The discovered theme for April choral music ‘between two colleges’ happily turns out to be choral collaboration, for three of five programs in the month involve at least two different choirs.
First, with the most choirs and ensembles of the five April programs, though perhaps not more singers, is the benefit concert ‘Bread On The Waters: feeding hope through song,’ at the First United Methodist Church of Upland (262 N. Euclid Ave., Upland) at 4 p.m. on Sunday 14 April. The concert features church choirs from Upland, Colton, Cucamonga, and Ontario, plus two local a cappella choruses and the Repertory Opera Company of Pomona. The free will donations given will go to support area hunger relief, in particular the work of the Inland Valley Hope Partners. Expect choral anthems, spirituals, Renaissance polyphony, and opera music, too.
At ‘Bread On The Waters,’ you may expect the Repertory Opera Company to present a preview of its own production of Mozart’s Magic Flute, which is to follow at 3 p.m. the following Saturday, 20 April, at the First Christian Church of Pomona.
On 23 April, the Musician’s Club of Pomona Valley program at Pilgrim Congregational Church is another example of choral cooperation,with the PCC choir offering ‘Gloria,’ by Mark Hayes, being joined by a number of guests usually singing with local chorales, and by the local a cappella ensemble that shares a name with this page doing a short program of its own. A further offering of the Hayes work, with chamber orchestra will be in the 28 April services at PCC.
The Pomona College Choir and Orchestra will perform the Brahms Nänie and the Haydn Mass in B-flat, “Theresienmesse,” the next weekend, first at 8 p.m. on Friday, 26 April, then again at 3 p.m. on Sunday, 28 April at Pomona College’s Bridges Hall of Music (aka Little Bridges), in Claremont.
That leaves one last local at least partly choral event in April at the University of La Verne, where the ULV music department will present “Gospel Fusion: Gershwin and Beyond,” at 8 p.m., Monday, 29 April, a program that includes both the University of La Verne Choir and the Kol HaEmek Choir of Covina among others.
Enjoy