By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

The Pasadena Master Chorale will offer five concerts during its 2012-2013 season, including a reprise of last season’s performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and the start of a two-part project entitled “The Voice of America.”

Artistic Director Jeffrey Bernstein will lead all seven performances, beginning with “Songs of the World” on Sept. 30 at 4 p.m. at Altadena Community Church. This reprise of a popular program from earlier seasons will include folk songs from the U.S., Scotland and Japan.

Other programs include:

• Baroque Christmas — Dec. 15 at 7:30 p.m., First Congregational Church, Pasadena
The Chorale will be joined by an orchestra for this holiday program. The first half will feature Part I of Handel’s Messiah. After intermission comes Claudio Monteverdi’s rarely performed Magnificat.

• Beethoven’s Ninth — Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m., San Gabriel Mission Playhouse
Last January, PMC teamed up with Los Angeles Daiku for Beethoven’s final symphony, a tradition on New Year’s Eve in Japan. This year, singers from Japan will join the PMC and instrumentalists for a repeat performance in San Gabriel.

• Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil — March 23 at 7:30 p.m., First Congregational Church, Pasadena. March 13 at 4 p.m., Altadena Community Church.
No, this performance won’t last all night (just an hour) although it was written in 1915 to be performed at a Russian Orthodox Church All-Night Vigil service. The Chorale will record Rachmaninoff’s work before the concerts, so the singers should be right on their game for the performances.

• The Voice of America — May 17 at 7:30 p.m., First Congregational Church, Pasadena. March 19 at 4 p.m., Altadena Community Church.
This will be the first part of a two-year project supported by a grant from the LA County Arts Commission. The program will feature composers who Bernstein believes have defined the “American” choral sound: Randall Thompson, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. In 2014 PMC will present the second concert in the series “The Voice of California.”

• Information: www.pasadenamasterchorale.org

Other season previews: • Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra HERE
• The Colburn Orchestra HERE
• Pacific Symphony HERE
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(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.