LOS ANGELES CHILDREN’S CHORUS ANNOUNCES THE APPOINTMENT OF FRED MEADS AS ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Ապրիլ 17, 2023
Pasadena, CA (Ապրիլ 17, 2023) – GRAMMY Award-winning Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (LACC) today announces the appointment of Fred Meads as Associate Artistic Director, effective Օգոստոս 1, 2023. Meads, who currently serves as Education Director for the Princeton, New Jersey-based Westrick Music Academy and Music Director of the Princeton Boychoir, will succeed current Associate Artistic Director, Mandy Brigham, who will retire at the conclusion of the 2022|23 season. As Associate Artistic Director, Meads will conduct LACC’s Preparatory Choir and Intermediate Choir, and oversee the organization’s musicianship program. A renowned music educator and conductor who has worked in the youth choral music field for 25 years, Meads previously served alongside LACC Artistic Director Fernando Malvar-Ruiz for nine years at the American Boychoir School, where Meads was Director of Vocal Studies.
“On behalf of the entire organization, I am thrilled to welcome Fred to LACC,” said Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Artistic Director. “I have known Fred for more than two decades and had the fortune of working closely with him for nine years. Fred is without question one of the most thoughtful, talented, caring music educators and artists working in the choral music field today. Associate Artistic Director, the inimitable Mandy Brigham, will leave huge shoes to fill when she retires at the end of the season, but I cannot think of a better person to succeed her and continue the tradition of excellence for which LACC is so renowned than Fred.”
“I am simply thrilled to be joining LACC,” remarked Fred Meads. “LACC is one of the premier youth choruses in the world and an organization I have deeply admired for a long time. In getting to know the choristers and staff during the interview process, I was immediately struck by the warm and welcoming learning environment, the collegial community, and the exceptional caliber of singing of LACC’s various ensembles. I very much look forward to reuniting with Fernando, joining this incredible organizational family, and working to advance LACC’s exceptional music education programming in the years ahead.”
The announcement of the hiring of Meads comes as LACC enters the final stretch of its busy 2022|23 concert season. Upcoming performance highlights include LACC’s return to Walt Disney Concert Hall for a full-length program on the LA Phil’s Sounds About Town series (Մայիս 7, 2023), guest appearances with LA Opera (Otello, from Մայիս 13-Հունիս 4, 2023) and the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl (Maestro of the Movies: John Williams with the LA Phil, from Հուլիս 7-9, 2023), and its Spring Concert at Pasadena Presbyterian Church (Մայիս 14, 2023). From Հունիս 20-Հուլիս 3, 2023, LACC’s Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, and Young Men’s Ensemble will serve as cultural ambassadors for the City and County of Los Angeles when they travel to Spain for a 14-day international tour that will feature performances in Bilbao, Burgos, Leon, Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, Salamanca, and Madrid. For more information, visit lachildrenschorus.org.
Los Angeles Children’s Chorus’s 2022|23 season is made possible, in part, by generous support from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the State of California, City of Pasadena, Pasadena Community Foundation, Ahmanson Foundation, Colburn Foundation, Green Foundation, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Ann Peppers Foundation, and Capital Group. LACC is also deeply grateful to lead patrons Helen and Peter Bing and the hundreds of other individuals, foundations, corporations, and governmental agencies whose support makes possible the Chorus’s music education and performance programs.
Media Resources: Website: lachildrenschorus.org | Media Kit: lachildrenschorus.org/media-kit/
ABOUT FRED MEADS
Fred Meads serves as Director of Education at Westrick Music Academy in Princeton, NJ. In this role he serves as Music Director of the Princeton Boychoir, Associate Conductor of the Princeton Girlchoir and oversees other educational activities. Additionally, he is Director of the Children’s Choir and Youth Choir at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. Previously, he was Director of Vocal Studies at the American Boychoir School.
Mr. Meads has been director of choirs in public and private schools, churches and at the collegiate level for the past twenty-five years. From 1999–2009, he was Artistic Director of the Fort Wayne Children’s Choir in Fort Wayne, IN, where he led the group on national and international tours, prepared the choir for annual symphonic engagements, and commissioned works from diverse and renowned composers. Mr. Meads has been invited to conduct various honor choirs and all-state choirs in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Nebraska, Ohio and Oklahoma. In 2017 and 2011 he led the Organization of Kodály Educators National Children’s Honor Choirs. In 2014, he conducted the Northwest America Choral Directors Association Division Children’s Honor Choir in Seattle. Internationally, he traveled to Hong Kong to present choral workshops for music educators. Mr. Meads has also presented workshops for the American Choral Directors Association, Organization of American Kodály Educators, and Westminster Choir College. He has served on the boards of both the Indiana Choral Directors Association and the New Jersey Choral Directors Association.
Mr. Meads received the Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Ithaca College, NY and the Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He completed his Kodály training at Capital University in Columbus, OH where he was a scholarship recipient.
ABOUT LOS ANGELES CHILDREN’S CHORUS
GRAMMY Award-winning Los Angeles Children’s Chorus (LACC), one of the world’s preeminent youth choruses, has been lauded as “hauntingly beautiful” (Los Angeles Times), “the best children’s chorus I have ever heard” (Esa-Pekka Salonen), and “one of the true artistic gems of Los Angeles” (Gustavo Dudamel).
Led by Artistic Director Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, LACC annually appears in more than 50 public performances, including in its own self-produced concerts and in collaborations with leading organizations such as Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Pasadena Symphony and POPS.
The Chorus annually serves over 400 young people ages 6–18 from 40+ communities across Southern California through its seven choirs, First Experiences in Singing class, and First Experiences in Choral Singing ensemble.
LACC is featured in alumna Billie Eilish’s 2021 cinematic concert experience Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles on Disney+, and has appeared on John Williams’ 2017 recording, John Williams & Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s critically-acclaimed Decca recording, A Good Understanding. The subject of four documentaries by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Freida Mock, LACC is featured in the Academy Award®-nominated Sing!, about a year in the life of the choir. LACC has performed with John Mayer on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” and been featured on PBS’s “Great Performances,” BBC Radio, and PRI’s nationally-syndicated show “From the Top.”
Winner of the 2022 GRAMMY Award for Best Choral Performance for its performance on the LA Philharmonic’s 2021 album, Mahler Symphony No. 8, and recipient of Chorus America’s Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, LACC frequently serves as a cultural ambassador on tours that have taken the Chorus to 20+ countries on 6 continents.
LACC was founded in 1986 by Rebecca Thompson and led from 1995-2018 by Artistic Director Emerita Anne Tomlinson.