Written by Mary Dan Eades on October 25, 2013

The 2013-14 Choral Season will begin in rehearsal at Music Academy of the West on September 4.  Conductor JoAnne Wasserman and 90+ singers will begin to prepare the season’s repertoire which will include:

A Salute to our Veterans

November 10, the chorus will kick things off in patriotic fashion, offering a stirring choral element to a Veteran’s Day event at First Presbyterian Church at Constance and State Streets.

The Hallelujah Project 2013

Following up on the success of their award-winning viral You Tube video, Hallelujah Santa Barbara! Artistic Director, JoAnne Wasserman, plans what is sure to become a much-anticipated holiday musical event for the Santa Barbara community.  The family-friendly program at the Lobero on December 14 and 15 will showcase holiday music, traditional, classical, and modern, but always including the perennial audience favorite Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. This inaugural season’s concert will include a special celebrity guest to be announced closer to concert time!  Bring the whole family!  There will be something for every age and musical taste.  Featuring: Metropolitan Opera tenor Eduardo Villa and Music Academy alumnus, bass-baritone, DeAndre Simmons.

 Verdi’s Greatest Hits with Santa Barbara Symphony

On January 25 and 26, 2014, Artistic Director JoAnne Wasserman will prepare the chorus to join Maestro Kabaretti and the Santa Barbara Symphony at the Granada in a performance of Verdi’s greatest opera hits to honor the 200th anniversary of his birth. Maestro Kabaretti has carefully selected talented soloists to complement the Symphony’s full orchestra for some of Verdi’s greatest overtures, choruses, and arias from Rigoletto to Traviata to Aida. And the Santa Barbara Symphony and Opera Santa Barbara will join in providing educational experience for members of the community. In a program filled with emotion, passion and excitement, whether you are an opera fan or not, you will love Verdi!

Masterworks at the Lobero

The 4th Annual Masterworks Series concert will feature the Bruckner Te Deum and Music of the Modern Masters, with selections from American composer, Eric Whittaker, and Norwegian composer, Ola Gjielo.  The centerpiece of the Modern Masters tribute will showcase the genius of American composer, Morten Lauridsen, with a special treat that the composer, himself, will be in attendance.

In 2006, Lauridsen was named an ‘American Choral Master’ by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007 he received the National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, “for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide.”

His works have been recorded on more than 200 CDs, five of which have received Grammy Award nominations.  Come hear the music of a modern master!