{"id":101487,"date":"2024-01-29T14:44:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T19:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=101487"},"modified":"2024-01-30T12:55:53","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T17:55:53","slug":"interview-artistic-director-grant-gershon-talks-bringing-los-angeles-master-chorale-back-toronto-peter-sellars-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/01\/29\/interview-artistic-director-grant-gershon-talks-bringing-los-angeles-master-chorale-back-toronto-peter-sellars-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Artistic Director Grant Gershon Talks About Bringing The Los Angeles Master Chorale Back To Toronto In Peter Sellars Collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"
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L-R: Grant Gershon (Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Master Chorale); Los Angeles Master Chorale (Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Master Chorale); Peter Sellars, 2011 at the Ojai Festival, California (Photo: Antandrus<\/a>\/CC0C 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Los Angeles Master Chorale, Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director and conductor Grant Gershon, and director Peter Sellars have been making choral magic with the added dimension of innovative theatricality. It\u2019s a winning combination that has visited Toronto previously to much acclaim, and will return with Music to Accompany a Departure with music by Baroque composer Heinrich Sch\u00fctz.<\/p>\n

The voices of 24 singers will be accompanied by a Baroque organ and viol da gamba in the innovative staging. We spoke to conductor Grant Gershon about the production, and working with director Peter Sellars.<\/p>\n

Grant Gershon: The Interview<\/h2>\n

Grammy Award winning American\u00a0conductor\u00a0and\u00a0pianist Grant Gershon is Artistic Director of the\u00a0Los Angeles Master Chorale, and was formerly Resident Conductor of the\u00a0Los Angeles Opera.<\/p>\n

A California native, he began piano lessons at age five, and earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in music from the University of Southern California. Along with his current position, he\u2019s appeared as a guest conductor with major orchestras across the US as well as working extensively in Europe.<\/p>\n

He was named the Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 2001, and has since led the organization through several prominent world premieres.<\/p>\n

Peter Sellars<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe’re lucky because Peter lives here in LA,\u201d Grant says.<\/p>\n

Grant\u2019s connection with Sellars goes back to about 1988, when the two first worked together on a John Adams’ production of Nixon in China in Los Angeles. Sellars was the opera director for the show. \u201cWe’ve probably done 25 to 30 shows together over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grant says that when he found himself back in Los Angeles, reconnecting artistically with Sellars was one of his main priorities. The choir has worked with Sellars on material by John Adams with the LA Philharmonic. Then, there was Lagrime di San Pietro.<\/p>\n

Orlando di Lasso\u2019s\u00a0Lagrime di San Pietro is a cycle of 20 madrigals, along with a concluding motet, written in 1594 for seven voices. Di Lasso lived from 1532 or so until 1594, during the late Renaissance.<\/p>\n

Lagrime di San Pietro is organized in three sets of seven pieces that set the poems of Italian writer Luigi Tansillo to music. They depict the stages of grief experienced by St. Peter after his infamous denial of Christ, and his haunting memory of Christ\u2019s words to him. The piece incorporates a heavy dose of symbolism. The seven voices are meant to represent the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Master Chorale version, conducted by Gershon and directed by Peter Sellars, was a hit, and toured extensively from its debut in 2016 until 2020. The production used 21 singers to give voice to the emotionally charged work. It hit Toronto stages in early 2020 at Koerner Hall, just before the pandemic shuttered concert halls.<\/p>\n