Name: Sound Waves: The Music Of Esmail, Garrett, And Woo
Start: 2026-05-31T19:00:00
Location: Walt Disney Concert Hall

Grant Gershon

Saili Oak

Abhiman Kaushal

Ian Rosenbaum

Los Angeles Master Chorale

The first of the Master Chorale's commissioned world premieres this season is by five-time Emmy®-winning composer Jeff Beal, known for his scores for TV shows like House of Cards, Monk, and Rome, as well as films such as Pollock and Blackfish. Part of Common Ground: The Music of Górecki and Jeff Beal, Beal’s new work, The Beatitudes, will be paired with Henryk Górecki’s Miserere, a deeply moving piece inspired by the Polish Solidarity movement of the 1980s. Composed in 1981 as a protest against Soviet-backed government intervention, Miserere was not premiered until 1987 due to martial law. With just five words in its text—“Domine Deus noster, Miserere nobis” (“Lord our God, have mercy on us”)—Górecki creates an oasis of peace and compassion. The Chorale first performed Miserere in 2002 during Grant Gershon’s inaugural season as Artistic Director and recorded Miserere in 2013 for Decca.

Common Ground: The Music Of Górecki And Jeff Beal

Walt Disney Concert Hall

The Master Chorale most recently performed a movement from Mozart's Requiem live during the 97th OSCARS® 2025 In Memoriam segment, showcasing the power and enduring relevance of one of the most iconic and emotionally charged choral works ever composed. Written in 1791, just months before Mozart’s death at the age of 35, Requiem remains one of the composer’s greatest masterpieces, both a profound reflection on mortality and a stunning display of his compositional genius.

Mozart’s Requiem

Sound Waves: The Music of Esmail, Garrett, and Woo offers three powerful meditations on water including Malhaar: A Requiem for Water by Swan Family Artist-in-Residence Reena Esmail, alongside new works by composers Marques L. A. Garrett and Hyowon Woo. With Malhaar, Reena explores the universal theme of water through a cross-cultural lens, emphasizing that we are all citizens of the earth connected by a huge ecosystem in which water is a life force. Reena was inspired by William O’Daly’s book “Water Ways,” a poetic exploration of the disappearance of water. O'Daly is known for his English translations of the poetry of Pablo Neruda, and is also a Research Writer at the California Department of Water Resources and is the Lead Writer for the California Water Plan. Reena uses O’Daly’s text throughout the piece, intermingled with movements from the traditional requiem text. Overlaid on this texture are passages in Sanskrit and Hindi. The work moves through the various forms of Raag Malhaar (monsoon raags), to convey the importance and power of water, which holds a sacred place in Indian classical music. The work features Hindustani vocalist Saili Oak.