A free, six-hour holiday spectacular of music, song and dance unfolds on the stage of the beautiful Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center Monday, December 24 from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m. It’s the 48th Annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration, L.A. County’s biggest holiday show featuring more than 40 musical ensembles, choirs, and dance companies, about 1,200 performers in all, expressing the joy of the season.
This year’s hosts include Sheryl Lee Ralph (original Broadway cast of Dreamgirls, To Sleep with Anger), Fred Willard (FOX’s new comedy series Back to You and the films For Your Consideration, Best in Show) and two members of the comedy group Culture Clash, Richard Montoya and Herbert Siguenza. Additional hosts will be confirmed closer to the show date.
The Holiday Celebration, which reflects the rich mosaic of cultures found in Southern California, is L.A. County’s yearly gift to Los Angeles. Admission is FREE, as is the parking under the Music Center. Reservations for tickets to the show or parking are not necessary. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. Patrons may come and go throughout the six hour performance. People waiting in line to get in can see the show on the Jumbotron on the Music Center Plaza.
Complete program information will be available after December 7 at www.holidaycelebration.org and 213-972-3099. Those who can’t make it to the Music Center can watch the live broadcast of Holiday Celebration on KCET.
Each year, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, executive producer of the celebration, scours the region for talent for the production. Artists making their first appearance at Holiday Celebration in 2007 include:
· Peruvian-born Cecilia Noel, known as the “Latin Tina Turner,” with her Wild Clams band, performing a traditional chant from the Yoruban culture of Africa and her own composition, “Everybody’s Mambo”
· Showtime Katusha, a youth ensemble offering a dance inspired by Russian nesting dolls
· Stefani Valadez Ensemble, based in the Ladino (Spanish and Jewish) tradition, presenting a prayer for peace from Yemen
· An ensemble from the New Valley Symphony Orchestra, playing Armenian folk music on authentic instruments
· Two groups springing from the klezmer tradition (Jewish music from Eastern Europe), Klezmer Juice, melding Latin beats with the clarinet-based traditional sounds, and Extreme Klezmer Makeover, performing the humorous “Friday Night After Eating Tsimmis”
· Dulcimers of Dunlore, a quintet playing Irish music on hammered dulcimers
· Tribaljazz, headed by former Doors musician John Densmore, fusing improvisational jazz and world music
· L.A. Contemporary Dance, directed by Kate Hutter, premiering (yes!- it’s being choreographed right now) “Nighlight,” a dance about snow angels set to music by the Icelandic band Sigur Ros
· Mandarin Orange, blending traditional Chinese dance with the tango
Holiday Celebration’s vibrant spectrum of dance also includes a new work from JazzAntiqua Dance and Music Ensemble set to music from the 1965 television special “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” a Chinese traditional dance featuring headdresses resembling Buddha’s halo from Clear Cosmo Art Studio and a dance employing different sizes of Korean drums from Jung Im Lee Korean Dance Academy.
The strains of holiday favorites will echo throughout the hall in performances by the Opera California chorus (“Joy to the World”), Antelope Valley High School Vocal Music Travel Ensemble (“Little Drummer Boy”), Valleyaires Barbershop Chorus (“Jingle Bells”), Jubilant Voices of Holman United Methodist Church (“O Holy Night”) and the Burbank Chorale (the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah”). The less familiar and playfully imaginative will be offered by Harmonies Girls Choir (a Mexican Baroque selection from the Cathedral of Oaxaca), Salvation Army Tabernacle Children’s Choir (the doo-wop style “Christmas on the Beach” and a take-off on “Deck the Halls”), the Combined Chamber Choir of San Gabriel Valley Children’s Chorus and East Valley Children’s Chorus (“Dance of the Shepherds” from Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly), San Fernando Valley Youth Chorus (carols from Spain and Puerto Rico), Namaste Women’s Choir (the Russian choral work “Heavenly Light”) and L.A. Chinese Chorale (the wordless “Magnificent Horses,” a fantasy on a Mongolian folk tune).
Popular returning artists also include the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, Little Willie G. y los Tamaleros, Mariachi Divas, Mariachi Sol de Mexico and Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet.
A complete list of performers and selections will be available at www.holidaycelebration.org after December 7.
The Arts Commission also produces “L.A. Holiday Celebration,” an one-hour television music and dance special highlighting the best performances from the previous year’s live show. This national special will be carried by PBS stations across the country, including KCET, on Monday, December 10, 2007 at 10 p.m. (check local listings and find out more about the program at www.pbs.org/holidaycelebration ). The national program will also be broadcast on the Jumbotron on the Music Center Plaza prior to the start of the live performance.
The Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Laura Zucker, Executive Director, provides leadership in cultural services of all disciplines for the largest county in the United States, encompassing 88 municipalities. In addition to producing the L.A. County Holiday Celebration locally and nationally, the Arts Commission provides leadership and staffing to support the regional blueprint for arts education, Arts for All; administers a grants program that funds more than 250 nonprofit arts organizations annually; oversees the County’s Civic Art Program for capital projects, funds the largest arts internship program in the country in conjunction with the Getty Foundation, programs the John Anson Ford Theatres and supports the Los Angeles County Cultural Calendar on ExperienceLA.com. The Commission also sponsors a year-round music program that funds more than 40 free concerts each year in public sites. The 2007-08 President of the Arts Commission is Rosalind Wyman.
The 48th Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration, an admission-free, six-hour seasonal music and dance show. More than 40 performing groups from throughout L.A. County – including choirs, music ensembles, and dance companies – reflect the rich mosaic of cultures found in Southern California. A gift from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to the community at large. The entire six hours is simulcast live on KCET.
Once again the event takes place on Monday, December 24, 2007 from 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center located at 135 N. Grand Ave. in Los Angeles. More information is available at www.holidaycelebration.org or on the information hotline: (213) 972-3099. Admission is FREE and parking is FREE in the Music Center parking garage. The doors open at 2:30 p.m. and patrons may come and go throughout the six-hour performance. Reservations for tickets to the show or parking are not necessary. Those who can’t make it to the Music Center can watch the live broadcast of Holiday Celebration on KCET.