p.m., at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. Vox Aurea, which made its LA debut in 1995, performs for this second Southland appearance a range of traditional Finnish folk songs and classical selections. The choirs will perform separately and as a combined choir.

Founded in 1968 and considered one of the world’s top children’s choirs, Vox Aurea is led by senior conductor Pekka Kostiainen, who is also a renowned composer, and assistant conductor Sanna Salminen, a noted folk music expert. The touring group features 43 girls and one boy. LACC Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson conducts the Concert Choir.

Vox Aurea sings several works by Mr. Kostiainen, including a series of Finnish folk melodies arranged for double choir. Folk songs from South Africa, Angola, Spain, Bulgaria, arranged by Ms. Salminen, as well as the traditional medieval work Vox nostra resonet (Our voices are resonating) and Harold Arlen’s Over the Rainbow are also on the program.

LACC performs works inspired by sacred writings, poetry and the human experience. Their portion of the program includes J.S. Bach’s Kommt Seelen, dieser Tag, Mendelssohn’s Surrexit pastor bonus, and Robert Harris’s This Little Light of Mine. Also featured are LA- based composer Paul Gibson’s Suite Alice Through the Looking Glass, based on the poetry of Lewis Carroll, and Randall Thompson’s Choose Something Like a Star, based on the poetry of Robert Frost. Among a selection of folksongs focusing on the human experience, LACC performs Jasmine Flower (China), Sail Away (American) and Ah si mon moine (Quebec).

The program concludes with a joint performance by Vox Aurea and LACC of California composer Kirk Meechem’s Sing all ye Joyful with text from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

The free concert launches LACC’s nine-day “Heartland Tour” to the Mid-West. Highlights of the tour to Wisconsin and Michigan include performing the National Anthem at Miller Park in Milwaukee for the Milwaukee Brewers versus Atlanta Braves baseball game, a featured performance at the acclaimed MidSummer’s Music Festival in scenic Ellison Bay, and an appearance in Sturgeon Bay, WI. The tour concludes with appearances at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, Illinois. LACC will also participate in a workshop presented by Professor Robert Harris at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Vox Aurea, based in Jyväskylä, Finland, has performed around the globe, dazzling audiences in the USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, Greece, South Korea, Latvia and Spain, and has recorded five CDs, which include both classical works and extremely demanding modern choral repertoire. The singers, who range in age from 11 to 18, participate in training choirs then undergo rigorous auditions before joining Vox Aurea. The choir was founded by music educator Torsten Lindfors, who was succeeded by Kari Ala-Pöllänen. In 1994, Mr. Kostiainen assumed the choir’s artistic helm.

Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, founded in 1986 and currently concluding its 23rd season, is noted throughout the country for its exceptional artistic quality and technical ability. It frequently performs with such leading musical ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Under the direction of Artistic Director Ms. Tomlinson, LACC also assists Los Angeles Opera by providing and training children for opera productions that require children’s chorus or soloists. LACC currently serves more than 290 choristers from 60 communities across Los Angeles in five choirs (Concert, Chamber Singers, Intermediate, Apprentice and Preparatory) and one new class for young singers, First Experiences in Singing. The intensive training program includes weekly or twice weekly rehearsals. All children receive individual voice coaching and take comprehensive musicianship classes. LACC has toured Brazil, China, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland as well as many parts of the United States and Canada. It is featured in the Academy Award-nominated documentary film, “SING!,” which chronicles a year in the life of the choir and is shown periodically on PBS stations nationwide, and the recently-released documentary “SING OPERA!.” LACC is also featured on "Amore Infinito" ("Infinite Love"), a Deutsche Grammophon CD of songs based on poems by the late Pope John Paul II and performed by Plácido Domingo, which was released worldwide in March 2009. LACC performs on one of 12 tracks that also include Domingo in duet with Andrea Bocelli, Vanessa Williams and Katherine Jenkins. On June 4, 2009, the choir made its second appearance on “The Tonight Show,” collaborating with the John Mayer Trio. Open auditions for LACC take place each May.
For more information on the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, please call (626) 793-4231 or visit www.lachildrenschorus.org.
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ANNE TOMLINSON, appointed artistic director of Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (LACC) in 1995, conducts the Concert Choir and the Chamber Singers and is responsible for the educational and artistic development of LACC. She also serves as Children’s Chorus Mistress for the Los Angeles Opera. During her tenure, she has prepared children for major operatic works including the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s opera Fantastic Mr. Fox based upon the story by Roald Dahl. Accordingly, Ms. Tomlinson has worked with Placido Domingo, Andrew Litton, and Julius Rudel, among other renowned conductors. She has prepared children’s choirs for Esa-Pekka Salonen, Carlos Rizzi, Maren Alsop in Los Angeles Philharmonic performances of Stravinsky’s Persephone, John Adams’ El Niño, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Orff’s Carmina Burana and a fully staged production of Bernstein’s Mass at the Hollywood Bowl. Los Angeles Master Chorale presentations include Christopher Rouse’s Requiem and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Grant Gershon and Paul Salomunovich. Film work includes the 2002 Academy Award nominated documentary “Sing,” an in depth profile of LACC. Live broadcast work includes the January 2005 Chamber Singers performance on NPR’s nationally syndicated program “From the Top.” Ms. Tomlinson is a frequent presenter at symposia, workshops and festivals. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Master’s degree in conducting from Northwestern University where she studied with Margaret Hillis. She received in 2000 the Gold Crown Award for Music Education, given by the Pasadena Arts Council, the 2001 Power of One Award, given by Facing History and Ourselves Foundation, and the 2006 Educator of the Year Award given by the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Southern California.

Renowned conductor and composer PEKKA KOSTIAINEN is music director of Vox Aurea. He served as a lecturer in music at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland from 1971 to 2000 and was appointed music director of both Musica Choir and Vox Aurea Children's Choir in 1994. Known primarily for his choral compositions, he has also composed for orchestras, chamber ensembles and solo instruments. His choral music falls into three main categories: sacred music, works for children's choir and works drawing on the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. While his music is generally atonal, he also employs pure tonality along with contemporary vocal techniques. For example, in one of his best-known works, Jaakobin pojat (“Jacob’s Sons,” 1976), the Biblical list of names is presented using Sprechgesang, whispers, glissandos, highest and lowest possible notes of undetermined pitch, and a spatial element. Mr. Kostiainen has received several international prizes and recognitions and made several recordings, including the six CD series "Kostiainen Conducts Kostiainen" on the Finnish label Alba Records. The latest disc in the series, released in 2008, includes his acclaimed a capella work Tuhat kertaa tuhat vuotta (A thousand times a thousand years).

Vox Aurea Assistant Conductor SANNA SALMINEN is an assistant Professor in Music Pedagogy in the Department of Education at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, the same university where she earned a master’s degree in Music Education in 2000. A specialist in conducting and arranging multicultural music, she has performed and led various instrumental and vocal groups in such wide ranging styles as Medieval and Renaissance music, Thai music, Arabic music, Klezmer music, Finnish folk music, classical music and pop music. Ms. Salminen served as the vocal coach and assistant conductor of Musica Chamber Choir and Vox Aurea Children’s Choir from 1998 to 2006. She is also the conductor of Ruamjai youth choir, which was nominated Youth Choir of the Year 2008-09 by the Finnish state radio company. She has worked as a researcher and a teacher in a cooperation project with the Department of Music in South Africa since 2000. Ms. Salminen’s main instruments are the viola, the violin and the medieval fiddle. The author of several school music books, she is also a composer and arranger.

CALENDAR LISTING FOR SPRING CONCERT

Los Angeles Children’s Chorus and Finnish Children’s Choir Vox Aurea
Anne Tomlinson, Artistic Director, LACC
Pekka Kostiainen, Senior Conductor, Vox Aurea
Sanna Salminen, Assistant Conductor, Vox Aurea

DATES/TIMES:
Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 7:00 PM


PROGRAM:
Vox Aurea
Sings several works by Pekka Kostiainen, including a series of Finnish folk melodies arranged for double choir, folk songs from South Africa, Angola, Spain, Bulgaria, arranged by Sanna Salminen, as well as:
traditional Vox nostra resonet
HAROLD ARLEN Over the Rainbow

LACC
Performs works inspired by sacred writings, poetry and the human experience, including:
J.S. BACH Kommt Seelen, dieser Tag
MENDELSSOHN Surrexit pastor bonus
ROBERT HARRIS This Little Light of Mine
PAUL GIBSON Suite Alice Through the Looking Glass
RANDALL THOMPSON Choose Something Like a Star
Chinese folk song Jasmine Flower
American folk song Sail Away
Canadian folk song Ah si mon moine

Performed Jointly by Vox Aurea and LACC:
KIRL MEECHEM Sing all ye Joyful

VENUE:
Pasadena Presbyterian Church
585 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91101

TICKET PRICES:
Free

INFORMATION:
(626) 793-4231
www.lachildrenschorus.org

Official Website: http://www.lachildrenschorus.org