Matthew Miles, Artistic Director
Lawrence (Larry) Joseph Thorp of Upland, California passed away on Thursday, December 8, 2022 at the age of 99. Larry was born in Duluth, MN, to Lawrence Joseph Thorp and Claira Theodore Egeland on October, 1, 1923. Larry earned his Bachelor's Degree and went on to become an engineer, working in the industrial materials industry for 30 years. He and his family lived in Upland, residing there for 52 years. For many years, he sang tenor in various Pomona Valley choirs including the choir of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Ontario, the Claremont Chorale, the Louis Ronfeldt Chorale and various choral ensembles for the Musicians’ Club of the Pomona Valley.
Later in life he earned a law degree and practiced as an attorney in Upland.
On April 20, 2018, Lt. Col. Larry J. Thorp, was presented with The National Order of The Legion of Honor. As 1st Lt. Larry J. Thorp, he completed 28 bombing missions, was awarded the European Victory Medal, the Air Medal with four Oak clusters as well as the Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.
Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, Matthew Miles, moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to attend USC for a Master's in Vocal Arts. He has sung 25 opera roles and feels equally at home with conducting. As a member of the LA Master Chorale, he has sung under numerous conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Susanna Mälkki, Grant Gershon, Jenny Wong, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Lionel Bringer, Nicholas McGegan, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Eric Whitacre.
Matthew is nearly finished with a DMA in Conducting / Vocal Arts at USC. Recently he has conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 with the USC Symphony and the world premiere of the opera, "Veteran Journeys", in a professional production at UCLA. Additionally he is the Major Giving Officer at Classical KUSC - 91.5FM, and Co-Founder of the Los Angeles School of Music with his wife, Alana. Together they have three children: Michael (9), Olivia (7), and Joshua (4).
I am astounded that today is the pinnacle of my first year as Artistic Director of the Mountainside Master Chorale. I have been graciously welcomed by the audience, the supporters, and by the dear choir. When you hear them in a moment, I think you’ll agree that they sound fantastic!
When I was hired in the Summer, the MMC Board made it very clear that it would be my task to bring the choir and the organization to a position that would resemble the times before the Pandemic shut down all artistic activities around the world. Today is a key milestone in that endeavor and I would like to personally thank everyone here for supporting our work.
This masterwork, left unfinished by Mozart, captures the transcendent beauty of eternal light and life. Today’s Mozart “Requiem” is dedicated to the life and memory of our longtime member, Larry Thorp. We also remember all of those whose lives were shortened by the effects of Covid-19.
Described as "luminously expressive" with a "silvery voice" that "moves from innocence to devastation with an actor's ease," Anna Schubert is passionate about bringing new voices, stories, and musical ideas to life. Highlights from her repertoire include a myriad of Handel, Mozart, Bach, French art songs, and 20th/21st Century favorites, as well as several world premieres, like the role of Bibi in Ellen Reid's Pulitzer Prize winning opera p r i s m, which generated outstanding runs in Los Angeles, New York, and São Paulo.
Outside the world of classical vocals, Anna enjoys a stimulating and versatile career as a session singer. Her voice appears in various film and TV soundtracks, and her solo vocals can be heard in the film Birds of Prey (2020) and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Jessie Shulman is a concert soloist, SAG-AFTRA session singer, and member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Recent solo highlights include Jessie’s debut with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in their Baroque Conversations series, Duruflé’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Respighi’s Il tramonto with the Fiato Quartet, and Madama la Rose in the west coast premiere of Rossini’s La gazetta with Pacific Opera Project. As a soloist she has sung Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 , Verdi’s Requiem , Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, and Berlioz's Les nuits d’été, among others. Jessie can also be heard on many film and television soundtracks. Jessie currently resides in Pasadena with her husband and their Blue Heeler, Nellie. Learn more at www.jessieshulman.com.
Anna Schubert, soprano
Daniel T. Curran has gained a reputation for his intensely intelligent performances in opera, theater, and concert stages throughout the United States and internationally. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Daniel’s most notable engagements include Bernstein’s at Lincoln Center; Mozart’s Coronation Mass at Carnegie Hall; Mozart’s Requiem at Lincoln Center; Live from Lincoln Center’s Emmy-nominated performance of R&H’s Carousel; Frank Loesser’s Most Happy Fella with Encores! At New York City Center; the Jerry Herman Memorial at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater; Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with New York City Opera and Ted Rosenthal’s Dear Erich with New York City Opera. Daniel recently started his second season as a tenor with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and can often be found composing for TV/film between singing engagements.
David Castillo is a pretty eclectic nerd from New Orleans, LA. On the regular around greater Los Angeles, David nears a decade as a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and books as an actor and singer on set or in the studio. He founded and serves as the director of CORO, a youth choir based at the Neighborhood Music School in Boyle Heights.
David dives into the worlds of Hollywood oncamera and on the mic as an actor, a musician, and acting as a musician. He appeared in commercials, in a pop-opera group on America’s Got Talent, voiceovers, and podcasts.
As a soloist on-stage, David performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel and with Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and Louis Langrée; Eric Whitacre’s The Gift of the Magi as Jim with DCINY at Carnegie Hall and in its world premiere with the Los Angeles Master Chorale; Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande with The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst and Yuval Sharon. He lived and traveled with Schubert's Winterreise for years performing it in Paris, New Orleans, Pasadena, Los Angeles, and in a choreographed version with Luminario Ballet.
Daniel T. Curran, tenor
REQUIEM . . Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Quartet
Anna Schubert, soprano; Jessie Shulman, mezzo-soprano
Daniel Curran, tenor; David Castillo, bass
Instrumentalists
Violin 1
Sean Bradley
Sara Jones
Melody Hung
Violin 2
Anna Renton
Cliff Goodrich
Alan Busteed
Viola
Ellie Bunker
Matt Witmer
Alice Ping
Cello
Ashley Conner Ng
Dustin Seo
Doublebass
Shane Harry
Hakeem Holloway
Clarinet
Alana Miles
Adam Floyd
Bassoon
Elizabeth Low-Atwater
Alexis Leon
Trumpet
Logan Anderson
Amy Millesen
Sopranos
Trombone
Karen Marston
Ron Minor
Callan Milani
Timpani
Joey Muskat Organ Zach DeChance
Altos
Haekyung Adler
Joanne Bush-Anderson
Robin Billings-Reyes**
Tina Blair
Judy Carpenter
Judith Chartrand
Esther Fong
Ruth German
Lisa Simpson
Diane Whitham
Susan Winckler*
Karen Wootten***
* Assistant Director
** Section Leader
*** Staff Singer
Betsy Bowering
Deborah Dominik
Cathy Kosta
Nancy Koziara-Clark
Zsuzsa Lamy-Avery
Janet McCrea Foster
Barbara MacKenzie
Gennifer McNabb
Joan Molinaro
Deena Ortiz
Maggie Riehn
Nancy Rodewald
Heather Schaumann
Louise Webber
Carolyn Wilson
Accompanist: Zach DeChance
Tenors
Andrew Del Castillo
Michael Garcia
Aaron Lee
Simon Lyu
Randy Mackintosh
Tom Molinaro
Inger Orr
Basses
John Beckman
Robert Carpenter
Pymm Chartrand
Adrien Estrada
Rigo Fernandez
Mark MacKenzie
Mark McReynolds
Jim Orr
Edd Ridderbusch
Lovell Stoddard
Kevin Wiley
Scott Ziemann** ***
Mountainside Master Chorale was established in 1994. It is enjoying its twenty-ninth year of choral excellence, and continues to grow steadily in both membership and acclaim. The Chorale draws singers from all four counties in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, and performs a wide variety of choral works each season, including major choral works with orchestra, a cappella motets, folk songs, spirituals, jazz greats, and Broadway show tunes. The Mountainside Master Chorale prides itself in not only performing quality repertoire from the master composers of the past, but also in giving exposure to contemporary composers. The Chorale has participated in various festivals and concert events throughout Southern California, and has traveled internationally. They have toured Montreal and the Quebec areas, Greece, Poland, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, the British Isles and have sung in Carnegie Hall. Twice they have sung in the annual December 24th Holiday Celebration TV live broadcast for PBS So Cal at The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles.
Requiem: Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on them. Thou, O God, art praised in Sion, and unto Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem. Hear my prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come. Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on them.
Kyrie: Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us.
Dies irae: Day of wrath, that day will dissolve the earth in ashes as David and the Sibyl bear witness. How men will tremble and grow pale, When Justice comes with sword and scale to weigh the faults and sort the fates of all!
Tuba mirum: The trumpet rings a wondrous sound, ringing through earth's sepulchres, bringing all before the throne. Death is struck down, nature quakes, and all creation awakes to make an answer to its Judge. In the book, exactly worded, all has been recorded, and thence shall judgement be awarded. When the Judge has taken His seat, and every hidden deed is revealed, nothing will be left unpunished.What shall I, weak man, be pleading, who shall intercede for me when the just themselves need mercy?
Rex tremendae: King of tremendous majesty, Who sends us free salvation, save, Fount of pity.
Recordare: Recall, sweet Jesus, 'twas my salvation brought about Thy Incarnation, abandon me not to reprobation. Faint and weary hast Thou sought me, on Thy cross of pain hast brought me, let Thy suffering be not in vain. Final Judge of Justice, Lord grant Thy absolution before the day of retribution. Guilty, now I pour my moaning, all my shame an anguish owning spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning. Thou the sinful woman savedst; Thou the dying their forgavest; and to me a hope vouch-safest. Worthless are my prayers and sighing; yet, good Lord, in grace complying, rescue me from fires undying. With Thy favoured sheep, O place me, nor among the goats abase me, but to Thy right hand upraise me.
Lacrimosa: Oh, that day of tears and weeping, when, from dust of earth returning, man must prepare for judgement. Spare, O God, in mercy spare him! Lord all pitying, Jesu blest, grant them Thine eternal rest. Amen.
Confutatis: While the wicked are confounded, assigned to flames of woe unending, Call me with Thy saints surrounded. Low I kneel, with heart submission; see, like ashes, my contrition; help me in my last condition.
Domine Jesu: Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory, deliver the souls of the faithful dead from punishment of Hell and from the bottomless pit; deliver them from the mouth of the lion; nor suffer the fiery lake to swallow them up, nor endless darkness to enshroud them But let Thy holy standard bearer Michael lead them to the sacred light, as once Thou promised to Abraham and his children.
Hostias: We offer Thee, O Lord, our prayers and sacrifices of praise: accept them for those souls whom this day we commemorate: let them pass, Lord, from death into life, as once Thou promised to Abraham and his children.
Sanctus: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Benedictus Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!
Agnus Dei: Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world, grant them rest everlasting. May eternal light shine upon them, O Lord; with thy Saints forever, for Thou art merciful. Eternal rest grant unto them. O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Lux aeterna: May eternal light shine on them, O Lord, with Thy saints for ever, because Thou art merciful. Grant the dead eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on them, with Thy saints for ever, because Thou are merciful.
Mozart was not in the best state of mind when he received an anonymous commission to compose a Requiem Mass. His health was deteriorating and he believed he had been cursed to write a requiem as a ‘swan song’ for himself, because he was sure he was about to die.
It was in early July 1791 that an ‘unknown stranger’ turned up at the composer’s door saying he represented someone who wanted a Requiem from Mozart on the understanding that he not seek to learn the identity of his patron.
Spooked by the commission, Mozart threw himself obsessively into the work. But it was all too much. He was only able to complete the Requiem and Kyrie movements, and managed to sketch the voice parts and bass lines for the Dies irae through to the Hostias.
Mozart died aged 35 on 5 December 1791, before he could complete the work. Payment had already been received, and Mozart’s widow Constanze feared that if the work was handed over incomplete the patron would want his money back. She asked one Joseph Eybler to finish the score, but other than orchestrating the music following the Kyrie, he passed the task over to Mozart’s pupil Süssmayer, to whom the composer had given detailed instructions about finishing it. Süssmayer copied the entire completed score in his own hand - making it virtually impossible to determine who wrote what - and gave it to the stranger.
The stranger was Anton Leitgeb, son of the mayor of Vienna and the valet of Count Franz von Walsegg-Stuppach, who already had acquired the reputation of palming other people’s music off as his own. The Count was hoping to use Mozart’s Requiem to commemorate his late wife, Anna. It took a full decade before Constanze was able to persuade Walsegg to acknowledge Mozart as the Requiem’s true composer.
Regardless of who wrote which parts of the Requiem it still sounds wonderful to most of us. And let’s give Beethoven the final word on the matter: ‘If Mozart did not write the music, then the man who wrote it was a Mozart.’
Haekyung Adler
John and Joanne Beckman
Mary Beckman
Charlene Bolton
Tom and Joan Molinaro
Deborah Dominik
Esther Fong
Gary Gay
Ruth German
Katrina Grabowski
Cathy Kosta
Cynthia Nichols
Edd Ridderbusch
Maggie and Robert Riehn
Dennis and Lisa Simpson
Yamaha Corporation of America
Program layout bu Susan Winckler
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Claremont United Church of Christ, located in the Claremont Village at 233 W. Harrison, is home to one of the finest pipe organs in the United States. Each year an active Organ Concert Series Committee searches the globe for one or two outstanding virtuoso artists whose diverse repertoire will reveal the depth and range of this magnificent instrument..”
Every Wednesday at noon
Free 40 minute concert with singers and piano in the beautiful sanctuary of Trinity United Methodist Church in Pomona.
Larry Thorp with fellow MMC travelers Spain
