Choral and Vocal

Choral and Vocal

Choral and Vocal

Choral and Vocal

Choral and Vocal

Choral and Vocal

Choral and Vocal

Choral and Vocal

Choral and Vocal

Choral and Vocal

6/2/2024 - MESMERIZING CONTEMPORARY WORKS FEATURED AT CANTIAMO SONOMA'S SEASON ENDING CONCERT - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Cantiamo Sonoma / Carol Menke, director
Cantiamo Sonoma closed out its 2023-2024 season June 2 with another marvelous program of a capella jewels. Santa Rosa’s St. Seraphim of Sarov Cathedral was nearly full on a warm Sunday afternoon, and listeners were treated to an hour of deeply moving and contemplative selections. The acoustics of St...

6/1/2024 - TWENTY FOUR PLUS ONE AT THE 222 JUNE 1 - Pamela Hicks Gailey
The 222 / Eugene Brancoveanu, baritone. Pianist TBA
The 2024 season has already produced three notable Sonoma County song recitals - Renée Fleming at Weill, Magdalena Kuzmà at Schroeder, and Carol Menke at the Church of the Roses - three wonderful and very different singers and programs. June 1 a fourth was added to this list as baritone Eugene Bra...

5/18/2024 - RECONCILIATION THEME IN MARIN ORATORIO CONCERT - Potter Wickware
College of Marin / Laura Wiebe, director. Shawnette Sulker, Sara Couden, Michael Orlinsky and Glen Hall, soloists. Joel Paulino, narrator
Conducted by Laura Wiebe, the Marin Oratorio chorus performed works by Vaughan Williams and Fauré at College of Marin’s James Dunn Theater. The May 18 program Lux Perpetua is reviewed here. A theme of consolation and reconciliation unfolded with Vaughan Williams’s An Oxford Elegy, a music-poetry hy...

3/29/2024 - VIBRANT GOOD FRIDAY REQUIEM AT CHURCH OF THE ROSES - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Church of the Roses / Carol Menke, conductor. Cantiamo, Chancel Choir. Liesel Hall, mezzo-soprano; Connie Vocature, soprano; Drew Bolander, tenor.; Terri Baune, violin; Kathleen Reynolds, flute; Abigale Summers, cello; Laura Reynolds, oboe; Wendy Tamis, harp; Suzanne Chasalow, horn; Allen Biggs, percussions; Robert Young, organ
It’s always a thrill to hear something wonderful for the first time. For this year’s Good Friday March 29 concert at Church of the Roses, conductor Carol Menke chose composer Dan Forrest’s celebrated Requiem for the Living, a memorable work. Composed in 2013, this beautiful, petite requiem (five mov...

3/8/2024 - A ST. JOHN PASSION FOR THE AGES - Abby Wasserman
American Bach Soloists / Soloists and the American Bach orchestra. Jeffrey Thomas, conductor
Bach’s Saint John Passion, 300 years old this Easter, may not be as well known as his Saint Matthew Passion, but it is a sublime musical experience. As performed by American Bach Soloists March 8 in Belvedere’s St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, it was profoundly stirring, and one did not have to be a ...

3/2/2024 - SPLENDID SCHUBERT SONGS IN SANET ALLEN RECITAL - Terry McNeill
Allen House Concerts / Sanet Allen, soprano; William Corbett-Jones, piano
Classical music house concerts often slowly unfold, as some in the audience notice in the back of the room the champagne bottles and smell the lasagna. Musical attention wavers, but this didn’t happen March 2 in a lovely San Rafael home recital. An audience of 35 heard soprano Sanet Allen in fou...

2/4/2024 - LUSTROUS VOCAL SOUND AT KUZMA'S SCHROEDER RECITAL - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Green Music Center / Magdalena Kuzma, soprano. Marika Yasuda, piano
As the atmospheric river raged through California Feb.11, another flood was inundating Schroeder Hall, that of thrilling singing and piano playing, roaring out of the extraordinary young Polish American soprano Magdalena Kuźma and her equally gifted musical partner, pianist Marika Yasuda. These...

1/11/2024 - A GRAND DIVA'S SHIMMERING AND PROVOCATIVE RECITAL IN WEILL HALL - Pamela Hicks Gailey
Green Music Center / Renée Fleming, soprano. Gerald Martin Moore, piano
Celebrated American opera star Renée Fleming returned in recital at Weill Hall Jan. 11 with pianist Gerald Martin Moore. Their program featured 19th, 20th, and 21st century works under the thematic umbrella of the inspiration nature bestows upon all facets of human artistic endeavors, and the curren...