Written by Mary Dan Eades on March 3, 2018
Come join us to celebrate 70 years of Choral Society history!
ONLINE TICKET SALES NOW CLOSED – TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR
As the Choral Society turns 70 and Conductor Jo Anne Wasserman takes the podium in her 25th season, she’s planned a 70th Anniversary Concert repertoire that spans the choral canon from the classical to the modern, reflective of the uninterrupted journey from SBCS’s inception just post WWII to today. The program will begin with Josef Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (Mass for Troubled Times, better known as the “Lord Nelson Mass”) featuring chorus, orchestra, and a quartet of amazing solo voices: Rena Harms, Soprano; Nina Yoshida Nelsen, Mezzo; Benjamin Brecher, Tenor; and Ralph Cato, Bass. Bringing it forward, the concert’s second half will shine the spotlight on modern composers–a key tenet of our Mission–with works of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ola Gjeilo, and Christopher Tin.
The choice of Mass for Troubled Times is especially poignant in light of the recent catastrophic fire, flood, and mud that has beset our community and the loss of life that it wrought. Our times have certainly been troubled of late. We have collectively been besieged by cataclysmic weather instead of the predations of war, as was the case in Austria when Haydn penned this work, but like the Austrian audiences of his day, we cry out as one for a return of peace and safety. And like them we can find solace in the same powerful music. Join your friends and neighbors to come together and let this glorious Mass wash over you and bring you peace.
To celebrate our septuagenarian status, Ms. Wasserman plans to invite all SBCS alumni (former singers) to attend and join the chorus in concert to sing one selection from the last of Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs. Those who wish to do so, should contact our office via email (info@sbchoral.org) or by phone (805-965-6577) for more information. (Score and opportunities to rehearse in advance will be arranged.)
Saturday April 7 at 8 pm
Sunday April 8 at 3 pm
First Presbyterian Church
State and Constance St.
Tickets: $25 adults open seating, $70 VIP* section, $7 kids 7 to 17 with adult – ONLINE TICKET SALES NOW CLOSED – TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR
(*VIP seating includes invitation to pre-concert reception Saturday or post-concert reception Sunday)
SBCS ALUMNI SPECIAL OFFER – call our office to take advantage of a BUY 1 GET 1 FREE ticket offer as a 70th Anniversary ‘Homecoming’ gift!
BUY TICKETS ONLINE or call our office at 805-965-6577.
Special thanks to Hutton Parker Foundation and Northern Trust for making our 70th Annviversary insert possible. Read the full insert here.
We also wish to thank our concert sponsors and media sponsors:
Masterworks Sponsors: Brooks and Kate Firestone and Diane Dodds Reichert
Our season is funded in part by an Organizational Development Grant program using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.
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.