Written by Mary Dan Eades on December 26, 2014
Hallelujah Project 2 Lobero Theatre December 13/14, 2014
Longtime music director JoAnne Wasserman was in her element when the Santa Barbara Choral Society played its second annual The Hallelujah! Project at the Lobero.
The sold-out concert, which of course included Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, was a wonderful Yuletide miscellany of seasonal cheer featuring the Santa Barbara Children’s Chorus, under executive director Paul Freeman, and actress Stephanie Zimbalist, doing a delightful rocking chair rendition of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, narrated last year by Montecito best-selling author Fannie Flagg, wonderfully attired in flannelette pajamas.
Stephanie is a regular performer in our Eden by the Beach, having acted with the Ensemble Theatre in the Kate Hepburn one-woman play Tea at Five, The Lion in Winter, and, last year, the New Vic’s debut production, Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.
The show kicked off with Personent Hodie, Bach’s “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”, another version, by English composer John Rutter and the music from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, before wrapping with the “Wassail Carol” and “Sleighride”. Afterward Stephanie, the choir, and top patrons attended a reception in a tented locale behind the theater. The big question: Who will fill the rocking chair next year?
American baritone, Ralph Cato has travelled the world extensively, telling stories in song with his warm, clarion baritone voice.
Tenor, Benjamin Brecher has performed over fifty operatic roles with many of the world’s most prestigious opera companies, specializing in the high lying lyric tenor repertoire. He has performed 16 roles with New York City Opera alone. Career highlights include performances with Opera Orchestra of New York, L’Opera de Nice, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, L’Opera de Montreal, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, among many others. His orchestral solo repertoire includes Mozart, Handel, Orff, Bach, Haydn, as well as many performances of Britten. In 2000 he began performing the great Irish Tenor songs in a concert produced for him entitled A Celtic Celebration, Twenty years later, the show has become a North American hit with performances with 45 Symphonies in North America. Ben continues his discography having added his twelfth recording in 2016 Forgotten Liszt, with pianist Robert Koenig, and will record a new release in 2022 entitled “Three Centuries of Thomas Moore” including the music of Britten, Berlioz, and Sarah Gibson on MSR Classics. He is a Professor of Voice at University of California Santa Barbara, where he has served as the Head of Voice.
Tracy Van Fleet is pleased to return to the Santa Barbara Choral Society. As a soloist, she has performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Lüneburg Symphony in Germany, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río in Mexico, Pasadena Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Los Angeles Bach Festival, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Philharmonic, USC Symphony and Chorus, and others. She has had many appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Opera Pacific, San Diego Opera and Opera Colorado.
Born and raised in Southern California, April Amante is a versatile soprano with expertise and facility in repertoire spanning from early music to contemporary musical theater.