Written by Mary Dan Eades on June 26, 2015
SBCS Conductor JoAnne Wasserman with honoree Dr. Morten Lauridsen and Board VP Debra Stewart
If you are interested in joining us on a marvelous musical adventure through Italy in June 2016, here’s the information you’ll want to know about the trip and how to get started! The links below will tell you what you need to know and how to go about signing up!
For the most current day by day itinerary, click this link:
Italy 2016 Itinerary rev Dec 1 2015
For basic information, costs, and payment options, click the link below!
Italy 2016 Itinerary rev Dec 1 2015
For basic information on costs and payment options, click the link below:
Italy 2016 New Traveler Information Package 2 rev 111615
Click the link below to print the Preliminary Traveler Agreement form. (Required of all travelers, regardless of age.) Please fill out and return a scan by email to info@sbchoral.org or by mail to our office at 1330 State Street, Suite 202, Santa Barbara, CA 93101.
SBCS Tour Italy 2016 Preliminary Traveler Agreement (2)
Required of every traveler, regardless of age; please download and fill out the required ACFEA Tour Participant Profile (TPP) form and return it to our office by email or mail to 1330 State Street, Suite 202, SB, CA 93101. To get the TPP, click the blue link below.
Tour Variances (Land Only or flight variances)
All those going Land Only or having ACFEA arrange alternate air travel that differs in any way from the scheduled flight itinerary (fly with the main group out of LAX or SFO on June 14 and return from Milan on June 26) must fill out the Individual Travel Request for ACFEA. Click one of the blue links below to download this form. Select the LAX form if coming from LA area. Select the SFO form if coming from the Bay Area. Select LAX if coming from elsewhere. Complete and return by email or mail to our office at 1330 State Street, Suite 202, SB, CA 93101.
For information on how to make payments through our online ‘gift store’, click this link:
How to Make Scheduled Italy 2016 Tour Payment Online on SBCS Website
For information (only) about TravelGard traveler’s insurance (the one recommended by ACFEA) click the blue Travel Guard link below: (Please note that neither this nor any other traveler’s insurance is sold through SBCS or ACFEA. If you decide you want to purchase traveler’s insurance, which is a good idea, it is a separate expense that you will arrange yourself with this company or another of your choosing. Online comparison sites, such as insuremytrip.com can be helpful in deciding what product to purchase.)
Italy 2016 Travel Guard Insurance Information copy
For singers, the proposed repertoire of our two orchestral concerts will be Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna paired with a Mozart or Haydn work from the standard choral repertoire (Mozart Requiem, for instance or Mozart or Haydn Mass.) We will also perform three piano accompanied concerts, which will be a collection of short pieces, including works by American composers (Dr. Lauridsen, Stephen Paulus, and others), as well as several African American spirituals and gospels that our European audiences so love. Click the link below for the full repertoire.
Italy 2016 tour program repertoire.
We will use the Barenreiter edition of Mozart Requiem, which if you need, please let me know, and the Peer Music vocal score edition of Lauridsen Lux Aeterna. All music for the shorter pieces will be assembled and delivered to each singing tour member well in advance to facilitate your independent work on those pieces unfamiliar to you.
Conductor JoAnne Wasserman will expect that you know all music well prior to our departure for Europe. There will be one required scheduled state side rehearsals in Santa Barbara on April 30 that all singers are strongly encouraged to attend.
Please note: prospective singers who do not currently sing with SBCS (or one of the two previously approved choruses, UC Berkeley Alumni Chorus and Pacific Pro Musica) must receive prior approval by Conductor JoAnne Wasserman to sing on the tour.
Performance Wardrobe
Final decision, TBA, but the plan is as follows:
Gentlemen: Black Tie (tux) ensemble, black socks, black closed-toed, soft soled shoes, black performance folder for music.
Ladies: Standard SBCS black 2-piece choral gown, black closed-toed, soft-soled shoes, black performance folder for music. UCAC ladies, we will try to outfit you, if possible. More to come.
We are contemplating a cooler, lighter outfit for the three non-orchestral concerts and will be in touch about that in due course.
This is going to be a wonderful and most memorable experience that you won’t want to miss
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.