Works of Ola Gjeilo to be part of Masterworks 2014
Written by Mary Dan Eades on February 15, 2014
Born in Norway in 1978, 34-year old Ola Gjeilo moved to the United States in 2001 to study composition at the Juilliard School. Although he composes primarily choral music, he has also written for piano and for wind symphony. In 2012, the award-winning Phoenix Chorale recorded a CD, titled Northern Lights, consisting entirely of his ethereal compositions. That CD was named Best Classical Vocal Album of the Year by iTunes and earned Gjeilo well-deserved praise as a “rising star” in the classical music world. If you are unfamiliar with his work, you won’t want to miss our upcoming Masterworks 2014 at the Lobero, which will include four of his pieces: Ubi Caritas, The Ground, Prelude, and Northern Lights. Listen once and you’ll become a Gjeilo fan for life! The concert will also include choral masterworks by Franz Josef Haydn, Anton Bruckner, and American choral luminary, Morten Lauridsen.
Masterworks 2014
at the Lobero Theatre
Sat March 29 at 8 pm
Sun March 30 at 3 pm
Tickets: $40, $30, and $20
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.