Sacramento Choral Society previews its Los Angeles concert at home this week

The Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra will give the local audience a sneak preview of what L.A. concertgoers will hear this summer.

The group will debut its Mozart "Requiem" on Saturday at the Community Center Theater and then take the work on the road to the much-touted Disney Concert Hall, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

It's a risky endeavor: It costs $20,000 to perform in the 2,265-seat Disney Hall.

"It's a big step and a big gamble," Donald Kendrick, SCSO conductor and artistic director, said of the June 27 concert. "But it will also put a good foot forward for us and will help us represent Sacramento."

In its Sacramento performance, SCSO will feature soprano Sandra Rubalcava, Placido Domingo protégé tenor David Robinson, mezzo- soprano Oksana Sitnitska and bass Elias Mokole. All but Robinson will also perform with the chorus and orchestra in Los Angeles.

The orchestra will also perform Morten Lauridsen's "Lux Aeterna" in Sacramento and Los Angeles.

Overall, the tour to Los Angeles will cost the organization $45,000, including $5,000 to pay its four soloists and $20,000 for its orchestra to play at the concert. For the hall rental, the organization is sharing the cost with Music Celebrations International, a tour-package company that focuses on giving groups the chance to perform at Disney Hall.

SCSO and MCI will equally share the risk of the hall rental, but SCSO will shoulder the total cost of bringing the orchestra to Los Angeles, said James McCormick, SCSO executive director. In total, the choral society will bring 130 choristers to Los Angeles as well as a 40-member orchestra.

"I think it's ambitious," said Kris Sinclair, executive director of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras, the major advocacy organization for orchestras statewide.

"I don't know anyone in Sacramento that has gone down there to perform. And if the SCSO has that kind of money to get them out of Sacramento and into that hall, why not?"

It remains to be seen what kind of audience the group will draw in Los Angeles, since SCSO is unknown there. However, the sheer size of the city and its established and robust choral community bode well for SCSO.

To break even, the group will have to sell at least 1,100 tickets, said McCormick. To spur attendance, the group is relying on a database of more than 100 Los Angeles-area choral groups that it plans to solicit for ticket sales.

"We hope to sell between 1,600 and 2,000 tickets for the performance," McCormick said. A chunk of those tickets might be purchased by SCSO family members and friends, many of whom are traveling with the group.

But more importantly, SCSO is banking on the popularity of Lauridsen's five-movement "Lux Aeterna" to bring Angelenos to the concert hall. That work, first performed in Los Angeles in 1997, received rave reviews and led to a Grammy nomination for Lauridsen, who teaches composition at the University of Southern California.

McCormick also thinks Disney Hall's status as a tourist destination and the concert date set in the tourist-friendly month of June will boost ticket sales. SCSO has kept ticket prices relatively low – $25 to $75 – for the area.

Wanderlust has been a part of SCSO's makeup since it began touring in 2003. Its first tour performance was at New York's Carnegie Hall, where the group performed Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana."

For that tour, SCSO contracted with MidAmerica Productions, a travel and performance package agency that sells tours to school, church and civic ensembles. Public performance is at the heart of the package deal, with MidAmerica offering performances at venues such as Carnegie Hall and other well-known New York City classical-music venues.

The Carnegie performance, McCormick said, drew nearly 2,000 patrons, largely thanks to the advertising help of MidAmerica.

SCSO has also performed in Europe and China. But unlike those tours, this will be the first time the organization will bring along its orchestra instead of hiring one at the performance destination.

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