Written by Mary Dan Eades on April 6, 2017
May 20, 2017
5:00 to 9:30 pm
Rockwood Woman’s Club
Tickets $125/ Reserved PatronTables of 8 $1800
Be transported to a posh evening themed around the iconic Masterpiece Theater series Downton Abbey, where white-gloved footmen attended the creme de la creme of English society as they dined and danced. (Period dress encouraged-choose your epoch from Edwardian grandeur to the flappers of the 20s!)
Enjoy cocktails and appetizers on the terrace and browse the SILENT auction items, then move inside to be entertained by the full Santa Barbara Choral Society chorus in our spring gala concert, reminiscent of the Promenade Concerts popular at the turn of the 20th Century. Enjoy an elegant dinner, curated by Chef Darren McGrady (former Royal Chef to Queen Elizabeth II and to the late Princess Diana and her boys) and a LIVE auction offering exciting vacation stays, including an historic villa in Provence and a London experience with a tour (by private car) to Highclere Castle, setting of Downton Abbey. Plan now to join us for this festive and fun annual event to support the choral arts!
Seating is limited, so don’t delay!
Tickets: $125 per person — including cocktails, dinner, concert, and auction — available online.
(Reserved Patron Tables for 8 available at $1800 online or contact us at 805-965-6577.)
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.