Meet the Chorus
Choral Society singers share one super power: the ability to use our voices to bring music to life as an ensemble.
Like the best team sports, choral singing requires teamwork, practice and stamina.
For 80 singers to sound like one voice, each singer must constantly listen and adjust. Although we are primarily a volunteer community chorus, auditioned each year, some are semi-professional singers who help inspire our ensemble to the highest artistic levels.
We share the love of choral music, but quickly realize we have much more in common than music. The natural course of a season brings singers from all walks of life together to rehearse and perform, but also to build friendships. We like to say we are a singing family!
Soprano
Margaret Bloebaum
Alexia Borborboglu *
Karen Brill
Margo Callis
Nathalie Confiac
Stacy Cullison
Diane Das
Erica DiBartolomeo
Kathryn Doughty
Mary Dan Eades
Star Duffy
Pamela Enticknap
Ellen Evans
Sharla Fell
Manu Geiger-Kolbitsch
Gail Lucas
Marilyn Mazess
Margot Roseman
Barbara Rosen
Felicia Saunders
Carla Sherman
Leah Shrier
Dawn Skalen
Dana Stewart
Debra Stewart
Lisa Sueyres
Michaela Taylor
Marylove Thralls
Alto
Anita Baldwin
Marcia Bourain
Rinda Brown
Mary Byrd
Jo Anne Carr
Kay Chambers
Grace Davidson
Kate Firestone
Jennica Harris
Jody Holehouse
Nancy Keele
Eleanor Lynn
Laurie Mason
Kathy McGuire
Gretchen Murray
Kathy Piasecki
Kate Rees
Joan Renehan
Susan Renehan
Susan Robbins
Deborah Rosique
Susannah Ruth*
Claudia Scott
Karen Williams
Tenor
Todd Aldrich
John Baker
Will Breman*
Tobias Brown-Heft
Christian Hirsch
Tom Hurd
James Kirkland*
Scott Myrvold
John Rodkey
Travis Stehmeier
Ross Williams
Bass
Michael Bloebaum
Greg Davies
Brooks Firestone
Bart Francis
Chris Gillmon
Bob Lally
John Maxwell
Kurt Meyer
Jonathan Mitchell
Gregory Pantages
Jim Robbins
Howard Rothman
John Schranck
Steven Thomson**
Paul Warner
* Section Leader
** Assistant to the Conductor/Section Leader
Repertoire
Our long-time conductor, JoAnne Wasserman, creates and shapes our sound, refining it in weekly rehearsals, and decides the repertoire.
Since its inception, the Choral Society has performed everything from works by early ecclesiastic composers such as Palestrina, to brilliant choral pieces by Morten Lauridsen, John Rutter and Ola Gjeilo among many contemporary composers writing music for the choral medium.
Here is a list of works that represents just a fraction of the works that the Choral Society has performed both in California and on its international tours. Click on a circle to see the titles.
BACH
Magnificat
Cantata #4
Cantata #51
B Minor Mass
BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 9
Missa Solemnis in D Minor, Op.123
Cantata #4, #51
Choral Fantasy
BERNSTEIN
Chichester Psalms
BLOCH
Sacred Service
BRAHMS
Ein Deutsches Requiem
BRITTEN
Ceremony Of Carols
DURUFLÉ
Requiem
FAURÉ
Requiem
GERSHWIN
Porgy and Bess
GJEILO
The Ground
Dark Night Of The Soul
HANDEL
Messiah
HAYDN
Paukenmesse
Theresienmesse
Missa In Angustiis (Nelson Mass)
HOLST
The Planets
LAURIDSEN
Lux Aterna
Sure On This Shining Night
O Magnum Mysterium
MAHLER
Symphony #2
Symphony #3
MARTIN
Sir George – Mission Chorales
MOZART
Requiem
Grand Mass in C Minor
Solemn Vespers
Coronation Mass
ORFF
Carmina Burana
PROKOFIEV
Ivan the Terrible
RUTTER
Gloria
TIN
Sogno Di Volare
Baba Yetu
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Dona Nobis Pacem
Sea Symphony
Five Mystical Songs
VERDI
Requiem
Stabat Mater
VIVALDI
Gloria
VILLA-LOBOS
Symphony #10
American baritone, Ralph Cato has travelled the world extensively, telling stories in song with his warm, clarion baritone voice.
Tenor, Benjamin Brecher has performed over fifty operatic roles with many of the world’s most prestigious opera companies, specializing in the high lying lyric tenor repertoire. He has performed 16 roles with New York City Opera alone. Career highlights include performances with Opera Orchestra of New York, L’Opera de Nice, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, L’Opera de Montreal, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, among many others. His orchestral solo repertoire includes Mozart, Handel, Orff, Bach, Haydn, as well as many performances of Britten. In 2000 he began performing the great Irish Tenor songs in a concert produced for him entitled A Celtic Celebration, Twenty years later, the show has become a North American hit with performances with 45 Symphonies in North America. Ben continues his discography having added his twelfth recording in 2016 Forgotten Liszt, with pianist Robert Koenig, and will record a new release in 2022 entitled “Three Centuries of Thomas Moore” including the music of Britten, Berlioz, and Sarah Gibson on MSR Classics. He is a Professor of Voice at University of California Santa Barbara, where he has served as the Head of Voice.
Born and raised in Southern California, April Amante is a versatile soprano with expertise and facility in repertoire spanning from early music to contemporary musical theater.
Tracy Van Fleet is pleased to return to the Santa Barbara Choral Society. As a soloist, she has performed with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Lüneburg Symphony in Germany, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río in Mexico, Pasadena Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Los Angeles Bach Festival, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Philharmonic, USC Symphony and Chorus, and others. She has had many appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Opera Pacific, San Diego Opera and Opera Colorado.