Sentimental Journey Gala 2018 – A Boffo Bash
Jo Anne Wasserman, who is celebrating her 25th anniversary directing the choir, with David Potter on piano and Bob Lally narrating, conducted the concert featuring classic songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, and Ira Gershwin.
Afterward, the guests, many in vintage costume, tucked into a heaving buffet of Swedish meatballs, mini chicken pot pies, lemon pound cake, and mini eclairs.
KEYT-TV dynamic duo, anchor Joe Buttitta and his meteorologist wife, Kelsey Gerckens, conducted the auction, which included trips to Montana, Bear Creek Cabin in North Carolina, and Mexico.
Among those facing the music were Todd and Allyson Aldrich, Barbara Burger and Paul Munch, Peter and Karen Brill, David and Diana Dodds Reichert, Michael Eades, Dick and Marilyn Mazess, Kostis Protopapas, Debra Stewart, Richard Mann, Gary Wasserman, and emcee Karen Williams.
Conductor JoAnne Wasserman, Mary Dan Eades, Debra Stewart and Paula VonSimson around Richard Mann’s 1941 Buick convertible at SBCS Gala 2018
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.