Things are Heating Up!

Season 2013-14 has brought many changes to Chorale Bel Canto.

After 32 years we are leaving our home at Whittier College. Since our founding we have rehearsed in Arnold Hall in the Music Building on the college campus. As the Music Department has evolved and grown, however, the campus music ensembles and other music programs require the use of the space we have enjoyed on Monday nights for so long.

We have found a new rehearsal home for the coming season at Trinity Lutheran Church in Whittier, and are very excited about our new venue.

The Chorale Board of Directors has just approved a three-year Strategic Plan (2014-17) that calls for expanded outreach and educational programs, similar to our new partnership with the Whittier Public Library that debuted this March.

The move, replacement of equipment, and fulfillment of the Strategic Plan goals will require expenditures beyond our normal operating budget.

Fortunately, coincident with all these events, in April the Chorale celebrated the largest grant we have ever received, a remarkably generous $50,000 from the Pitts Family Foundation. This has enabled us to found a Legacy Society and open an investment account, pledges to the long-term future of the Chorale.

We are now engaged in a campaign to match half of the Pitts Family gift and raise an additional $25,000 by our first concert of the 2014-15 season, which will be Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore with a newly-refreshed Opera a la Carte at the Downey Civic Theatre in October.

We ask you to join us with a gift of whatever amount, a gift that will help us move into our new home, achieve the goals articulated in our Strategic Plan, and build our commitment to tomorrow. Your gift is an investment in your beliefs, your passion, and your hopes. It is not just something you give—it is something you entrust. We rely on the generosity of donors such as you to support the joy we create.

Just since April we have already received over $5,000 in matching funds for the Pitts Family gift. Watch our thermometer throughout the summer—to quote Irving Berlin:

“We’re havin’ a heat wave! The temperature’s risin’, it isn’t surprisin’—we certainly can. . . !”