Their individual musical odysseys drew them from separate continents to the global village of Los Angeles.

Mexican native Jose Antonio Espinal and Russian-born Mikhail Shtangrud, both age 39, now work around the corner from each other within walking distance of the Los Angeles Music Center, where they will each conduct one of their multiple local choirs during the 47th annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration's free, six-hour music, song and dance spectacular on Christmas Eve.

Though they grew up under vastly different political regimes, their mutual passion for music has led them to practice their art in the City of the Angels where they joyfully share the universal language of music at venues that include the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Temple Street and The Colburn School of Performing Arts on Grand Avenue.

Moscow music school
Born in Moscow to a family of choral conductors, Shtangrud took violin and piano training at the Moscow Children's Music School no. 32. He also sang with the 100-plus-member Great Children's Choir of the State Radio and Television in Moscow which gave him the opportunity to tour throughout the Soviet Union, Europe and Japan.

Drafted into the Russian Army at age 18 soon after entering Moscow State Music College, Shtangrud served in the military for two years where he spent some of his recreation time playing piano in a rock band. Following his service, he returned to music college for another two years majoring in choral conducting.

In early September 1989, Shtangrud immigrated with his mother and brother to Los Angeles where they had relatives. They left with very few possessions since they were restricted with what they could take out of the country.

Coming from Russia where staples such as butter and sugar were not always in stock at the market, Shtangrud was amazed at the plethora of goods and the myriad of educational choices in the U.S. "In Russian music school," he noted, "students took an obligatory schedule of classes with no electives."

Shtangrud enrolled at California State University, Northridge and majored in vocal performance since the school had no choral department. While at CSUN, he was pleasantly surprised to meet a Russian-speaking student from the Ukraine, Anna. Now married, the two have a three-year-old daughter, Natalie.

One day on the CSUN bulletin board, he saw an announcement about a job opening for a music director at Mayfield Junior School. Donning his "lucky blue tie," he interviewed and got the job, where he has been teaching choral singing, strings, brass and woodwinds for nearly 10 years.

Shtangrud graduated from CSUN with a Bachelor of Music in 1995 and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance in 1997. In 2000, he was named artistic director of the Burbank Chorale, and, in 2005, was appointed director of the children's choirs at The Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles. The busy conductor leads Burbank Chorale rehearsals every Tuesday night and rehearses the Colburn choirs on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons.

Just this year, he finished his Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Education degree from USC. Interestingly enough, his dissertation was on the rebuilt tradition of Russian church music that started when the Moscow Choral College, now the Academy of Choral Arts, was founded in 1944 at a time when religion in Russia was almost non existent. The choral academy was modeled after the Synodal Choir, the famous Orthodox Church Choir which was dismissed after Russia's 1917 revolution.

Shtangrud, who sometimes throws a football around as part of a musical exercise game at Mayfield, believes music education should be "exciting and fun. The discipline of learning a song or playing an instrument helps to build self-worth and good character. And, traveling to faraway venues is an education in itself."

This past summer, Mayfield choir members sang at The Vatican in Rome and also churches in Florence, Milan and Venice. "It was amazing for students from a Catholic school to sing at St. Peter's," said Shtangrud. In the spring, he plans to travel twice to New York City to conduct his children's choirs in performances at Carnegie Hall --- with Mayfield students in April and Colburn students in May.

Aware of the trend to think in terms of music as a tool to enhance academic learning, Shtangrud says music should be valued for its own unique gifts. "Music connects people to their humanity," says Shtangrud.

Shtangrud Choirs' Concert Schedule:
---Dec. 9, 3 p.m.: Colburn Children's Choir Christmas Concert, Zipper Auditorium, Colburn School of Performing Arts, 200 S. Grand Ave., L.A.; free admission; (213) 621-2200.
---Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 17, 4 p.m.: Burbank Chorale with Colburn Children's Choir and Burbank Chorale Brass Ensemble's "Echoes of Joy" Holiday Concert, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 1020 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale; adults $15, children and seniors $5 at the door.
---Dec. 21, 7:30 p.m.: Mayfield Jr. School Annual Christmas Concert, Mayfield gym, 405 S. Euclid Ave., Pasadena; free; (626) 796-2774
---Dec. 24, 8:41 p.m. (approximate time) Burbank Chorale appearance, L.A. County Holiday Celebration, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Music Center; free; (818) 759-9177, www.burbankchorale.org.

Mexico City conservatory
The son of a pianist, Maestro Espinal started playing piano as a young child and was accepted into Mexico's National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City at age 13. Soon after, his teachers discovered he had perfect pitch.

"They said, 'What a shame you are a pianist,'" laughed Espinal. His teachers thought his musical talents would be better served as a conductor, so he took orchestral conducting courses in addition to his piano classes.

He began giving public piano concerts as a teenager, and performed as an accompanist (repetiteur) for many opera singers in association with the National Opera of Mexico at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. At 19, he was hired by the national conservatory to teach piano.

In 1996, he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor degree in piano from the National School of Music at the Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and, the same year, received a Conservatory Arts Diploma (Licenciado) in orchestral conducting from the conservatory. Over the course of his career, he has conducted every major orchestra in Mexico and has been honored twice with a Conductor's Award from Mexico's National Endowment for the Arts and Culture.

Interested in pursing an advanced degree in choral and orchestral conducting, Espinal applied to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He won a full three-year scholarship, receiving a Master of Fine Arts in choral and orchestral conducting in 2000.

In 2002, he came to Los Angeles on a religious visa to work at St. Thomas the Apostle Church as its music director and parish school music teacher. As a way of celebrating the church's remodeling after a fire, Espinal recruited 12 children from the school to join a choir that November, the same month his wife gave birth to his daughter, Elizabeth, now 4.

The name for the choir, "Harmonies," came at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says Espinal. The choir, made up of one boy and 11 girls, was "so successful from the beginning," says Espinal. Since the sole boy member left after his voice changed, the choir has been an all-girls' choir performing a range of classical, contemporary, sacred and traditional Latin American songs.

Currently sponsored by Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Los Angeles where the Harmonies choir sings special liturgies, the group sings regularly at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels where Espinal founded the Cathedral's Spanish Choir in 2003. In 2004, the Harmonies choir traveled to Germany to participate in the Chorfestival Puericantores festival, and this past summer, embarked on a singing tour to Mexico and Europe.

"Most of the girls are daughters of immigrants from Mexico and Central America who have never traveled outside L.A. before joining the choir," said Espinal. He says the discipline of twice-weekly evening practices at the Methodist Church at La Placita and the exposure to beautiful music performed at venues outside of the inner city contribute to the girls' maturity on numerous levels.

"I try to use a holistic approach. I tell the girls, 'You are here to learn discipline to achieve your goals and dreams.'" Three of the girls aged 8-18 have expressed the desire to become opera singers, and an alumna of the choir is in her freshman year as a vocal performance major at UC Irvine. Four of the choir members currently serve as cantors at the Cathedral.

Espinal is currently organizing an international choir festival in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes in collaboration with the government to take place in the summer of 2008. Participating choirs will perform in three different cities: Aguascalientes, Zacatecas and Guanajuato. "We have a lot of fun, and we are always accepting new girls to join us," said Espinal. For audition information, visit the group's website, www.harmonieschoir.org.

Harmonies Concert Schedule:
---Dec, 12, 5 a.m.: La Virgen de Guadalupe celebration, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles.
---Dec. 16, 6 p.m.: Performance before and sing-along following Blessing of the Cathedral Christmas tree.
---Dec. 17, 4 p.m.: Guest appearance at Wagner Ensemble Concert "Christmas in the Americas," Westwood Methodist Church, 10497 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood; suggested donation $20 general; $15 seniors; www.wagnerensemble.com.
---Dec. 24, 4 p.m.: L.A. County Holiday Celebration, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Music Center, free admission; (213) 972-3099.