“Viva Vivaldi!”

The Santa Cruz Chorale is delighted to add orchestra and soloists to our spring concert, “Viva Vivaldi!” The central work is the festive “Gloria in D-major” for choir, orchestra, and soloists, which is probably the composer’s best-known work aside from “The Four Seasons.” The performance will also include “Laetatus sum” and “Laudate Dominum omnes gentes,” which although less well-known, are equally joyous and expressive.

In addition to these compositions by Vivaldi, the program features the exuberant “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied” by Vivaldi’s contemporary Georg Philipp Telemann; motets by Gabriel Fauré (“Cantique de Jean Racine”) and Felix Mendelssohn (“Verleih uns Frieden”) add contrast from the Romantic period.

The audience will be charmed by the rich virtuosity of soloists Suzanne Duval (Soprano), Solmaaz Adeli (Mezzo Soprano/Alto), and Elliott Nguyen (Bass), as they join the Chorale for this magnificent music.

The Santa Cruz Chorale, a community based non-profit organization founded in 1983, performs a wide-ranging repertoire including works from the 14th century through music of the 21st century.

Although several members of the Chorale are professional musicians and some direct musical groups of their own, all volunteer their time, and most are amateurs in the original sense of that word: people who seriously pursue an art for the love of it.

Founded over 30 years ago by Mary Lynn Place Badarak, Lecturer for the Department of Music at UC Santa Cruz, as a volunteer adult chorus, the Santa Cruz Chorale continues in this tradition today. Following Badarak’s leadership, Murray Walker directed, followed by the late Gene Lewis, Paul Vorwerk and Eduardo Mendelievich. Under the leadership of Paul Vorwerk, the Chorale went on two exciting international tours: the first to Northern Italy and Croatia, and the second to Spain.

Since 2006, the Chorale has been directed by Christian Grube, performing three concert sets per year, showing off the beautiful acoustics of Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz. The Chorale has been able to attract three of Santa Cruz’s most well known accompanists, Vlada Moran, Yalenda Listmann, and Maria Ezerova.

Christian Grube, the Chorale’s Artistic Director, is emeritus professor of choral conducting at the Berlin University of Arts. His choirs are known for their exquisite sound, impeccable intonation, broad range of dynamic expression, and ability to interpret the most diverse styles. You can find out more about Director Christian Grube at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Grube