By Bernice Fox
ANGEL CITY CHORALE
There’s nothing like a choral concert to replace the sounds of crackling flames and high winds that continue to play in the head. And three local choral concerts are coming up in the next couple of weekends. Each has some Palisadians or Palisades connections.
In chronological order …
Angel City Chorale
Saturday, Dec. 6 – 7 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 7 – 3 p.m. – Livestream available for Sunday’s in-person concert
At Royce Hall, UCLA
Ticket link: https://angelcitychorale.org/concerts-events/upcoming-concerts/
Calling their concert Blockbuster Holiday, the Angel City Chorale is pulling its playlist from holiday movies. The 180-voice choir will be singing songs from classic films like Meet Me in St. Louis and Holiday Inn to more recent movies, like Love, Actually, Home Alone, The Polar Express and more. Though the ACC’s spring concert was at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, they’re returning to their Royce Hall home on the UCLA campus for this weekend’s two performances: Saturday evening Dec. 6 and Sunday afternoon, Dec. 7. There’s an option to watch a livestream of the Dec. 7 performance. It will be available for viewing through January 11. RSVPs for the livestream are required in advance at the link above.
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF SANTA MONICA CHANCEL CHOIR WITH GUEST SINGERS AND SOUTH BAY CHILDREN’S CHOIR
Sunday, Dec. 7 – 4 p.m.
At the Church, 1008 11th Street, Santa Monica
Free – Tickets are not needed. Donations are welcome.
This concert on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. begins with the augmented church choir of guest adult singers and children performing Arthur Honegger’s unusual Une Cantate de Noël or Christmas Cantata. With music to match, this piece tells of a dark world. The musical imagery lightens up and swells with the story of Jesus’ birth. Following the Christmas Cantata the choir sings a variety of carols. Some are well-known. Some, the audience can sing along with. Other carols, the audience might be hearing for the first time.
BRENTWOOD PALISADES CHORALE AND PALISADES SYMPHONY
Sunday, Dec. 14 – 1 p.m.
At Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, 1343 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica
Free – Tickets are not needed. Donations are welcome.
Since the Brentwood Palisades Chorale’s long-time performance venue – Community United Methodist Church on Via De La Paz in Pacific Palisades – burned down in the January fire, the singers now could be described as wandering musicians. Their concert last spring was at a church in West Los Angeles. Their upcoming concert on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 1 p.m. is at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in the Ocean Park neighborhood of Santa Monica. The Palisades Symphony opens this early afternoon concert, performing the Overture to Antonin Dvorak’s joyous Carnival. Then the orchestra joins the chorale for Ernest Bloch’s Avodath Hakodesh or Sacred Service. This is a musical version of the Jewish Saturday morning Sabbath service. The chorale sings it in Hebrew. The English translation will be in the concert’s printed program. Though this piece doesn’t particularly connect to Chanukah, it’s a way to welcome the holiday, which begins at sundown on Dec. 14, shortly after the concert ends.