A Modern American Choral Collaborative
Our season finale features Grammy-winner Christopher Tin conducting his own works and our Artistic Director / Conductor, JoAnne Wasserman, conducting Morten Lauridsen’s masterpiece, Lux Aeterna. Visiting singers from The Santa Clarita Master Chorale and Torrance-based Los Cancioneros, soloists Jimmer Bolden, Felipe Prado, Becca Clarke, and Christina Bristow, will join The Choral Society and orchestra for this all-American collaboration. Included in the program will be Tin’s new ending for the Puccini opera, Turandot, which was used by ice skater Yuma Kagiyama for his Silver Medal-winning performance in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Limited seating and carpooling is suggested. Second performance (7pm) added due to demand.
Venue
Trinity Lutheran Church
909 N La Cumbre Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93110
La Cumbre Road at Foothill Road
Date
Sunday, May 31, 3PM
Sunday, May 31, 7PM — second performance just announced!
Tickets
General Admission – $30 Festival Seating
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.
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.
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.