Written by Mary Dan Eades on August 30, 2017
Since our founding in 1948, we’ve been singing for Santa Barbara continuously for 70 years, offering area singers the opportunity to study and perform great choral masterworks and by those performances contribute to keeping the works alive for the cultural benefit of our community locally, regionally, and even globally. Though now, as we begin our 70th Season, we’re almost three-quarters of a century along, here’s a small piece out of our history from 20 years ago…
This season marks not only our 70th anniversary season, but also Conductor JoAnne Wasserman’s 25th holding the baton. Ms. Wasserman has planned a repertoire that includes some music never performed during her 25 year tenure, such as the Lord Nelson Mass. Here’s what’s up:
- November 11, 2017 – 10 am – Veterans’ Day Tribute sponsored by Pierre Claeyssens’ Veterans’ Foundation at Santa Barbara Cemetery.
- FREE to all. No ticket required.
- December 9 and 10, 2017 – Hallelujah Project 5 at the Lobero Theatre – the family friendly holiday musical tradition continues with a program of traditional and classical seasonal favorites, this year, including the Vivaldi Gloria. Special Guest narrator will be film and television star, Angela Cartwright, beloved for her roles from Make Room for Daddy to Sound of Music to Lost in Space.
- Tickets $25 Adult open seating; $70 VIP/Patron (includes post-concert reception; $7 kids 7 to 17 with adult, same section. BUY TICKETS TO HP5
- February 17 and 18, 2018 – Tribute to Leonard Bernstein with Santa Barbara Symphony, Nir Kabaretti conductor, on the 100th anniversary of the great composer’s birth, at The Granada.
- Tickets available through granada.org after September 15. BUY TICKETS TO BERNSTEIN
- April 7 and 8, 2018 – Masterworks: Haydn Lord Nelson Mass, Vaughn Williams’ Benedicite, and a tribute to SBCS alumni, who will be invited to join the chorus in singing a final number. At First Presbyterian Church.
- Tickets: $25 Adult open seating; $70 VIP/Patron Reserved section (includes pre- or post-concert reception); $5 kids 7 to 17 with adult, same section. BUY TICKETS TO HAYDN
- May 19, 2018 – ‘Sentimental Journey’ Our 70th Anniversary Gala at Rockwood Woman’s Club. Featuring the SBCS chorus in a concert of music from the 1940s, plus cocktails, dinner, and live and silent auctions of fabulous vacation stays and themed items.
- Tickets available from sbchoral.org after January 1, 2018.
- May 2018 – Memorial Day Tribute to the Armed Services sponsored by Pierre Claeyssens’ Veterans Foundation at the Santa Barbara Cemetery.
- FREE to all, no ticket required.
Santa Barbara Choral Society – Verdi’s “Requiem” 5/16/09
Granada Theatre
Take a sentimental journey back to read about our founding and history here.
Join us for this landmark season! We look forward to seeing you in the audience!
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.