Music

Two Hundred Men Are About to make some Declarations of Independencetogether on June 27th and 28th at the Saban. GMCLA is putting on a concert for America’s 250th B-day, and following it up with their annual Gala. Now, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles have been doing this for 47 years. And the country isn’t exactly in a great place. But that doesn’t mean we can stop to appreciate the progress we’ve made since 1776. The song list spans anthems to folk, pop to theater, like, “Defying Gravity,” “Born This Way,” “We Shall Overcome,” “Imagine” and more. It reads like a playlist someone made at 2 a.m. while feeling very deeply about America. Which, same.

Guest artist Justin Tranter, who has 100 billion streams on Spotify and YouTube, which breaks down to every human on Earth having heard his music an average 12 times, will join the chorus and do a medley of his hits. Bieber, Grande, yada yada—everyone knows it and everyone loves it. To round out the evening, composer Saunder Choi was commissioned to write a new piece with lyrics by LA Poet Laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace. 

Following the show on the 28th is the annual Gala—pink carpet into the art deco Saban, a silent auction, and a dinner. Proceeds from the Gala benefit the Alive Music Project in schools and free concert performances in the community. Tickets start at $49. The gala starts at $750. Both are worth it. Go. Sing along. Declare your independence and your pride. Happy B-day ‘Merica!

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The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square has a distinctive history, making it one of the oldest in the world. On August 22, 1847, soon after the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, the choir was formed when Brigham Young asked John Parry, a choral singer, to gather singers for the Church’s first conference.

Today, it remains a Grammy-winning, 360-voice volunteer ensemble paired with the Orchestra at Temple Square, recording and touring globally, and continuing the original tradition of using music to uplift and bring together diverse audiences worldwide.

That nearly 180-year history is alive and vibrant today, as the Choir returns to the Hollywood Bowl on June 24 and 25 to perform a benefit concert, “Songs of Hope,” featuring an assembly of much-loved talents, including Donny Osmond; 16-time Grammy winner David Foster and his wife, Katharine McPhee, whose career spans music, film, and Broadway; and Tony Award winner Stephanie J. Block, celebrated for her acclaimed turn as Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard,” performing with her husband, Sebastian Arcelus, known for “Into the Woods,” “Madam Secretary,” and “House of Cards.”

The two evenings of inspired hope music, featuring voices and a full orchestra, are offered to unite and uplift audiences gathered around the Hollywood Bowl amphitheater stage. 100% of ticket sales will be donated to global charities serving women and children, including CARE, Helen Keller International, and The Hunger Project. “Songs of Hope” brings two musical evenings to the Hollywood Bowl, giving audiences a sense of unity and, through their ticket purchases, global generosity. 

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Emmanuel Schikaneder’s first production, The Dumb Gardner from the Mountains, was a smash hit. It featured him as Stupid Anton, and spawned six sequels. But his true fortune was to come from an introduction to Amadeus Mozart, who asked him to write the libretto for The Magic Flute.

Die Zauberflöte was a passion project for Mozart. His previous twenty operas were constrained in form, censors, and the Emperor of wherever he was writing (Milan, Paris, Vienna, Prague). Here he was able to have an opera in his native tongue of German, feature symbolism from his Masonic lodge at a time when the regime attempted to ban secret societies, and let the music lead. And so, 255 years ago, he wrote a fairy tale that stands as one of the most iconic operas of all time. 

James Conlon, conductor of the LA Opera, wished that this would be his final show to conclude his twenty-year tenure. He conducted the opera 50 years ago, and still loves to ponder all the questions of the show. This production is unlike any your correspondent has seen, which is appropriate for a show that aimed to break convention from the outset. From beginning to end the performers work with incredible projected animations, which give off inverted Roger Rabbit vibes, or perhaps Pageant of the Masters if the paintings sprung to life. The spoken dialogue, typical to singspiel, shifts to silent movie title cards to harmonize with the art deco styling, for a truly unique interpretation. It runs through the end of the month, and is simply something you must witness. See you at the Dorothy. 

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After six thousand concert performances, more, by his own count, than any living pianist — what’s left for Hershey Felder to play or say? Apparently, the truth. In “The Piano and Me,” Felder turns the spotlight away from the composers he’s spent three decades inhabiting, Gershwin, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Bernstein, and cranks up the voltage onto himself. The result is his most personal solo evening yet, a two-hour confession centered on the instrument that made him.

Raised in Montreal by Polish and Hungarian immigrant parents shaped by the shadow of the Holocaust, Felder discovered the piano as a child and never quite put it down. He recounts how it became his first language, his lifeline to a vanishing European heritage, and his passport to a stage career that would carry him around the world. Between memories, he plays the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Bartók, only this time not as part of a recital, but as stories and emotions tied to a memory, a teacher, a heartbreak, or a moment of grace.

Felder regulars will recognize the master raconteur and the operatic sweep, but this time the subject is the man behind the suite of one-man shows. Newcomers needn’t worry: no prior fandom required, no musical training assumed. Critics have called it riveting; one San Francisco reviewer offered a mic drop by simply giving it five stars and telling readers to go.

Is “The Piano and Me” a memoir, a recital, or a love letter to the instrument? It’s all three, played without intermission and without a net.

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