[photo credit: Los Angeles Master Chorale]
The concert, titled “This Shining Night,” is part of the Master Chorale’s Sacred Spaces community series, which debuted at the Raymond Avenue church in April 2025 and returns with an entirely new program. The series takes the ensemble out of its home at Walt Disney Concert Hall and into neighborhood churches — spaces where the architecture shapes the sound. For Pasadena, it means a professional choir that the Los Angeles Times has called the nation’s finest performing inside a 1927 church whose Romanesque interior was modeled after two Roman basilicas, Santa Sabina and Santa Maria in Cosmedin.
The evening features works by contemporary choral composers Eric Whitacre, Reena Esmail, Shawn Kirchner and Morten Lauridsen alongside pieces by Renaissance composer William Byrd and modern composers Michael Abels and Jennifer Lucy Cook, according to the organization’s website. The program celebrates themes of love, community and connection.
The conductor for the Pasadena performance is Grant Gershon, the ensemble’s Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director, according to the Master Chorale’s website.
St. Andrew, founded in 1886 as Pasadena’s oldest Catholic parish, occupies a building designed by architect Ross Montgomery. The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and its Romanesque Revival campanile bell tower is a Pasadena skyline landmark. Inside, murals by Italian painter Carlo Wostry and scagliola columns crafted by Italian artisans create an intimate acoustic setting far different from Disney Hall.
The Sacred Spaces series represents part of the Master Chorale’s effort to perform beyond its Downtown Los Angeles home base, according to a press release from the organization. The series launched in spring 2025 with concerts at All Saints’ Beverly Hills and St. Andrew in Pasadena. This year, the Pasadena concert is followed by a Sacred Spaces performance in La Verne on March 21.
“Singing is an art form meant to be shared — it connects us all,” Scott Altman, the Master Chorale’s president and CEO, said during the series’ 2025 launch, according to the Pasadena Outlook.
The Master Chorale, founded in 1964 by conductor Roger Wagner, is a founding resident company of The Music Center and choir-in-residence at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The ensemble reaches more than 175,000 people annually through its concert series, touring and collaborations with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, according to the organization’s website.
Tickets start at $30 and are available at tickets.lamasterchorale.org. St. Andrew Catholic Church is located at 311 N. Raymond Ave. The Master Chorale box office can be reached at 213-972-7282.
The 2025 debut brought Palestrina and Bruckner to Raymond Avenue. This year’s program shifts to Whitacre, Esmail and Byrd — the second chapter in what the organization has described as an effort to bring world-class choral music to communities beyond Downtown Los Angeles.
“THE MASTER CHORALE SINGS” IN SACRED SPACES Date & Time: Sunday, March 15, 2026, 7:30 PM. Venue: St. Andrew Catholic Church, 311 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, CA 91103. Phone Number: (626) 792-4183. Website: https://lamasterchorale.org/show-details/the-master-chorale-sings-in-sacred-spaces-pasadena
