Soprano Elissa Johnston will perform with Chamber Music Palisades.
The opening concert for Chamber Music Palisades will be a delightful evening of enchanting music at 8 p.m. Wednesday, October 16. Once again, some of the top musical talent in the United States will be performing to open the 28th season.
Alan Chapman, a host on KUSC and a long-time host for this series, will provide informative program notes for the concert.
The program begins with G.F. Handel’s duet for soprano and tenor. Tenor Jon Lee Keenan, who is a soloist with the Los Angeles Master Choral LAMC, studied classical voice and jazz bass at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He relocated to Southern California to pursue a career in classical singing, and to study vocal arts at the USC Thornton School of Music.
Jon Lee Keenan
In 2007, Keenan joined the Master Chorale at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Recent highlights with LAMC include the role of “Evangelist” in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Magnificat.
Last season, Soprano Elissa Johnston appeared with the National Symphony of Costa Rica singing Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, with Albany Symphony in performances and upcoming recording of Michael Daugherty’s To the New World, with Long Beach Symphony in Brahms Requiem, with the Riverside Philharmonic in Berlioz Les Nuits d’éte, and in American Ballet Theater’s North American premiere of Woolf Works at Segerstrom Hall.
She made her Carnegie Hall debut with Pacific Symphony in Philip Glass’ The Passion of Ramakrishna, as part of Carnegie Hall’s own season and yearlong celebration of Philip Glass’ 80th birthday.
Accompanying the duo on piano is Grant Gershon, the artistic director of the L.A. Master Chorale and conductor of the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Susan Greenberg
That number will be followed by Ravel’s La Flute Enchantee for soprano, flute and piano. Johnston will be joined by Susan Greenberg and Gershon.
Greenberg, the co-founder of Chamber Music Palisades, is principal flute at Santa Monica Symphony and long-time former flutist of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
This concert will also feature guitarist Kenton Youngstrom, faculty at Colburn Community School, performing solo works by Villa-Lobos and joined by Greenberg, in a duet by Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
Tickets will be available for $35 online at cmpalisades.org or at the door of St. Matthew’s Parish, 1031 Bienveneda Avenue, Pacific Palisades. CMP offers free admission for full-time students with an ID. The concert is sponsored by Ann Moore.
Kenton Youngstrom