Here's a review in French from ResMusica.com - Quotidien de la Musique Classique (daily newspaper of classical music) about our recent performance at the St. Denis Basilica in Paris. I've called upon a couple of french-speakers to translate this for me. In the meantime I can say with my limited french skills that it is a great review. A few highlights:

About the "Sanctus":
C’est une œuvre polyphonique remarquablement écrite, comme le reste de sa Misa Azteca dont le Gloria fut choisi en 2006 pour inaugurer le premier Festival de chœur et d’orchestre de Sydney à l’Opéra de Sydney.
Ces jeunes choristes ont su y apporter toute la ferveur, la vie et l’élévation spirituelle qui anime cette très belle pièce.

UPDATE:
Emmanuel Deleage, a Paris native, stepped up to the plate and translated the entire review. Many Thanks!

It was a delicious and charming concert of traditional Latino songs, baroque polyphonies from Mexican Missions, and creations of young Mexican-American composers in the Royal Basilica of St. Denis by the Hispanic Choir of Our Lady of Angels Cathedral. Like the gospel choirs of Harlem churches draw from the “blues” or from slavery, this choir of young girls from Downtown Los Angeles, draws from its Indian and Mexican heritage to speak about their condition today: young and Hispanic in an Anglo-Saxon World.

There is passion and elegance in the singing of these religious and laymen baroque songs of a grand simplicity, full of naiveté, tenderness and love. These young girls, directed with humanity and generosity by Antonio Espinal elevate these soft prayers accompanied by the excellent and virtuoso organist Christoph Bull, Joseph Gonzalez (guitar), Helio Monroy (jarana, requinto jarocho) Alexander Cardenas & Javier Contreras (violins), Bruno Palmiero (guitarron), Eduardo Lubo (cello). However, it was lacking a certain vocal depth, probably due to a maturing of the present voices. The two soloists Dalia Rodriguez and Delia Rios deliver a profound and touching emotion that can’t leave (audiences) indifferent, so much they are connected to this overwhelming and strong “indianity” [Indian heritage] that is at the heart of the Mexican soul.

Also called “Harmonies Girls Choir” this choir of your girls (16 to 19, including one 13 year old) permanent residents of Our Lady of Los Angeles Cathedral is lead by Antonio Espinal. His repertory encompasses a wide range of musical styles: classic, contemporary, religious, gospel, pop, Broadway tunes, European music and especially Latin American music.

Sanctus (in Latin, Spanish and Nahuatl) was created this year at the St. Denis Festival by Joseph Julian Gonzalez, which accompanies the young choir on percussion and guitar, and was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and already performed there. It is a polyphonic piece, remarkably written, just like the rest of Misa Azteca whose Gloria was chosen to inaugurate the first Festival of Choirs and Orchestra in Sydney, at the Sydney Opera House in 2006. This young choir brought all their passion, their lives and the spiritual dimension that lights this very beautiful piece.

Born in Bakersfield, CA this discreet and modest composer studied composition with Elain Barkin, Roger Bourland, and the film music composer David Raskin at UCLA. In fact, he won the most prestigious awards in classical guitar, jazz and also in composition. He studied with John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov and Thomas Newman. He has composed for the Kronos Quartet, the Hispanic Choir of Los Angeles, as well as numerous films: Price of Glory, Curdled, Jackie Brown, documentaries: Cowboy del Amor, Chicano: The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and television shows. His grand symphonic piece and choir, Misa Azteca, was performed at Carnegie Hall as well as the American Cathedral in Paris.

Intense and powerful was Laudate, laudate Dominum by Christopher Walker dedicated to the choir and created for the inauguration of Our Lady of Los Angeles Cathedral. The Mexican Song in Nahuatl by Salvador Morena is a musical jewel.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. A great time was had by all for the performance at the Saint-Denis Basilica in Paris. To remind you what happened, the "Sanctus" and "Gloria" from Misa Azteca was performed (as well as other music) by the Harmonies Girls Choir of Los Angeles directed by Antonio Espinal as part of the Festival de Saint-Denis, in the Saint-Denis region of Paris. This is a very prestigious music festival that last about five weeks and had performances besides us by the likes the Kronos quartet, Dawn Upshaw and the incoming musical director and conductor of the LA Phil, Gustavo Dudamel and Osvaldo Golijov. I was invited to join the Harmonies as guitar and percussion accompanist along with UCLA professor and organist Christoph Bull. Of course I couldn't turn down a week in Paris!

Here are a few shots:



Conductor Antonio Espinal and the girls during the performance in the Basilica.




Virtuoso Organist and UCLA Professor Christoph Bull in front of the Basilica. The Basilica of Saint-Denis (supposedly) houses the remains of all the Kings and Queens of France.




With my guitar and cajon with a couple of Harmonies. The concert was recorded by Radio France which will be broadcast July 25.




Performance at the Quartier Floriel. That's Dalia Rodriguez singing solo and yours truly behind her on guitar. This is another concert we were asked to perform the next day which seemed like a sort of community outreach concert.





It was very well-received and the girls make new friends.

No not Paris, Las Vegas, not Paris, Hilton but Paris, France. Selections from MISA AZTECA will be performed at the Festival De Saint-Denis in the Saint-Denis Basilica in Paris, France next Monday, June 18, 2007 at 8:30p. The "Sanctus" and "Gloria" will be performed by the Harmonies Girl's choir directed by Antonio Espinal accompanied by UCLA professor Christoph Bull on organ and yours truly on percussion and classical guitar. It will be recorded and broadcast by Radio France.

These are special musical arrangements I have made for this very special and talented little choir. MISA AZTECA is an eight movement piece for symphony orchestra, mixed choir, soloists and percussion ensemble. It is sung in Latin, Spanish and Nahuatle. It has been performed all over the world including Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Sorbonne University and American Cathedral in Paris and opened the Cervantino Music and Arts Festival in Mexico. Yet, it has never been performed in Los Angeles - hmm, isn't that funny? Any takers? ;=)


Harmonies Girls Choir and director Antonio Espinal
Photo by Mike Ridgewell

Well, I finally got it - the recording of the "Gloria" from Misa Azteca. This is a live recording July 7, 2006 from the Sydney Opera House, New South Wales, Australia. Click below to listen. Enjoy!



Gloria SHO

Joseph Molina, Tenor Solo
Saratoga High School Symphony Orchestra, Michael Boitz, director
The combined choruses of:
Southwestern College Concert Choir, Dr. Terry Russell, director
Atlanta Young Singers, Paige Furbank Mathis, director
Joubert Singers, Rachelle Elliot, director
Saratoga High School School Choir, Jim Yowell, director

While we wait with bated breath for the recording to arrive from Australia, here is a video excerpt of the recent performance of the "Gloria" from Misa Azteca at the Sydney Opera House.


click image to view
Video by Rossana Morante

For information, hit the "Misa Azteca" line on the sidebar to the left.

I've talked at length about the fine choral conductor Antonio Espinal and his wonderful group - The Harmonies Girls Choir. They just returned from their world tour of Mexico, Austria, and the Check Republic. I attended their "farewell" concert September 9, 2006 for four of the young girs which will be leaving the group to attend college. A couple of them will be pursuing degrees in music.




I just noticed on their website that they will be performing next summer at the SAINT-DENIS-BASILICA, in SAINT-DENIS, FRANCE. Way to go!!

I'm not sure were to start but suffice to say that Australia was incredible!!! I was planning on from blogging there, but I didn't set up my laptop properly. Sorry for the delay.

Let me first start with Sydney, Australia, it is probably one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is an amazing cosmopolitan city with several beautiful harbors, lots of museums, historical buildings, a great night life and plenty of cultural activities to keep you busy. And of course, the Opera House.

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The rehearsals for the big concert (which was Sunday, July 9th) started the Friday before. We had several rehearsals with the choir alone, the strings alone, orchestra and then the whole group together. Saturday evening we had our first massed rehearsal at Sydney's Town Hall, which is in the middle of Sydney's Central Business District.




Then, Sunday afternoon we moved into the Opera House for one last rehearsal




and then the peformance later that afternoon.



The Tenor solo, Joseph Molina, did a fantastic job!! The combined choirs and the Saratoga Orchestra sounded great. The audience applauded and then stood up. It was a hit! What a great experience!

Many thanks to those who made this possible:
Terry Russell and the Southwestern College Concert Choir - Thank you, thank you, thank you. Without you this wouldn't have happened.
Micheal Boitz and the Saratoga High School Orchestra - the musical director and orchestra who performed the piece. Thanks for your dedication and enthusiasm in learning this.
Richard Hernandez - the gifted conductor from UCLA who helped me cram for this performance.
J. Marcus Oliver - the musical wunder mensch von Bakersfield who took on the often under appreciated job of proofing the score and copying the orchestral parts.
Dr. George Matthew - The Premiering Australia Artistic Director
Thank you to Joseph Molina and the combined choruses of The Atlanta Young Singers, Paige Furbank Mathis, director; The Joubert Singers, Rachelle Elliot, director; and the Saratoga High School School Choir, Jim Yowell, director.

Thank you to the presenters in Australia: Micheal Clohesy, Paul Lam and Oliver Scofield.

Members of the LA Phil and the Harmonies Girls choir performed the "Sanctus" from Misa Azteca March 27, 2006 at St. Thomas' Church in the Latin-Byzantine quarter of Los Angeles.
Here's is the Mtro. Antonio Espinal conductor of the Girl's choir rehearsing the girls and musicians at the Walt Disney Concert Hall:


With Mstr. Antonio Espinal, and LA Phil violinist Mitch Newman after the concert