SOPRANO TAKES THE MUSIC - AND ITS CHALLENGES - TO HEART HER GROUP PART OF MUSIC FESTIVAL.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

VALENCIA - In Bunny Thornburgh's world, you can't help but feel a sacred presence.

From the church pew in her living room to the ephemera and relics that decorate her Valencia home, there is a closeness to a greater being worth singing about.

That's just what the soprano, known professionally as Maurita Phillips-Thornburgh, does on a regular basis. A founder and artistic director of Cantori Domino, a sacred music choral group, she will be performing Sept. 25 at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood as part of the World Festival of Sacred Music.

``Our mission is to do the best music we can in the best way we can,'' she said. ``We're also committed to doing the music of living composers. For this concert, our finale is 'Missa Florens' by Dale Jergenson.''

Thornburgh said that one of the pieces being performed is titled ``70,'' an homage to the fact that both she and Jergenson turn 70 this year. The group also is collaborating with the Panharmonic Steel Drum Orchestra for the performance, titled ``A Joyful Noise.''

``Working with steel pans, you have to balance opportunities and challenges,'' she said. ``The more finessed and soft choral pieces, well, you can just forget those. But they also do an operatic medley, which is completely different. 'O mio bambino caro' is not something you expect to hear on steel drums.''

Nicknamed Bunny by her younger sister, Thornburgh grew up singing with her mother and sister, performing in public since the age of 2. Her mother always made the girls sing the parts so they wouldn't get lazy and just sing the melody, something that served Thornburgh well as she progressed in her music career.

``I was obsessive about practicing the piano,'' she said, ``so much so that my mother used to ask if I could wait to practice until she went to the store.

``Music is most interesting to me when it's a challenge. It's like any of the great masters: You'll never know everything about a piece. Whether it's the melodic or harmonic layering, texture or ornamentation, you can do a piece one way one time and it can be completely different the next time.

``A lot of what we hear on radio and television isn't something I would call music. So many things are produced that have nothing to do with singing and everything to do with technology. Rap is really just rhythmic speaking, not music. I would love to hear some of these 17- or 18-year-old kids with a hit song try and do something by Cole Porter.''

She was quick to point out that early musicians had the same problems.

``There was a lot of garbage in the early centuries,'' she said. ``It's interesting when there are concerts that herald a famous artist's early works, they're billed as 'hardly ever heard' pieces. Well, there's a reason for that.''

Thornburgh prefers to work in her sacred spaces, which she describes as ``spellbinding.''

``I tend to believe that it's no accident that sacred music deals with big, transcendent ideas,'' she said. ``They take you beyond the everyday and make you deal with life and death.''

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com

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Maurita Phillips-Thornburgh of Valencia, who is the artistic director and founder of Cantori Domino, will perform in concert at the Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood.

David Crane/Staff Photographer