Written by Mary Dan Eades on October 1, 2019
Don’t miss this one-night-only triple bill at The Granada, a Choral Society and State Street Ballet collaboration, with the Choral Society and Orchestra conducted by Jo Anne Wasserman. Featuring choreography by William Soleau, set to American composer Leonard Bernstein’s powerful Chichester Psalms, with chorus, orchestra, and countertenor Jacob Hall; renowned composer Morten Lauridsen’s ethereal Lux Aeterna, and Aaron Copland’s moving Appalachian Spring, danced masterfully by State Street Ballet.
Tickets available at The Granada Theatre Box Office
899-2222
American Masters Choral Society Sponsors
Brooks and Kate Firestone
Richard and Marilyn Mazess
Diane Dodds-Reichert and David Reichert
The Walter and Holly O. Thomson Foundation
The Schlinger-Chrisman Foundation
Chichester Psalms is presented by arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., Sole Agent for Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company LLC, publisher and copyright owner. Lux Aeterna is used by permission of Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Appalachian Spring is presented by arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.
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.