Roger Wagner

In 1937, Wagner joined the MGM chorus in Hollywood and was subsequently appointed Music Director of St. Joseph's Church in Los Angeles where he established an outstanding choir of men and boys, including a young Paul Salamunovich.

[4] Roger Wagner also made a significant contribution to education and church music serving 32 years on the faculty of UCLA where he continued as Professor Emeritus until his death.

The world's leading conductors and musicians, among them Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski, Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, Serge Koussevitsky, hailed Wagner's incomparable genius in the field of choral music.

His vocal arrangements are published by Lawson-Gould and released by Warner Bros. A large, painted portrait of Wagner hangs in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

[7] "Following one of our performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, a well-known local critic asked me, "What is this hypnotic power you wield over your singers?

School teachers, salesmen, housewives, executives, factory workers, students, professional musicians and others from all walks of life and from distances up to a hundred miles, come with one aim of trying to produce fine choral singing.

But aside from the quality of the music we perform and unceasing drive toward perfection, we work hard, accomplish a good deal but manage to have a little fun along the way.

The Chorale is a heterogeneous mixture of races, colors and creeds whose members lose sight of any differences in a common endeavor.

And one thing in which we unanimously concur is the right of self-expression and of the dignity of individuals who make sincere efforts to raise choral art to the highest possible level."