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Chorale Looks Forward to Exciting New Season!

As we approach the fall, I’m thrilled to write about our coming 32^nd season of exceptional performances of beautiful choral music. Our all-volunteer professional level chorale will introduce many new features this season, as we continue to enrich our greater San Gabriel Valley community through the presentation of world-class music. It’s shaping up to be an amazing year!

We’re continuing and expanding our artistic collaborations. Twenty young singers from Rio Hondo College will join us again this season, along with Rio Hondo professor Dr. Linda West Brown, our accompanist and Associate Conductor.

Our first concert, Love Songs Through the Ages, explores the myriad aspects of love as expressed by composers over five centuries, from madrigals to George Gershwin and the Beatles.

We invite you to join us at our Open Rehearsal “Friendraiser” on October 14^th at 7:30 p.m. in Arnold Hall on the Whittier College campus, 13406 E. Philadelphia St., at the corner of Painter Avenue, for mingling, munching, and a foretaste of the music of our first concert.

Christmas with Chorale Bel Canto this season centers on a major choral work, Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria, and includes traditional carols and our well-loved audience sing-along.

For our third concert, we’re expanding our long-time participation in the 77^th Whittier College Bach Festival through a closer collaboration with the Whittier College Music Department. Expect to experience many new programming features as we lead up to the Festival and its major concerts: Bach’s Lunch, Bach Talk, Bach-in-a-Minute, Bach ‘n’ All, and many more!

We’ve also been invited after the Festival to reprise our performance of Bach’s Cantata BWV 11: Ascension Oratorio and Cantata BWV 80: Ein’ feste Burg as guest participants in the Bach Festival at Red Hill Lutheran Church in Tustin.

For our final concert of the season, America Sings!, we’re engaging in a new collaboration with the Claremont Chorale, under the direction of Gregory Norton. We’ll sing music by Randall Thompson, Aaron Copland, and a concert version of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with 130 singers, guest soloists, and a full orchestra at the Garrison Theatre in Claremont and at the Downey Civic Theatre.

Last, but very much not least, we’ve begun the Chorale Bel Canto Guild, under the presidential leadership of Kayana Sullivan. We invite you to join the Guild and enjoy the pleasures of an even closer relationship with the singers as well as the opportunity to assist in the presentation of our concerts.

We are proud to offer such a varied and meaningful variety of musical experiences to our audience this season, and we’re intent on increasing our communication with you. We’re very proud of our new website, and invite you to visit us at www.ChoraleBelCanto.org. We’ve expanded our online newsletter to a bi-monthly publication, and we invite you to subscribe. We’re also increasing the frequency of posts on our blog. If you’re not currently receiving email from the Chorale, please update your information with us by calling 888-640-9222 or contacting us on the web.

We look forward to seeing you at our concerts this season. You always have our deepest gratitude as a patron—you enjoy the music!

Linda de Vries

Singer and Chair of the Board of Directors

Oh, it's getting close. In just one week we will be starting rehearsals. Now, granted, I don't write many posts, but, it's okay... I'm a photographer. So, brace yourself... Very soon, pictures arrive.. andthe blog will come to life.

Click on our website link ASAP... we have an early bird special happening.. and it ends on the 15th. Two free tickets to concerts of your choice with the purchase of a season subscription. HOW COOL IS THAT ??

- David

Chorale Bel Canto Sings in President's Home State

          

“Absent Buses and Present Friends”

by Linda de Vries

July 4, 2013. Four members of Chorale Bel Canto joined over 50 other singers from all over the United States to sing “Salute to Valor” aboard the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i.

The concert was the culmination of a combination tour and rehearsal process. Under the musical direction of conductor Wesley Martin (the director of the All American Boys’ Chorus in Costa Mesa, California) and the piano accompaniment of Stephanie King, the choir met for morning rehearsals in a banquet room of the Waikiki Hilton Hotel and toured Honolulu in the afternoons and evenings.

The arrangements, organized by Corporate Travel Service, allowed for both group events and lots of individual free time. We arrived in Honolulu on June 29^th, coming from Florida to California and states in between. We were delighted to realize we had a beautiful view of the bay from our hotel windows and could walk just two blocks to the beach at Waikiki.

June 30^th began with a morning rehearsal. In the afternoon we were given a “Little Circle” coach tour of the entire island of Oahu, with stops along the way to photograph breath-taking coastal views. Dinner was on our own, and Mark and Nancy Hodgson of Chorale Bel Canto took the opportunity to add to their collection of revolving restaurants!

We had the day to ourselves on July 1^st, and CBC my fellow alto, Brigitta Weger, and I headed to Hanauma Bay to swim and snorkel—the first time for me! After waiting for the city bus for over an hour, we finally joined with another couple from the Choir of the Sound and a woman from Arizona unconnected with our tour and taxied to the bay. Warm water, kindly people, new friends, a beautiful view, gorgeous fish, and no sunburn! Again facing bus problems we taxied back with a group of “twenty-somethings” from Germany and Switzerland—more new acquaintances!

After morning rehearsal on July 2^nd, Brigitta and I walked to a nearby hotel to pick up a shuttle bus to a submarine ride. Today we found the theme of our tour--“absent buses and present friends.” Again, the shuttle company almost left us! Our slightly anxious wait ended happily, though, and we made a new friend, a young woman from Azerbaijan who is a graduate student at the University of Colorado. First time in a submarine for all three of us! The evening was occupied with a group luau and Polynesian dance show at another nearby hotel.

Morning rehearsal and then Brigitta and I headed north to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a full day of cultural immersion, dinner, and another show, “Ka: The Breath of Life.” The Cultural Center is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and staffed mostly by students of the Honolulu Brigham Young University. Again, while awaiting the glad-we-caught it shuttle, we met three new friends from our group!

First, overlooking a central lagoon, we viewed dance performances from each of the Polynesian cultures as they passed by us on oared rafts—Hawai’i, Tonga, New Zealand, Samoa, Fiji. Next, we took a canal boat ride through the center of all the different “villages,” followed by a walking tour. As we moved from village to village we were able to witness basket weaving, take a hula lesson, practice throwing fishing spears, eat freshly made poi, and watch a Maori dance presentation in the New Zealand meeting house.

On July 4^th our group toured the USS Arizona monument before gathering on the USS Missouri for dress rehearsal. The monument sits atop the sunken Arizona itself, and from within you can see, not far below the surface, the still-rusting portions of the ship. A natural, quiet hush pervaded the crowd as we stood atop the graves of so many seamen.

Mark and Nancy Hodgson Depart the USS Arizona Memorial

The large, tented performance area on the deck of “Mighty Mo” was filled to capacity for our climactic event, a musical festival to honor the men and women of the United States Military and commemorate our national holiday of Independence.

Brigitta Weger and Linda de Vries at Hanauma Bay, Oahu

The Entrance to the USS Missouri

The concert included traditional and contemporary compositions by Irving Berlin, John Williams, Randall Thompson, and others, with a beautiful rendition of the traditional “Hawaiian Wedding song” sung by Dolores Chambers and Michael Carter, and an audience sing-along on “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.” Before ending with “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the choir sang a medley of the anthems of each of the armed services, with members asked to stand when their salute was sung.

In every concert I sing there is always a moment that evokes tears for me, but as men and women stood throughout the audience and members of the choir who had served raised their arms in salute, I could barely summon voice. On their feet in applause, the audience clapped us out to a rousing encore of “Proud Mary.”

After the concert, the wonderful Corporate Travel staff was ready with a bottle of iced water for each singer, and that night they treated us to a sunset dinner cruise of the harbor, where we were wowed by a brilliant red, white, and blue fireworks display! Quite the day.

BIDDING WAR!!!

ROUND TWO!!
CURRENT BID IS 200.00

Bidding closed and winner awarded!

Members of the Chorale, I have an interesting announcement to make.

Jane and Stuart Gothold have a box 

(In the Terrace Section, near the center, for 4 people) 

at the 

Hollywood Bowl. 

They would like to put it up for auction and the money they make will be 

donated to the Chorale. 

Really good seats and an outstanding concert ...

(More info in attached jpg)

Bidding will end July 30th @ 10PM

( unless there is a realllll battle going on )

Let the bidding begin.

Let the bids begin by entering your bid in the comment section

-David

 Tue AUG 27 8:00pm  Hollywood Bowl

The Russian Resistance

Classical Tuesdays

Los Angeles Philharmonic

Leon Botstein, conductor

Jennifer Koh, violin

PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 2

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 10