Pasadena Chorale to celebrate Black American composers with free show – dailynews.com

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The Pasadena Chorale is hosting a concert in honor of Black History Month that explores faith, hope, and social justice.
I BELIEVE will celebrate the profound musical legacy of two Black American composers. The program will begin with original spiritual arrangements by Michal Dawson Connor, an Altadena-based composer whose music includes “My Lord, What a Morning” and “There Is a Balm in Gilead,” both of which draw on deep traditions of resilience, devotion, and communal strength.
Margaret Bonds’ Credo, based on the poem by W.E.B. Du Bois, will explore themes of conviction and hope. The work aims to inspire social justice and belief in humanity’s shared responsibility to serve one another, and invites the audience to take the lessons of the past into the present.
The free event, dubbed I BELIEVE, will take place at 7:30 p.m Wednesday, Feb. 25, at First United Methodist Church in Pasadena. Admission is free and open to the public. A reservation is required for entry, as seating is limited. Tickets must be reserved at pasadenachorale.org.
The Pasadena Chorale was founded in 2009 and is a community chorus organization that works to educate, uplift, and inspire as many people as possible through choral music and championing music by composers from historically marginalized groups.
The organization includes the Pasadena Chorale and the Pasadena Choral Society, which are auditioned community choirs, the High Notes, a choir of young people in grades 6-11, and a small ensemble of 16 voices specializing in Renaissance music and chamber repertoire.
The Chorale’s signature education program, Listening to the Future, works with high school composers, offering them instruction from a professional composer who guides them in creating new choral music, as well as a performance and recording of their work.
According to a press statement by the Pasadena Chorale, in the ten years since Listening to the Future began, the Chorale has premiered 71 new works by 29 Pasadena area high school students. Across the organization, 175 singers rehearse weekly, performing annually for a live audience of a few thousand and an online audience of hundreds of thousands. The Chorale offers all its concerts and educational programming to the public at no cost.
Last year, in response to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, the Chorale appeared on Good Morning America and performed with Katy Perry at the FireAid Benefit Concert, which provided relief and support for LA’s affected residents and communities.
Over the years, the Pasadena Chorale has collaborated with many local arts organizations, including the Pasadena Symphony and POPS, the Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena Dance Theatre, Clazzical Notes, MUSE/IQUE, the Los Angeles Daiku, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
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