The Los Angeles Master Chorale, one of the country’s preeminent professional choirs, is celebrating its 60th anniversary in style at a gala dinner on March 22 at the Marciano Art Foundation. The organization, which has been led by Grant Gershon since 2001, will honor the life and legacy of Marshall A. Rutter, who helped found the Master Chorale in 1964 and died last December at age 93. Guests will be immersed in Doug Aitken’s Lightscape, a large-scale multiscreen film installation and soundscape featuring original compositions by Aitken, Gershon, and choristers.
Gershon, who’s led more than 200 Master Chorale performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall, said, “It’s kind of unbelievable that the Chorale has been around as long as the Mary Poppins movie. But as I do the math on it, [I realized that] I’ve now been in this position for more than a third [of the group’s existence]. It’s a testament to all of the people who believed in this vision of having a professional choral ensemble as one of the centerpieces of a new performing arts center.”
Rutter was a lifelong music enthusiast who not only helped establish the Master Chorale (at the urging of legendary conductor Roger Wagner) but also persuaded Gershon to move west from New York City in the late 1990s to see if the young conductor would be interested in leading the organization as successor to Paul Salamunovich.
“Marshall was the only person who was on the board for the entire existence of the Chorale,” Gershon enthused. “That’s six decades of board leadership in various roles, including chairman and most recently emeritus. He also commissioned so many pieces, including Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium, which has gone on to have such a [huge] life in the choral world.”
Indeed, that 1994 work by Lauridsen, who was the Master Chorale’s composer-in-residence from 1994 to 2001, will be one of four pieces performed at the gala in the group’s legendary Surround Sing tradition. In the resonant lobby hall of the Marciano, 80 performers will envelop the audience — an experience that The New Yorker’s Alex Ross described as “shiver-inducing.” Gershon noted that this particular venue “feels like it was made for singers and for a cappella voices.” Also slated to be sung are pieces by past and present artists-in-residence — Reena Esmail, Shawn Kirchner, and Eric Whitacre — with Gershon and Associate Artistic Director Jenny Wong conducting.
Then there’s Aitken’s Lightscape, which had its concert premiere at Disney Hall last November in a live-to-picture performance.
“This really is the culmination of seven years of working and collaborating with Doug,” said Gershon. “To be in the space at the Marciano and having our guests surrounded by the screens and imagery of Lightscape is completely immersive. And that’s what the piece was meant for.”
Also scheduled to appear at the gala is Grammy Award-winning pianist and composer Billy Childs, from whom the Master Chorale has commissioned three works, most recently In the Arms of the Beloved (2023).
And the Master Chorale’s recently launched Youth Chorus LA — an after-school choral education program that’s open to all young people regardless of musical background or financial means — will perform and share the proceeds from the evening.
Looking back on his tenure with the Master Chorale, Gershon said, “I think we’re more versatile and more flexible now than ever before, and the [collaborators] we’ve had the honor of working with over the years have also grown and stretched the ensemble. The fact that singers come from all over the country to audition for us [means that] we are a destination.”
