Choirs Rising

I just looked it up. Festal describes something related to a feast or festival, which makes it certainly appropriate to this season. On that note, it’s right that nearly a third of the twenty-nine choral events listed here from the 1st through the 15th of December feature both food and singing. If you favor the combination of music and feast, however, you had better be quick, as these events are filling up fast.

Just about every college choral program from Walnut to Rancho Cucamonga and each of our area chorales will be singing in a span of eleven days, a musical feast of its own. Not all of these programs choose to let you know what’s on the menu ahead of time, but the known composers include Bach, Beethoven, Britten (five concerts), Bruckener, Buxtehude, Elgar, Haydn, Hogan, Holst, Lauridsen, Mendelssohn, Parry, Pärt, Paulus, Rutter, Stanford, Tavenor, Vivaldi, Walton and Wood.

It that all?
By no means are the performances below all of the choral music happening between the two colleges in December. There are dozens of other concerts and services, beginning with any number of school choirs whose concerts may be discoverable on social media or in school notices, and special services, concerts and pageants at local places of worship through the 25th of the month. Some of this flood of choral activity will find its way to this page in the next post or the one after, but much will pass unnoticed here.

Care to help?
Do you know of any high school concert, special cantata in a worship service or other choral event at a local church, temple, synagogue or school in December? If the service or concert is open to the public and you would like to spread the word, please provide me details of the event/service/concert as soon as possible. One way to do this is to use the comments function of this page, and I will try to confirm the event and any links and include it as soon as I can. If you are a local choral director or other member of our choral community participating in an event a bit outside of our area, you are most welcome to put news of this in the comments as well. Any help we can provide each other helps promote choral music for everyone.

Considering the tenor of tonight’s page, I think I’ll give the King’s singers the last word.

The Boar’s Head Carol

Choral events through Sunday, 15 December

Tuesday, 3 December
7:00 p.m., Walnut High School “Winter Choir Concert,” Walnut

Wednesday, 4 December
7:00 p.m., Etiwanda High School “Winter Choir Concert,” Rancho Cucamonga
7:00 p.m., Walnut High School “Winter Choir Concert,” Walnut

Thursday, 5 December
6:00 p.m., Mount San Antonio College, 16th Annual Wassail Dinner & Concert (No ticket sales after 2 Dec.), Walnut
8:00 p.m., Cal Poly Pomona Kellogg Chamber Singers & University Concert Choir, Pomona

Friday, 6 December
6:00 p.m., Mount San Antonio College, 16th Annual Wassail Dinner & Concert (No ticket sales after 2 Dec.), Walnut
8:00 p.m., Pomona College Choir, Hymn to St. Cecilia by Britten, and works by Tavenor, Bruckner, Mendelssohn and others

Saturday, 7 December
3:00 p.m., The Claremont Chorale, “An Olde English Christmas;” with A Ceremony of Carols by Britten, with music of Rutter, Walton and Wood, Claremont
6:00 p.m., Mount San Antonio College, 16th Annual Wassail Dinner & Concert (No ticket sales after 2 Dec.), Walnut
7:30 p.m. Chaffey College Concert Choir & Ensemble Singers, “Pilgrimage: Songs of Travel and Adoration,” music of Buxtehude, Vivaldi, Haydn, Elgar, Paulus, Lauridsen, Hogan, etc., Rancho Cucamonga
7:30 p.m., The Claremont Chorale, “An Olde English Christmas;” with A Ceremony of Carols by Britten, and music of Rutter, Walton & Wood, Claremont
7:30 p.m., Windsong Southland Chorale, Christmas Concert, with A Ceremony of Carols, by Britten, and other works, La Verne

Sunday, 8 December
3:00 p.m., Pomona College Choir, Hymn to St. Cecilia by Britten, and music by Tavenor, Bruckner, Mendelssohn and others

Monday, 9 December
7:30 p.m. University of La Verne Gospel Choir, Contemporary Choir of Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles “A Gospel Music Extravaganza Concert,” La Verne

Tuesday, December 10
12:00 p.m., “Claremont High School Choral Singers – Holiday Music” University Club of Claremont

Wednesday, 11 December
6:45 p.m. Ayala High School “Madrigal Feaste,” Chino Hills
7:00 p.m., Alto Loma High School Band, Choir and Dance Concert, Rancho Cucamonga

Thursday 12 December
6:00 p.m., Upland High School 27th Annual Elizabethan Dinner (other performances sold out), Upland
6:45 p.m. Ayala High School “Madrigal Feaste,” Chino Hills
7:00 p.m., Alto Loma High School Band, Choir and Dance Concert, Rancho Cucamonga

Friday, 13 December
12:15 p.m., The Claremont Chamber Choir, “Friday Noon Concert Series,” music of Bach, Pärt, Lauridsen and others, Claremont
6:00 p.m., Upland High School 27th Annual Elizabethan Dinner, (other performances sold out) Upland
6:45 p.m. Ayala High School “Madrigal Feaste,” Chino Hills
8:00 p.m., University of La Verne, “Winter Choral Concert,” La Verne

Saturday 14 December
6:45 p.m. Ayala High School “Madrigal Feaste,” Chino Hills
7:30 p.m., Mountainside Master Chorale, “Organ Extravaganza,” includes music by Holst, Stanford, Parry, Claremont
8:00 p.m., The Claremont Concert Choir, Claremont Concert Orchestra with the Claremont Chorale, Symphony No. 9 in d minor, Beethoven, Claremont

Sunday, 15 December
3:00 p.m., The Claremont Concert Choir, Claremont Concert Orchestra with the Claremont Chorale, Symphony No. 9 in d minor, Beethoven, Claremont
3:30 p.m., Mountainside Master Chorale, “Organ Extravaganza,” includes music by Holst, Stanford, Parry, Claremont
6:00 p.m., University of La Verne, “Winter Choral Concert,” La Verne