With summer dormancy upon us, local choral types eager for something need to be willing to search far and wide for music to their taste. This month there are a few musical happenings on the first four weekends of August. These activities begin here between the colleges and end on the far side of Los Angeles. Each of the events, however near or far from our own area, does share this tie with us – among the people singing or working at the event is someone who also sings with us or leads us in singing here.
This Saturday we have the Cherubini Requiem as a graduate recital with choir and orchestra at Pilgrim Congregational Church in Pomona. That’s at 7:30 p.m. on 2 August, and it features involves singers usually found in local chorales or maybe local opera.
The following Friday and Saturday there are choral concerts in Pasadena and Glendale courtesy of Cal State Los Angeles. On Friday, 8 August at 7:30 p.m., the ‘CSULA Graduate Choral Concert’ is happening at the Center for the Arts, Pasadena City College, in Pasadena. At 4 p.m. on Saturday, 9 August, the Glendale City Church will be the site for the CSULA Final Summer Choral Concert. Both events are presumably related to the three summer master’s program in Choral Conducting at CSULA and are tied to us because the director of that program also directs one of our local chorales.
The following weekend we can come home to Rancho Cucamonga with “Of Wings and Prayer – a concert against malaria,” a benefit concert at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, 17 August, held at the United Methodist Church of Cucamonga, AKA ‘The Old Stone Church.’ The music is presented by the Renaissance Club and by Choralescence, with singers involved who normally direct or sing in local church choirs, or with two of our local chorales, or the Repertory Opera Company, none of which organizations being otherwise involved in this event. The composers include Byrd, Gallus, Vauter, Gibbons, Arcadelt, Morley and at least one person born after Bach.
A couple of local singers are involved with Jouyssance, an ensemble specializing in early music that is typically found in Fullerton, Pasadena or West Los Angeles. Perhaps someday or some year soon we’ll be able to hear them bring this music to a venue nearer to us, but for now, meaning Sunday the 24th, anyone interested in their Summer Early Music Singalong of Palestrina and Tallis will need to travel to West Los Angeles by 3 p.m. to take part.
Not necessarily choral:
Let’s put in a good word here for our friends at the Repertory Opera Company in Pomona, who have provided a real change of pace for some area choral types (at least four names come to mind), and are continually demonstrating how outreach can work in our community. The ROC will have some chorus involved in their August event, the ‘Manly Men of Opera’ Concert at 5 p.m. at on 17 August, at First Christian Church of Pomona.
The last news today is not of a concert but of a passing. Carson Hawk’s life will be celebrated Sunday, 3 August at 12:30 p.m. at Pilgrim Congregational Church of Pomona, where he and his late wife, Dorothy, were long time members. For many people who did not attend their church, Carson was the quiet gentleman who sat with the headphones on at the sidelines of one of our concerts for many years, recording our musical efforts for posterity.