Santa Cruz Chorale Presents Handel, Purcell and Bach!

Dear Music Friends,

 

On April 28-29 at Holy Cross Church, the Santa Cruz Chorale will present their final concert of the 2017-2018 season with music by three giants of the Baroque period: Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Henry Purcell.

 

Blessed Are They That Considereth the Poor (or Foundling Hospital Anthem) was composed by G.F. Handel in 1749 to raise funds for a newly established London children’s charity. As it turned out, the performance was a great success for the charity and quite beneficial for Handel’s own career.

J.S. Bach’s Lobe den Herren (Praise the Lord) is a beautiful cantata based on a well-known hymn. These two works will be complemented by two of Purcell’s best-known anthems, Jubilate Deo and Te Deum.  

Since the music is festive and characterized by splendor, the orchestra has been expanded to include woodwind and brass instruments.

The concert also features a truly stellar group of soloists:

Soprano Christa Pfeiffer “has been enchanting Bay area audiences with her pure effortless singing for over a decade.” Christa Pfeiffer made a name for herself with performances as far away as South Africa. We are happy that she will be singing for the first time with the Santa Cruz Chorale.

Suzanne Duval’s lovely soprano voice is well known to Santa Cruz Chorale audiences.  She serves as choral coach for Chorale, and has frequently sung as a soloist in Chorale performances. She works in the music department at Cabrillo College and is musical director at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Santa Cruz.

We are also pleased that renowned countertenor Paul Flight will be singing at our performance. Flight made his debut at the Kennedy center in 2008, and in 2010 he debuted at the Edinburgh International Festival. Some in the Bay Area might know Paul Flight primarily as the Director of the excellent California Bach Society, but you won’t want to miss hearing his first-class countertenor voice.

Tenor Jan Kobow is flying in from Germany to sing with the Santa Cruz Chorale.  Kobow was born in Berlin, where as a boy he sang in the “Staats-und Domchor, Berlin,” directed by Christian Grube. Grube quickly recognized Jan’s musicality and the beauty of his soprano voice, and Jan often sang as a soloist. In 1998 Jan Kobow won first prize at the prestigious International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig. Since then, he has made an international name for himself primarily as a performer of Baroque music. Kobow has sung with renowned conductors including Frans Brüggen, John Eliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Herreweghe, Sigiswald Kuijken, Gustav Leonhardt, and many more. The Santa Cruz Chorale is honored to welcome Jan Kobow to perform for the first time in California, where he will again sing under the baton of his former choirmaster, Christian Grube.

Our bass-baritone soloist is Jefferson Packer, who has degrees in Music and Romance Languages/Literatures from Harvard University and in piano performance from San Francisco State University. He has sung with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys. Jefferson Packer is currently the bass-baritone in the choir of St. Thomas Anglican Church in San Francisco and will be singing his Santa Cruz debut with this performance.

Saturday, April 28 at 8 pm and Sunday, April 29 at 4 pm at Holy Cross, 123 High Street, Santa Cruz.

Tickets may be purchased online athttp://www.santacruzchorale.org/tickets or at the door. Due to the generosity of an anonymous Chorale member, all students may enter free.

 

Please join us for this final “musical offering” of the season!