December 24 Free Holiday Celebration at the LA Music Center

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For the fifty-three year in a row, the LA County Arts Commission is bringing some of the finest performing arts groups to the Los Angeles Music Center for a free public performance during the afternoon of December 24, 2012 from 3 pm to 6 pm.  The LA County Holiday Celebration, includes free parking at the Music Center, and the performances take place inside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  Festivities begin on the Music Center plaza at 12:30 pm, to help entertain those in line looking for the best seats.  Seating begins at 2:30 pm, continuing throughout the entire three hour performance period, as most people are there to see their friends and family members, so on average are in the audience for about an hour.  This year for the first time, the adjacent Grand Park will be open, so explore it before or after your visit to the Music Center, and there will even be food trucks. If you can't attend in person, then catch the performance live on KCET-TV, on the radio at KPFK 90.7, or streaming on a computer or mobile device at www.kcet.org.  You can also participate during the live performance in an interactive conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag of: #HCLA. The following 20 performance groups (not in performance order), chosen from among over 500 performing arts organizations throughout Los Angeles County will each perform for approximately six minutes each during the afternoon before Christmas Eve.

Salvation Army Tabernacle Children’s Chorus
Invertigo Dance Theatre
Vox Femina Los Angeles
Elliot Deutsch Big Band
Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble
Las Cafeteras
Palmdale High School Choral Union
Mariachi Sol de Mexico (which can be watched here on YouTube)
Colburn Children’s Choir (not to be missed)
Shin Dance Company (with video embedded below)
South Bay Children's Choir
Vaud and the Villains (also not to be missed: possibly singing Christmas comes to New Orleans)
Immaculate Heart of Mary Children's Choir
Harmonic Bronze Handbell Ensemble
Family Life Sanctuary Choir
Pacifico Dance Company (with picture above)
Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles
Shakti Dance Company
Second Samoan Congregational Church Choir
Double G and Strings

I had a chance to see almost half of these organizations practice before the LA County Arts Commission as they offered suggestions, and thought about the performance order.  Below are some of my pictures on Flickr, or and if you have an Ipad, you can watch from here.



As one can see from this list of organizations, it represents the cultural diversity of Los Angeles.  As ;part of this diversity, it thus may not be a surprise to see a non-Asian performer in the outstanding Shin  Dance Company.  The young woman had been studying Chinese dance at a local university, and was invited to join the dance troupe.  Below is the video from the practice session that was uploaded to YouTube.


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So see it live, at home, or on the go. If you miss the live performance, then it will repeat on KCET-TV at 8 pm and on December 25 at noon and 3 pm. I had seen the LA County Holiday Celebration live on television in prior years, but last year, I did attend in person and had a great time. We have tremendous performing artists in Los Angeles County. For further information, check out the official webpage, and follow the links to become a fan of the LA County Arts on Facebook and Twitter.