The Los Angeles Master Chorale Association (LAMCA) is a California non-profit arts organization. The Los Angeles Master Chorale was founded and incorporated in conjunction with the professional choir the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Sinfonia Orchestra, in 1964 by Roger Wagner, his attorney and several associates. The Los Angeles Master Chorale and Sinfonia Orchestra was one of the founding Resident Companies of the Music Center since 1964, along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and the Civic Light Opera. The Master Chorale presented its first concert season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1964-1965, receiving critical acclaim.

The LAMCA board of directors was initially organized by Z. Wayne Griffin, president of the Southern California Symphony Association (now the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association) and the Hollywood Bowl Association, enlisting the Music and Fine Arts Committee of the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce to direct the organization in 1964. In the early days of the LAMCA, then known as the Southern California Choral Music Association until 1976, the board of directors sought funding from philanthropist donors such as Louis D. Statham, a medical instrument manufacturer. The Music Center’s resident companies were funded individually until the establishment of the Music Center Unified Fund (MCUF) by Music Center president Dorothy Buffum Chandler. With the creation of the fund, the Performing Arts Council would manage and consolidate the funds for all resident companies. In time, the resident companies became more financially independent from the MCUF despite their limited development staffing. The Music Center Foundation came into being in 1973, which enabled the resident companies to establish endowments with respective board members represented on the fund’s board of directors.

Roger Wagner, a world renown choral conductor, served as Music Director of the 125-voice ensemble until 1986, and as Music Director Laureate until his death in 1992. Wagner’s position was followed by John Currie, who led the Master Chorale from 1986 to 1991, and Paul Salamunovich, from 1991 to 2001. Grant Gershon began his tenure as Music Director in 2001, during which the Master Chorale became a resident company of the Walt Disney Concert Hall on October 3, 2003.

Since 1980, the Master Chorale has operated education and community outreach programs such as the Los Angeles Master Chorale Chamber Singers, the annual High School Choir Festival, the College Choir Festival, Voices Within, a 10-week in-school artist-in-residency program targeted at 5th and 6th graders, the Oratorio Project, a high school immersion program which allows students to produce complex choral works, in-school performance assemblies by the Master Chorale Chamber Singers, masterclasses, invitational dress rehearsals and professional development workshops.

Sources:

Los Angeles Master Chorale Association Historical Committee Plan of Action, January 19, 1993. Los Angeles Master Chorale records.

Recollections of Early Days of the Master Chorale, Roger Wagner Society. Los Angeles Master Chorale records.

Los Angeles Cultural Grants Program Project Summary, August 15, 2008. Los Angeles Master Chorale records.