Join The Choral Society for its 2024-25 Season Finale and After Party – featuring favorite songs and challenging new pieces curated by Artistic Director JoAnne Wasserman, with the amazingly talented Kevin Su Fukagawa at the keyboard.
The program offers a rich and varied musical journey, featuring American contemporary choral treasures such as Morten Lauridsen’s Prayer, Stephen Paulus’s Pilgrim’s Hymn, and William L. Dawson’s powerful spiritual Soon Ah Will Be Done. The program also includes vibrant African selections, including the Tanzanian song Ni Jina Gani arranged by Eugene Rogers and the uplifting Kenyan folk tune Wana Baraka. From Europe, audiences will enjoy the moving Moravian folk song O Lasko, Lasko and the beloved English ballad The Farmer’s Boy. Rounding out the program are radiant classical selections from Mozart’s Requiem and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore , all brought to life by the 60+ voices of our dynamic choral ensemble.
Join the chorus, staff, and board for our season’s closing celebration in the Fellowship Hall immediately following the concert. One performance only. June 1, at 3:00 pm. Trinity Lutheran Church, Don’t miss it!
Featuring:
- Kevin Su Fukagawa on piano
- and The Choral Society
Date:
Sunday, June 1 at 3pm
Venue:
Trinity Lutheran Church
909 N. La Cumbre Road
Santa Barbara
Tickets:
$10 – $30
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.