It’s holiday season, which means it’s time for the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (LACC) to serenade audiences with festive carols and seasonal songs during its annual winter concerts.
Indeed, the Grammy Award-winning chorus will perform in Pasadena on Dec. 6 at First United Methodist Church and on Dec. 7 at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. LACC will also return as a featured guest ensemble at Pasadena Symphony’s holiday candlelight concert from Dec. 12–13 at All Saints Church, also in Pasadena.
Founded in 1986 by Rebecca Thompson and Stephanie Mowery, the organization has had Artistic Director Fernando Malvar-Ruiz at the helm since he succeeded Anne Tomlinson in 2018. Considered one of the world’s leading children’s choirs, LACC now boasts 500 choristers across seven choirs ranging in age from age 6 to 18. Needless to say, the holiday season marks the choruses’ busiest months.
“It’s been fantastic,” exclaimed Malvar-Ruiz. “Every time I wake up and have rehearsal, it’s a happy day for me. The organization is wonderful, the board is incredibly supportive, and the parents create a family feeling. So, it’s a dream job for me.”
The concerts, which have been carefully curated, will include tunes ranging from Donald Fraser’s “This Christmastide” and Edward Elgar’s “The Snow,” to a piece from Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio.”
“I always try to create a good mix of styles so every winter concert features a wide variety of music,” Malvar-Ruiz said. “Certainly, we do Hanukkah songs and Christmas songs. But those aren’t the main part of the program, because there are so many other ways to celebrate the winter solstice.”
A particular highlight for the conductor is “Stars,” a 2011 piece by Ēriks Ešenvalds set to a poem by Sara Teasdale. Malvar-Ruiz said the piece will be sung by the Chamber Singers, who will be accompanied by tuned wine glasses.
As for his programming criteria, Malvar-Ruiz noted four points: “Number 1, ‘Are the singers going to love it?’ Number 2, ‘Is the audience going to love it?’ and ‘is it something that we can love during the three months we rehearse?’ My love of [the program] comes fourth.”
With auditions held in the late spring, Malvar-Ruiz said he is a “firm believer that everybody can sing.”
“We’re born with an instrument, and maybe one percent cannot sing for psychological or physiological reasons, but everybody else can sing well given the proper instruction,” he continued. “It’s really a matter of training, of finding whatever level they are, and then bringing them up [to that] level.
“Our audition is not so much a gateway [as to] whether you come in the choir or not, it’s more like a placement thing, because the goal is to share the transformation of the power of choral music with as many people as possible.”
One of those people happened to be Grammy and Oscar award-winning singer Billie Eilish, who was in LACC for about six years beginning in 2010. Eilish performed a tribute concert, “Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles,” that was filmed with LACC at the Hollywood Bowl during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“She’s a great supporter of the Chorus, and when she receives any award, she always has some words for Los Angeles Children’s Chorus,” Malvar-Ruiz noted.
The chorus has also appeared in more than 300 performances with organizations like the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Opera. In fact, between now and Dec. 14, audiences will have a chance to see LACC perform in LAO’s production of La bohème at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
But wherever one sees the LACC perform this season, Malvar-Ruiz said he hopes both singers and audiences take away “peace and beauty” from the performances.
“If they leave the concert with a smile, and if, on their way home, they hum some of the tunes that we have sung, that’s ‘mission accomplished’ to me.”
