The Sanctuary
​First Congregational Church of Los Angeles
540 South Commonwealth Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90020

July 29, 2026
7PM

A memorial concert of goodbyes, hellos, and thank yous celebrating 10 years of singing in Los Angeles.

How do we open a door to a new chapter of our life? What does it mean to say good-bye to the past? Does anything truly end without something new being born? Our culture contains many traditions and rituals for marking the transitions between one phase of life to the next. Graduations, weddings, retirement parties, and rites-of-passage, are just a few of the ways we reflect on the past and anticipate the future.

This concert, featuring critically-acclaimed Los Angeles vocalist Laurel Irene and her long-time collaborator organist Abe Ross is a celebration of 10 years performing in Southern California as Laurel and her husband music director David Harris prepare to leave the region for the Pacific Northwest.

As a part of the 2026 N.E.O. Voice Festival, Laurel and Abe will explore the versatility, nuances, and fascinations of the human and organ instruments with repertoire that personally reflects on this year’s festival theme ‘At the End of All Things’. The program consists of selections from Laurel’s repertoire from the past 10 years including contemporary works by Kaija Saariaho, Reena Esmail, Osvaldo Goliov, and Kate Soper as well as classics from Poulenc, Handel, and Mozart.