After losing a performance venue to the fires, Angeles Chorale finds a temporary home

About 60 singers of all ages gathered on the fourth floor of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles on a recent Tuesday evening. It was rehearsal night for the Angeles Chorale.

In this microcosm of greater L.A., it wasn’t hard to find people affected by the recent wildfires.

“It’s been kind of incredible, the loss. It’s hard to wrap your mind around,” said Chris Ward, a tenor with the chorale for more than two decades. He lost his childhood home in Altadena — the place his parents lived in for 35 years.

“We’re all completely drained. So I come here to sing. And I didn’t honestly know if I could do it. But I also found that it’s kind of necessary, and it recharges my batteries,” Ward said.

A burned photo of Chris Ward's father, Lee Ward. It's the only one Chris Ward's photos that survived the Eaton Fire.

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Chris Ward

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“There were a couple of nights where I actually brought my mom to rehearsal,” he continued. “And so it was really fulfilling to see her face light up as we sang.”

As a small nonprofit, the Angeles Chorale isn’t used to rehearsing in a space like this, a massive concert venue that’s home to the L.A. Opera. But when the Music Center began offering free work and rehearsal space for groups affected by the fires at their downtown campus, the members of the chorale jumped at the chance.

Since the fires, people and organizations that serve musicians and other artists have stepped up to help creative Angelenos start to feel whole again — including a group that is working to distribute free instruments to churches offering their space to displaced choirs.

“It’s just provided a lot of healing for people and allowing people to have their routine. ... This is a pretty important night of the week for people,” said Alison Sieh, chair of the chorale’s Board of Directors.

Regaining community

Soprano Sunny Xia said she had to leave her home when the Eaton Fire burned through Altadena and parts of Pasadena. It was one of a handful left standing in her neighborhood.

She said friends, community and the music are helping her recover.

“I got all these things [that bring] me back to life really, really quickly. Plus singing really, really makes me happy again,” Xia said.

Alto singer Emily Hall said her partner’s home in the Palisades burned down, along with the paintings she’d made for him. She said he lived on Las Casas, where most of the homes — she estimated 90% — burned down.

“I think it was the most affected street,” she said. “And it was right on the corner there. And we went back and it just kind of didn’t feel real.”

For Hall and the other singers, their choir community has become more important than ever. It’s a healing place amid all the destruction.

“We sing the kind of stuff that really lets you just rip,” Hall said. “That is so powerful that it’s physically very much a cathartic experience. So it’s been very beautiful to get to experience art with people who are similarly affected.”

Conductor David Torres leads the Angeles Chorale at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

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Robert Garrova

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LAist

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A new opportunity

Singers here not only lost homes. The Corpus Christi Church where they were slated to perform their last concert of the season burned down in the Palisades Fire.

But another opportunity has opened up.

Composers with the company Audiomachine attended Tuesday’s night’s rehearsal to go over choral versions of popular songs like “Somewhere Only We Know” from the band Keane.

The plan is to record an album of covers that can be used in trailers and music libraries for the film and TV industry.

“I think so many great things intersected for this project. We are absolutely thrilled to work with a choir in this depth. And we’re also able to work in a project that is a community overcoming tragedy,” Andres Gutierrez, a composer and arranger with Audiomachine, said.

Nikole Luebbe Sherman, secretary of the Board of Directors for the Angeles Chorale, said being able to rehearse with composers in the room giving feedback was rare.

“Our last concert we just did a whole tribute to what we call ‘master works.’ So works by like Beethoven and Mozart and Verdi — people who have been dead hundreds of years. So to have these guys in the room tonight, giving us feedback in real time, is really exciting,” Sherman said.

Leading the choir throughout the night was conductor David Torres. He said he’s seen a few teary-eyed faces from where he stands each Tuesday.

“People in here singing, it’s kind of working for them to get their emotion out in a very positive way that’s going to enrich people that hear it,” Torres said.

“People that hear this will know these are people that went through something because it’s really connected emotionally.”