This picture isn’t blurry – that’s what I looked like at 5:07 AM
on Easter Sunday morning!

I suppose I should start by saying that I’m a member of the Los Robles Master Chorale, directed by Lesley Leighton. Ms. Leighton was recruited to direct the mass choir for the 88th annual Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service. She arranged to have members of the LRMC serve as the core of the 240-voice mass choir. After two rehearsals at the Hollywood Women’s Club, the day finally arrived for the dress rehearsal at the Bowl on Saturday, April 11. What follows is my story of my first time at the Hollywood Bowl.

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What more appropriate day than Easter Sunday, the day of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, to start this blog anew? Not by choice, really, as the blog was pretty much killed by what is known in WordPress circles (WordPress is the behind-the-scenes software for this blog) as ‘script injections’ which caused very bad things to happen to the people who happened to come across the website.

Try as I might, I could not mitigate those problems, so I’ve torn the structure to the ground. Maybe I’ll restore the old content someday, when I find a compelling reason so to do (too late, too late, already done). In the meantime, enjoy this newly-resurrected website.

Here’s something special to which to look forward: the Los Robles Master Chorale will be participating in the 88th annual Easter Sunrise Service at the Hollywood Bowl.

2007

Our director, Lesley Leighton, was selected to direct the combined mass choir for the service and she arranged to have the LRMC make up the core of the group, as well as perform one piece all by our very own selves.

1947

Our first rehearsal was this past Monday, March 30 at the Woman’s Club of Hollywood, and it was a good thing we were there; otherwise the mass choir would not have been so, well, massive. I’d imagine that of the 80 or so singers (they’re advertising 240) we made up about half of the group. We have another rehearsal on Monday, April 6, and a dress rehearsal at the Bowl on Saturday, April 11. Our call time on Easter morning is 4:30 AM! Ugh!

1937

But it’s really a historic event, I suppose – one of the first events on the Bowl site back in the twenties (before the famous shell was even built) was an Easter Sunrise service.

1929

Hollywood has had its share of controversy and scandal, and the Easter Sunrise Service is no exception. Even now, the mass choir is singing a piece called ‘Peace, Shalom, Salaam Aleikum’ brought to the choir by members of the Self Realization Fellowship – I’m not sure just how popular this celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ will be with Jews or Muslims, but hey, anything for inclusion, right?

We’ll be singing the aforementioned piece along with the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah,  Let There Be Peace On Earth (And Let It Begin With Me), and the old hymn Holy, Holy, Holy. The latter three, of course, have the traditional bombastic Hollywood-movie  endings, so the hills will definitely be ringing. The old choral chestnut, Wilhousky’s Battle Hymn Of The Republic is in the folder but, alas, it’s been announced that we will not be singing it. Too militaristic? Naw, probably just ran out of time. Too bad – I love singing that arrangement.

There’s no mention of the LRMC on the official website for some reason, but we’ll be there – and it’s supposedly being televised, so I’ll be sure to grab a video and post it here later.