Los Angeles Master Chorale Receives Challenge Grant

The Los Angeles Master Chorale announced today that the Abbott L. Brown Foundation (ALBF) has awarded a challenge grant to support the organization's mission and programs. The ALBF will match up to a total of $100,000 funded contributions to the newly formed Leadership Circle, founded by Abbott L. Brown and Jerrie Paula Ortega-Brown.

"I was proud to serve on the Board of Directors and as Chairman in the late 1980s when the Los Angeles Master Chorale was actively building upon its reputation as the leading choral ensemble in the country," said Brown. "The establishment of the Leadership Circle will help enable the Master Chorale to share its groundbreaking programs and the joy of choral music more broadly in our local communities and throughout the world."

Los Angeles Master Chorale President & CEO Jean Davidson said, "On behalf of the Master Chorale, we are extremely grateful for Abbott's support and generosity. This gift to establish the Master Chorale's first ever Leadership Circle is a wonderful recognition of our current efforts and successes, and helps secure the foundation for our broader aspirations for the future."

The Leadership Circle honors and celebrates the Los Angeles Master Chorale's most distinguished donor community. Members enable transformative projects -- from commissioning, recording, and artistic innovation, to ambitious community engagement programming and touring productions, and receive exclusive recognition and event experiences throughout the year. The minimum membership commitment is $100,000 and may be fulfilled over a three-year period.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale, the country's preeminent professional choir and resident company at Walt Disney Concert Hall, has increased its budget by 46 percent in the last four years. The Master Chorale's recent growth is matched by its ambitious initiatives, designed to present and perform choral music in fresh and engaging ways for today's audiences, and to encourage all to practice the art of singing through its community education programs.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale's signature touring production, Orlando di Lasso's Lagrime di San Pietro, directed by Peter Sellars, opened the Salzburg Festival on July 20 and 21, 2019, and continues with additional tour dates throughout the 2019-2020 season, which kicks off on October 19 & 20, 2019, with the Master Chorale's first ever performance of Bruckner's Great Mass, paired with Golijov's Oceana. The 2019-2020 season also features Master Chorale-commissioned works by composers Gabriel Kahane and Derrick Spiva Jr.,and the world premiere of a new score by Jeff Beal for F.W. Murnau's 1927 Academy Award-winning film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.

During this year's GALA 2019, held on March 23, 2019, Grant Gershon, Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director, unveiled the first phase of a visionary Los Angeles Master Chorale commission from acclaimed artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken. Aitken and Gershon have been collaborating on this new large-scale work over the past year. Conceived in multiple movements, the fully-realized work, to be presented during the 2021-2022 season, will place Master Chorale singers in an outdoor environment for a performance that invites viewers to move around as they listen, experiencing the music as an interactive soundscape.