What? It’s December already? Did I miss any of the annual choir stampede? Not as a singer: I’ve already sung in my longest choral concert of the season, and I’m nearly half done with seasonal singing. As listener, there have been concerts I’ve missed the last two weeks, but there are still concerts and services enough to catch before both season and year have fled. It’s impossible as usual to attend all such events, with only 24 days and fewer weekends for ensembles to schedule concerts meaning some inevitable simultaneity.
If you have a hankering for voices singing together I’ve some possibilities for you now, beginning with tomorrow, Friday, 7 December. At 8:00 p.m., The Claremont Concert Choir and the Chamber Choir Holiday Choral Concert is happening at the Claremont United Church of Christ, Congregational. Expect Christmas favorites, including from Handel’s Messiah, and perhaps some Byrd by the Chamber Choir.
The following day you could start by heading to Morgan Auditorium at the University of La Verne at 4 p.m., for the Winter Concert of the University of La Verne Chamber Singers and Chorale. Then after a spot of dinner, you could find your way to the Chaffey College Theatre for the 7:30 p.m. performance of their Winter Choral Concert, titled “Faith, Hope and Love.”
The following Friday afternoon, at 12:15 p.m., The Claremont Chamber Choir will be on its own with one of the Friday’s at Noon concert series concerts with a selection of Christmas fare, and the promise of the entire Byrd Mass of Four Voices (part of which you may hear tomorrow). Then, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, 15 December, and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, 16 December, the Mountainside Master Chorale will be offering their Christmas Fantasia at the Claremont United Church of Christ, Congregational. This concert features music by Handel, Rutter, Finzi and Vaughan Williams.
If these opportunities aren’t enough for you, there may be a ticket left to an Elizabethan Dinner in Upland, and any number of church events through Christmas Eve, including an Amahl and the Night Visitors at the Claremont United Methodist Church to consider. It’s prime time to get your tank full of choral music, for these concerts are always followed by a great lull in such music leaving us with little to hear until winter leaves in March.
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For those of you with a particular taste in the Byrd to be heard tomorrow and next week, I’m tossing in links to part of the same performed by the most excellent Tallis Scholars. Let this whet your appetite to hear it done live here.
Gloria, Byrd Mass for Four voices
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Agnus Dei, Byrd Mass for four voices
Enjoy yourselves!
Regarding the upcoming Mountainside Master Chorale Christmas concerts, I would also mention a new composition “Come To The Child, A Christmas Medley” by Edward David Zeliff, who is also a member of the Chorale. This work has (to my mind) the most hauntingly beautiful finish that I’ve ever heard. I believe that it has a good chance to make it onto the national scene.
Greetings, Fellow Choral Directors
I would like to add, if I may, a few more performance opportunites for the month of December!
Jurupa Valley High School Choir Department – Thursday, December 13th @ 7:00 p.m., Jurupa Valley High School theatre located at 10551 Bellegrave Ave., Mira Loma.
Inland Master Chorale – Sat., Dec. 15 @ 8:00 p.m. and Sun., Dec. 16 @ 3:00 p.m. @ First United Methodist Church, Redlands, 1 E. Olive – music for brass and choir including Rutter’s Gloria and Pinkham’s Christmas Cantata.
Ontario First Church of the Nazarene – Sun., Dec. 23 @ 6:00 p.m. @ 1311 W. Fifth St., Ontario – Canata for Christmas entitled Gloria by Doug Holck performed by the sanctuary choir and small instrumental ensemble.