Written by Mary Dan Eades on January 14, 2019
Join the Santa Barbara Choral Society and orchestra, under the baton of Jo Anne Wasserman, as we pay tribute to composers of the 20th and 21st centuries with Visions of Peace and Freedom.
Saturday, February 9 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, February 10 at 3:00 p.m.
First Presbyterian Church
21 E. Constance Avenue
Santa Barbara
• Ralph Vaughan Williams’ powerful Dona Nobis Pacem, a plea for
peace that was composed only a few years before the outbreak of
World War II, comprises the first portion of the program. This cantata, written for chorus with full orchestra, uses text taken from the Bible and poems by Walt Whitman.
• In celebration of Black History Month, we present the Santa Barbara premiere of The Journey of Harriet Tubman by Ron Kean. This moving piece is comprised of spirituals, and incorporates West African instruments as well as multimedia to enhance the story of Harriet Tubman’s path to freedom.
• Additional spirituals by Rollo Dilworth and Shawn Kirchner complete the concert.
Soprano Jill Burdick and Baritone Ralph Cato join us for this special
concert. Don’t miss it!
Tickets: only $10 general admission adult/$7 for kids 7-17. VIP tickets $50 includes Saturday pre-concert or Sunday post-concert reception.
Tickets for both performances will be available for purchase at the door.
Major funding for this concert provided by Diane Dodds Reichert and David Reichert.
Additional funding was provided by The Ann Jackson Family Foundation and
The Towbes Fund for the Performing Arts, a field of interest fund of the Santa Barbara Foundation.
Our programs are funded in part by the Community Organizational Development Grant program using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture.
Thank you to our media sponsors
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.