Friday, December 2, 2:00-3:30 p.m. in the church.
Street Symphony hosts its 7th annual Messiah Project, in partnership with The Midnight Mission: a celebration of the resilience and stories of the Skid Row community. Please register here to sign up for in-person attendance at All Saints Church, Pasadena (it’s free!) or TUNE IN to the live-stream on Zoom.
Framed around George Frederic Handel’s beloved oratorio, “Messiah”, the Messiah Project reaffirms the original intention of Handel’s work, which was first performed in 1742 in Dublin, and raised enough money to pay off the debts of 140 men facing debtor’s prison, as well as Handel’s own significant debts. When the performances were presented in London, they took place at the Foundling’s (orphan’s) Hospital, with the composer at the helm. Over the 7 years of presentation, Street Symphony’s Messiah Project has been a laboratory for the premiere of new works which tell the story of the Skid Row community of Los Angeles – the epicenter of the crisis of homelessnes in America today – from the perspective of community members. Skid Row is also America’s largest recovery zone – a place of healing, hope, and new beginnings. Messiah Project is a reframing of Handel’s oratorio as a celebration of music, community, and hope.
Since its founding in 2011, Street Symphony has presented over 1,000 free, on-site, community engagement events, and was hailed in The New Yorker as “a formidable new model for how musical institutions should engage with the world around them”. Messiah Project is a project of Street Symphony featuring musicians from leading Los Angeles vocal and instrumental ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale, students from The Colburn School, and Street Symphony artists from a wide range of genres including Son Jarocho, Mariachi, Reggae, Jazz, and West African Drumming. Messiah Project is supported in part by the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
