Audience invited to sing with chorale
Christmas-themed performance includes hand bells

As it begins its 30th anniversary season, Los Robles Master Chorale will offer Sounds of the Season at 8 p.m. Sat., Dec. 8 and 4 p.m. Sun., Dec. 9 at the Main Stage of the Performing Arts Center at Moorpark College, 7075 Campus Road.

In a concert of Christmas-themed choral music under the direction of James Stemen, the chorale will sing music spanning 400 years, from Renaissance composer Michael Praetorius to contemporary works by American Morten Lauridsen and Englishman John Tavener.

The concert will include "The Magnificat" by Italian Baroque master Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, a cluster of carols in the classic arrangements of Robert Shaw and Alice Parker, Charles Ives's "A Christmas Carol," Franz Biebl's "Ave Maria" and an original carol by Westlake Village resident and Moorpark College professor Jane

Autenrieth Chapman, "In the Crystal Starlight."

The audience will be invited to sing with the chorale on a number of favorites.

Special guests include duo hand bell ringers Donna Riesen and Michael Larsen. Celebrated for their combination of traditional English hand bells and synthesizer accompaniment, Riesen and Larsen will perform three original holiday arrangements.

"Angels' Jubilee" uses themes from Haydn's "Christmas Eve Canon" and "Angels We Have Heard on High."

"Bells of Christmas" is based on "Carol of the Bells" and "What Child Is This."

"A Christmas Canticle" combines Pachelbel's Canon in D with "The First Noel" and "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas."

Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door, with group rates available for 10 or more.

Call (805) 8273943 for information or to purchase tickets. Information is also available at www.orgsites.com/ca/lrmc/.