A string of concerts began with Brahms Friday night, and nearly ends with Orff on 1 May, six area concerts lying between, mostly at college if not all of college. The Brahms and the Orff seem curiously tied together – this spring, in 2016, Pomona College brings us the Brahms Requiem and the Joint Music Program and Claremont Chorale offer us the Carmina Burana; in 2008 the Claremont Chorale and La Sierra University gave their audiences the Requiem while the Mountainside Master Chorale sang Orff in the same space it will happen this month.
Another string ended last Sunday, with Mozart and Fauré connecting chorale, college and church, beginning with Mozart by one area chorale, then Fauré by the other on 12-13 March, then Fauré again on Good Friday with musicians from both chorales and two local colleges helping. Finally, last Sunday, parts of both of the same Mozart and Fauré gave a mixture of singers of the two chorales and soloists from our Pomona opera a chance to sing together. There will be more word of mixing opera and chorus later.
Besides these concerts close by, and a bit beyond, there is a Fullerton concert by a Los Angeles ensemble with a couple of local ties, and a couple of links to activity much farther away, offered today as food for thought.
‘SacSings!’ is a festival in Sacramento in which a score of choral ensembles and hundreds of singers perform on 23 & 24 April. This gathering is the work of the Sacramento Valley Choral Coalition, which has the mission of promoting choral music in the Sacramento Valley area. The other link is to the SeattleSings page, part of a still larger effort to support choral music up in the Seattle area. There are different links to different aspects of that consortium’s work, but perusing the page now shows how popular the Orff is – it’s being sung simultaneously to the concerts in Claremont.
One last word before the concert list. The Repertory Opera Company of Pomona is inviting skilled local choral singers to sing in Aida in May, either on stage in the opera chorus, or ‘on book’ for the Triumphal Chorus. Those who are interested can call the ROC contact number on its web site.
Friday, 15 April
8:00 p.m., Pomona College Choir and Orchestra, Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, Claremont
Sunday, 17 April
3:00 p.m., Pomona College Choir and Orchestra, Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, Claremont
Saturday, 23 April
8:00 p.m., Millennium Consort Singers, “Noises, sounds, and sweet airs,” Marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, music by Arne, Flaherty, Gibbons, Hilton, Morley, Quilter, Vaughan Williams and others, Claremont
Sunday, 24 April
5:00 p.m., University of La Verne A Capella Barbershop Club, “Barbershop Meets the Beatles,” La Verne
Thursday, 28 April
8:00 p.m., Pomona College Glee Club, “A celebration of the choral art for the great ecclesiastical spaces of northern and central Italy,” Claremont
Saturday, 30 April
1:30 p.m., Pomona College Glee Club, “A celebration of the choral art for the great ecclesiastical spaces of northern and central Italy,” Claremont
8:00 p.m., Claremont Concert Choir, Claremont Chorale, Claremont Concert Orchestra, Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, Claremont
Sunday, 1 May
3:00 p.m., Claremont Concert Choir, Claremont Chorale, Claremont Concert Orchestra, Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, Claremont
6:00 p.m., ULV Music Department, “La Verne Live -The Best of ULV Music Department,” La Verne
Farther away, but locally tied
Thursday, 21 April
7:30 p.m., Jouyssance, “Jouyssance brings Iberia to Orange County” with music of Cardoso, Victoria, Morales, Fernandes, Encina, and more, Fullerton