By Daily Press staff
The Madison Project of Santa Monica College was awarded a $15,000 grant from The Dwight Stuart Youth Foundation to support the upcoming Manzanar Youth Choir.
Auditions for the choir will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, March 5, in room M139 of the music building at SMC, 1900 Pico Blvd.
The youth choir will perform June 2 at UCLA's Royce Hall in the Los Angeles premiere of "Manzanar: An American Story," a music-and-spoken-text piece under the artistic direction of conductor Kent Nagano. SMC is a producing partner of "Manzanar."
The funds will be used for need-based scholarships, as well as field trips to the Manzanar internment camp in Central California and the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.
The mission of the Dwight Stuart Youth Foundation is to support organizations that provide direct services and experiences to underserved children and youth so they can gain the skills, values and confidence to reach their potential.
The Manzanar Youth Choir will be under the direction of Niké St. Clair, who currently runs the SMC Chamber Choir program and is a professional member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Besides the youth choir, the performance will feature the American Youth Symphony and the SMC Chamber Choir. Written and directed by award-winning playwright Philip Kan Gotanda, the piece was composed by Jean-Pascal Beintus, David Benoit and Naomi Sekiya.
The piece illustrates the evolution of civil liberty in America through the World War II Japanese American interment camp experience.
The Madison Project, currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2007, is a 540-seat performing arts hall that will feature both student work and professional engagements in music, theater, dance and more.
For information about the youth choir auditions, contact Anthony Jones at (310) 434-3414 or Samohi Symphony are national champs
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 5, 2005. Read the original PDF.