Angel City Chorale Celebrates
Its First Two Decades in Song With
Angel City Chorale 20th Anniversary Concerts
At the Historic Wilshire United Methodist Church in Los Angeles
Saturday, June 1 & Sunday, June 2, 2013

Featuring the West Coast Premiere of Christopher Tin’s Grammy-Winning
Song-Cycle Calling All Dawns in Twelve Languages
+ Angel City Chorale’s Greatest Hits

LOS ANGELES, CA – April 3, 2013 – Angel City Chorale (ACC) will celebrate its first two decades in song with special reunion concerts on Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2, 2013, at 7:00 p.m.  The Angel City Chorale 20th Anniversary Concerts will feature the West Coast premiere of Grammy Award-Winning Composer Christopher Tin’s Calling All Dawns.  In addition to performing Tin’s highly acclaimed three-movement piece, which celebrates the circle of life in 12 languages, Angel City Chorale will also perform “The Best of ACC,” highlighting much-loved and crowd-favorite songs from the choir’s 20-year history.  The Greatest Hits portion of the program will include performances of Randy Newman’s Louisiana and Toto’s Africa with a choir-created thunderstorm.  Conducted by ACC Founder and Artistic Director Sue Fink, the concerts will be held at the historic Wilshire United Methodist Church (4350 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010).  The audience is invited to join the performers for a dessert reception after each performance.  General admission tickets are $30 in advance for adults, $27 for seniors, and $22 for children.  Advance tickets will be available starting April 18, 2013 via the Angel City Chorale website.  For additional information on ACC’s history, upcoming performances or tickets, please visit www.angelcitychorale.org.

“In developing the program for our anniversary concerts, we wanted to commemorate Angel City Chorale’s journey to date, as well as look to the road ahead,” says Fink.  “By performing our greatest hits from over the years, in conjunction with the West Coast premiere of Tin’s sublime work, Calling All Dawns, we celebrate the past, present, and future of ACC – the circle of life – in song.”

Composer Christopher Tin is working closely with ACC.  He has expanded the choral parts of Calling All Dawns and added special orchestrations for the West Coast premiere.  Tin has also been actively involved in preparing for the June concerts and will be rehearsing with ACC.  Additionally, he is busy working on the East Coast premiere of Calling All Dawns, which will be held in New York on April 7, 2013 at Lincoln Center.

Hailed by critics as a masterpiece, the song cycle includes songs of joy, mystery, sorrow, hardship and triumph – reflecting the complexity of our mortality.  Calling All Dawns contains 12 pieces in three uninterrupted movements – Day, Night and Dawn – corresponding to life, death and rebirth.  A tapestry of interconnected motifs, the melody of one song weaves into an instrumental interlude in another.  The last song fades back into the first, reflecting the cyclical nature of life.  Sung in twelve languages, from Swahili to Polish, French to Farsi, the lyrics are sourced from diverse texts including The Torah, Bhagavad Gita, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Japanese haiku and Maori proverbs.  Vocal traditions include African choral music, opera, medieval chant, Irish keening and more.

Tin’s debut album, Calling All Dawns, won two Grammys at the 53rd Grammy Awards for Best Classical Crossover Album and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists for the song “Baba Yetu,” which made history as the first video game theme to win a Grammy.  The song was originally composed in 2005 for the theme song to the legendary Civilization IV video game.

“Calling All Dawns is a very personal piece to me, and I’m thrilled that it’s finally getting its Los Angeles premiere,” says Composer Christopher Tin, “and I couldn’t be happier with the fact that Angel City Chorale is giving the premiere!”

Performing with the choir during the first half of the concert, for Calling All Dawns, will be an expanded orchestral ensemble with strings, French horn, flute, oboe, harp, piano, and five percussionists.  Authentic sounds from the countries whose texts inspired Calling All Dawns will also be incorporated into the performance.  In the second half of the concert, during ACC’s Greatest Hits, the choir will be accompanied by the ensemble’s stellar rhythm section.

Adding a special touch to the weekend’s concerts, many ACC alumni will participate in two songs with the choir.  A historical slide show, illustrating many of ACC’s milestones over the past 20 years, will be projected during two of the songs.  Numerous reunion activities for visiting former members, and the choir at large, are planned as well.

Angel City Chorale (Photo credit: Linda Weiss)

Angel City Chorale (ACC) – 

Formed by Sue Fink in 1993 at McCabe’s Guitar Shop with 18 singers, today’s Angel City Chorale is a multi-cultural group that reflects the community spirit of Los Angeles at large.  Now comprised of over 160 members, ACC performs a diverse selection of musical material including classical, jazz, folk, gospel, and rhythm and blues.  ACC performs two concerts seasonally, spring and fall, to standing-room only crowds at the historic Wilshire United Methodist Church.  In addition to its scheduled performances, ACC has performed at venues throughout Los Angeles, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the former Kodak Theatre, the Nokia Theatre at LA Live, Staples Center and the Shrine Auditorium.

ACC was the only choir to sing at the 2000 Democratic National Convention, performing with Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder and Mary Chapin Carpenter.  In December 2002, Angel City Chorale was selected by music director and record producer Frank McNamara to appear in the PBS Television special, The American Tenors, which was taped at the former Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.  In December 2003, ACC made its debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, in a holiday production of A Merry Mancini Christmas, singing Henry Mancini’s arrangements of holiday favorites alongside soloists Michael Bublé, Monica Mancini and Dianne Reeves, accompanied by the Henry Mancini Institute Alumni Orchestra.  ACC singers were also featured in the Hollywood Tree Lighting Celebration at the Grove, which aired on CBS in December 2005.  In February 2012, ACC joined Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and other specially selected choirs for a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, “The Symphony of a Thousand,” at the Shrine Auditorium.

In addition to performing, ACC maintains a strong sense of community involvement, taking its holiday concert repertoire directly to service organizations and those most in need in Los Angeles through its annual Tour of Hope program.  ACC has also taken its music and outreach program to international audiences.  Most recently, ACC traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, in August 2011, to perform concerts benefiting the Amy Biehl Foundation, an organization working to bring sports, arts, music and education programs to the children of South Africa’s townships.  In 2013, ACC’s Tour of Hope will take place on Saturday, December 14.

ACC has also recorded four highly acclaimed CDs: Why Walk When You Can Fly (1999), Gift of the Angels (2001), A Chanukah Celebration (2004) and The Road Home (2008), all of which are available for purchase on CD Baby.  ACC donated a share of the net proceeds of The Road Home to Ocean Park Community Center, an organization serving homeless individuals, battered women and their children, and people living with mental illness.  In 2009, ACC partnered with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to provide both food and a portion of the proceeds from the Spring 2009 concert.  Angel City Chorale is a California Non-Profit Public Benefit Corporation and 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. www.angelcitychorale.org


Sue Fink, ACC Founder and Artistic Director –

As founder, artistic director and conductor, Sue Fink brings a dynamic energy to ACC that helps distinguish it from other choral groups.  While attending UCLA, Fink studied conducting and toured with internationally renowned musician and choral director, Roger Wagner.  She established the Oriana Renaissance Ensemble and the Los Angeles Women’s Community Chorus, serving as conductor for both groups prior to founding Angel City Chorale.  As a singer-songwriter she has toured extensively, released two CDs, and has won international songwriting contests.  She maintains a private voice studio in LA; composes and arranges for choral groups; and writes songs for television and movies.

Christopher Tin, Calling All Dawns Composer –

Chinese-American Christopher Tin is a two-time Grammy-winning composer.  His work covers diverse terrain: from thrilling fusions of orchestral and world music to brooding reinventions of 90s electronica, to award-winning scores for film, video games and commercials.  His classical crossover album, Calling All Dawns, was released in 2009.  The album won two Grammys at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards: Best Classical Crossover Album and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists for the song “Baba Yetu.”  Tin’s music has been performed live by the National Symphony Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Philharmonia, Metropole Orchestra and hundreds of amateur ensembles around the world.  He currently lives in Santa Monica.  www.christophertin.com


Wilshire United Methodist Church –
Located at Wilshire and Plymouth in Los Angeles, the Wilshire United Methodist Church first opened its doors on May 24, 1925.  Its storied history is well-woven into the fabric of the Los Angeles community and the multi-ethnic ministries it serves.  Jeanette MacDonald and Shirley Temple each had marriage ceremonies in the church.  The church building, reflecting Gothic and Italian styles, has been designated as a historical monument by the Los Angeles City Council.  The facade was inspired by the Church of St. Francis at Brescia in Italy and the tower found its genesis in the Torracio of Cremona, near Milan.  www.ewilshireumc.org


Links –
Angel City Chorale – www.angelcitychorale.org

Angel City Chorale on Facebook – www.facebook.com/AngelCityChorale
Christopher Tin – www.christophertin.com & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Tin
Wilshire United Methodist Church – www.ewilshireumc.org

For more information, photos or to schedule an interview, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.