A SALUTE TO STORYTELLERS
Stage and Cinema is grateful to GMCLA Music Director & Conductor Ernest H. Harrison for taking time out of rehearsing to chat a bit about A Salute to Sondheim, an awesome new concert from the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. The season finale concert — which plays this Saturday and Sunday, August 23 and 24, 2022 — features special guest artist, countertenor John Holiday (NBC’s The Voice and Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice at The Met). Maestro Harrison will lead the Chorus in a concert of Stephen Sondheim’s masterworks, from Sweeney Todd, Company, A Little Night Music, West Side Story, Follies, Sunday in the Park with George and Gypsy.
John Holiday
Also on the program is the L.A. premiere of Songs of the Phoenix, the major new song cycle which addresses the challenges facing our nation during the pandemic, at the same time introducing audiences to some amazing composers. Curated and led by Andrew Lippa (I Am Harvey Milk), there are nine songs from 13 diverse, important artists, including Lippa, Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Ty Defoe, Alexandra Elle, Siedah Garrett, Joriah Kwamé, Patrick and Daniel Lazour, Melissa Li, Ingrid Michaelson, Diana Syrse and Kit Yan.
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Stage and Cinema: With all of the gems in Sondheim’s oeuvre, how did you go about picking songs?
Ernest H. Harrison: We really focused on the songs that people would have the most familiarity with because we wanted our audience to be transported back to their first experience with his music. And Sondheim wrote so many wonderful melodies that have become a major part of our lives.
Ernest H. Harrison
S&C: Did you choose songs previously arranged for chorus, or are there new arrangements?
EHH: Almost all of our arrangements are newly created by the wonderful composer Dave Volpe who was also the main arranger for Songs of the Phoenix.
S&C: With other composers being represented in Songs of the Phoenix, would you say this is not only a salute to Sondheim but a salute to his inspiration on others?
EHH: I have thought about this program as a salute to storytellers with Sondheim being chief among them. Songs of the Phoenix is all about highlighting the story of the individual in a way that helps us to see ourselves in each other.
S&C: Will the Sondheim songs be interspersed with the others?
EHH: Sondheim’s last musical offering to the world was the choral version of “The Flag Song” [a song cut from Assassins] which ends the Songs of the Phoenix set. From there we will launch full force into our musical dedication to Sondheim.
S&C: What was the process of selecting composers other than Lippa, Sondheim, and Schwartz? Was it by hearing songs by them that you loved? And were these songs already included in the Taking Flight program, and then you added Sondheim because of his passing?
EHH: Songs of the Phoenix was co-commissioned by several gala choruses, but the project was headed by and received its world premiere by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Although I was not directly involved in the selection of composers, I can tell you that the writers for this piece were all chosen for their talent, the uniqueness of their compositional voice, and for the power of their individual stories.
S&C: Is this more of a formal concert, or will there be theatrical production numbers?
EHH: No matter the depth and power of our message, GMCLA will always bring that special ingredient to the stage that is unique to our sound and our soul. This concert will run the gamut from thought-provoking messages, to toe-tapping melodies, to outright dancing-in-the-aisle good times. GMCLA’s got it all and can’t wait to share it with you.
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Photos by Greg Zabilski
A Salute to Sondheim, previously titled Taking Flight, will be presented for two concerts only: Saturday, August 13 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, August 14 at 2:00 p.m. The concerts will be held at UCLA’s premier venue Royce Hall, 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095. Ticket prices start at $30 and are available at GMCLA.org.
for GMCLA: facebook.com/gaymenschorusla, instagram.com/gaymenschorusla, youtube.com/gmclavideo
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