Written by Mary Dan Eades on August 22, 2018
Since 1948, the Santa Barbara Choral Society has been presenting quality music to the community. We are pleased to announce our 2018-19 season — the 26th under the leadership of Jo Anne Wasserman, Artistic Director and Conductor.
We look forward to seeing you and sharing choral music with you!
Photo: Our 70th Anniversary Concert, April, 2018.
Credit: David Bazemore.
Veterans’ Day Tribute
Sunday, November 11, 2018 – 10 am
Santa Barbara Cemetery
901 Channel Drive
Sponsored by Pierre Claeyssens’ Veterans’ Foundation and Veterans of Foreign Wars
Please join us for a moving tribute of words and music honoring our nation’s military veterans. This year marks the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day, the date on which World War I hostilities in Europe ended at eleven o’clock in the morning—the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918.
FREE to all. No ticket required.
Hallelujah Project 6
Saturday, December 8, 2018 – 7 pm
(Note that Saturday night’s concert begins an hour earlier than usual, at 7:00 PM.)
Sunday, December 9, 2018 – 3 pm
Lobero Theatre
33 E. Canon Perdido Street
Our annual family-friendly holiday concert continues with a program of traditional and classical seasonal favorites with orchestra. The Goleta Valley Junior High Chorus will join the Choral Society onstage.
We are delighted to announce that this year, film and television star Angela Cartwright will be our Special Guest narrator for “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
Ticket Prices: VIP/Patron $50; all other adults $25; kids 7 to 17 with adult $7. Tickets on sale now through the Lobero Theatre Box Office.
Visions of Peace and Freedom
Saturday, February 9, 2019 – 7 pm
Sunday, February 10, 2019 – 3 pm
First Presbyterian Church
21 E. Constance Avenue (at State Street)
This concert features Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, written only a couple of years before the outbreak of World War II. We also present the Santa Barbara premiere of Ron Kean’s The Journey of Harriet Tubman, composed in tribute to the former slave and abolitionist.
Ticket Prices: $10 adult open seating and $50 VIP/Patron Reserved section (VIP ticket includes pre-concert reception); just $7 kids 7 to 17 with adult.
Verdi’s Requiem with the Santa Barbara Symphony
Saturday, April 13, 2019 – 8 pm
Sunday, April 14, 2019 – 3 pm
The Granada Theatre
1214 State Street
Nir Kabaretti, Conductor. In collaboration with fellow community choral groups
Tickets on sale now through The Granada Theatre Box Office.
Annual Gala: Springtime in Paris
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Rockwood Woman’s Club
670 Mission Canyon Road
Our annual celebration showcases the chorus in concert, along with cocktails, dinner, and auction.
Tickets available through sbchoral.org after January 1, 2019.
Memorial Day Tribute to the Armed Services
Monday, May 27, 2019
Santa Barbara Cemetery
901 Channel Drive
Sponsored by Pierre Claeyssens’ Veterans Foundation.
Please join us in this moving tribute of music and words honoring the sacrifices of our military men and women.
FREE to all, no ticket required.
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.