OUR 2023-24 SEASON
2023-2024 marks our 76th Anniversary season which celebrates the Past + Present + Future.
Past Events

Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Oak Park 75
A potluck picnic and “Beer choir” (i.e. sing-along). Beer and soft beverages provided. Bring food for yourself and enough to share with four other people. Songbooks will be provided. (No rehearsal necessary.)
Oak Park
600 West Alamar
Santa Barbara, CA 93105

Saturday, May 6, & Sunday, May 7, 2023
Mozart to Modern
The Choral Society will perform Mozart’s Requiem and music by living composers such as Christopher Tin, Rollo Dillworth, and Ola Gjeilo accompanied by full orchestra.
First Presbyterian Church

Friday, Mar. 31, 2023
Voctave at Hahn Hall
The season’s hottest ticket! Voctave, the world renowned 11-person a cappella group, will wow you their style and impressive vocal talents. Gala Party celebrating our 75th and Jo Anne’s 30th season anniversary immediately follows the concert.

Saturday, Feb. 18 & Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023
For the Love of Music
A contemplative and evocative musical valentine featuring inspirational songs from the Rennaisance to American Spirituals in a sacred setting.
Trinity Episcopal Church

Saturday, Dec. 10 & Sunday, Dec 11, 2022
The Hallelujah Project
Launch your holiday season with our perrennial favorite “The Hallelujah Project”at the Lobero Theatre, Dec.10 and 11 with its seasonal classics and traditional holiday music, performed by chorus, orchestra and the angelic voices of children, who are drawn this year from The Music Academy’s SING! program.
Lobero Theatre

Friday, November 11, 2022
Veterans Day Ceremony
Sponsored by Pierre Claeyssens’ Veterans Foundation. Please join us at the Santa Barbara Cemetery on Veterans Day for this moving tribute of music and words honoring the sacrifices of our military personnel. FREE to all, no ticket required.
Santa Barbara Cemetery

Saturday, Oct. 15 & Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022
Carmina Burana
The Choral Society will play a supporting role in the Santa Barbara Symphony’s spectacular production of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana along with State Street Ballet, Quire of Voyces, and children from the Music Academy SING! Program.
The Granada Theatre

Postponed
Concert of Remembrance and Resilience
A welcoming and reflective concert with selections from both classical and contemporary composers, timeless Black spirituals, and songs from many countries around the world.

Monday, May 30, 2022
Memorial Day Tribute to the Armed Services
Sponsored by Pierre Claeyssens’ Veterans Foundation. Please join us in this moving tribute of music and words honoring the sacrifices of our military personnel. FREE to all, no ticket required.
Santa Barbara Cemetery

Saturday, May 21, 2022
Community Sings
The Choral Society presents a rare opportunity for area singers to spend a day working on their vocal performance skills with celebrated choral conductor Dr. Eugene Rogers.
Lehmann Hall, Music Academy of the West

Saturday, April 23, 2022
Groovy Gala at Rockwood
Flower Power Silent Auction on the terrace with mellow 60’s music. Then inside for a Beatles Love, Love, Love Concert by the FAB Choral Society Singers, with Jo Anne Wasserman conducting. Enjoy a Sock It To Me Live Auction and get down dancing to Pop, Motown, Surf Rock and British Invasion tunes. What a night!!
Rockwood Woman’s Club

Saturday, May 14 & Sunday, May 15, 2022
Pax + Amare
Duruflé’s Requiem and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs
The ethereal, intimate setting of “Pie Jesu” is the essence of the Duruflé Requiem, which shares a 20th century vision vastly unlike other Requiem masses. The serenity of “In Paradisum” conjures visions of angels welcoming weary souls to rest. Come listen and be at peace.
First Presbyterian Church

Saturday, December 18 and Sunday, December 19, 2021
Handel’s Messiah
The Messiah, Part 1 and “Hallelujah” Chorus
Hallelujah! The holiday spirit comes alive with the rousing Hallelujah Chorus from The Messiah. Come listen to this and all of the Part I “Christmas Section” of Handel’s immortal masterwork. ’Tis the season!
Hahn Hall, Music Academy of the West
SOLD OUT

Thursday, November 11, 2021
Veteran's Day Ceremony
Sponsored by Pierre Claeyssens’ Veterans Foundation. Please join us at the Santa Barbara Cemetery on Veterans Day for this moving tribute of music and words honoring the sacrifices of our military personnel. FREE to all, no ticket required.
Santa Barbara Cemetery
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.