February is a normally quiet choral month. Most big choruses and colleges begin their spring concerts in March, and church choirs are mainly planning major efforts for the week of Easter. This year is much the same, but there are some choral kind of events, the first of which is only a few hours away as these words are being written.
The Repertory Opera Company of Pomona will hold its Serenades of Love at 4 o’clock this afternoon at First Christian Church of Pomona. The ROC shares its singers with local choirs and chorales, which is one reason for mentioning them there, besides their deliberate work to incorporate area kids in their productions. The kids are there today, and of course some opera choruses.
On Sunday (8 February) the small ensemble Cantori Sine Nomine, from Chorale Bel Canto, will appear at the University of La Verne to sing Musikalische Exequien by Heinrich Schütz. The concert is at 4 p.m. There is some conflicting information between the Chorale Bel Canto web site and that of the ULV music department regarding tickets for the event. An inquiry with the chorale contact address may be in order before choosing to come.
Under the category of events a bit outside of the area involving locals, there is the Brehm Center Festival of Worship at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on 15 February, at 7 p.m. This word came to us from a local choir director whose singers are going.
Ash Wednesday follows on the 18th, for which there may be special choir music, but there’s no news here yet. If you know of something…
The first spring concert of the six local collegiate programs will be on the last Sunday of February, at 3:00 p.m. in Garrison Theater, Claremont. The Claremont Concert Choir & The Claremont Chamber Choir are presenting ‘Folksongs From Around the World.’
The final bit of choral music known to be in the between two colleges area is part of the Musicians Club program at Chino United Methodist Church at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 24 February. The program is all Brahms, of which about half is choral music.
There was no concert on the first holiday of February, one long known in other parts of the world as Candlemas. Here it involves burrowing animals and weather forecasts, but not choral music. The ancient carol used by Britten called it Candelmesse, making sense of this essay’s title. The last words today are given to people than Britten.