Chamber Singers Return from the OCPAC
Vincent Lee
Last Updated:10:08 AM PST 6/10/08 Section: Entertainment
(Editor's Note - Vincent Lee is a baritone in the Cypress College Chamber Singers)
Students and faculty get a chance 7 p.m. Saturday to see the Cypress College Chamber Singers at home following its April 23 performance at the Orange Country Performing Arts Center (OCPAC).
The Chamber Singers will be performing in the theater lobby, followed by the performance of the Masterworks Chorale on stage.
The singers performed at OCPAC at the invitation of The Pacific Chorale, one of the top three masterworks chorales in the nation. The Chamber Singers were invited to perform with the Pacific Chorale in a 500-singer choral festival in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert.
This was the first time the Pacific Chorale invited outside choruses to perform with them. There were 500 singers on stage at the same time singing pieces conducted by three American composers, Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen, and Alice Parker. It was a rare opportunity to have the actual composers of the pieces in a performance; especially with composers who are very well known.
Instead of having a conductor interpreting someone else's work, the singers had the opportunity to understand the piece from the composer's perspective. Whitacre was there painting his piece with the motion of his hands, directing and molding the piece, controlling the piece's emotional intensity, exactly as he intended his composition to sound.
The richness and resonance was just incredible, the voices of 500 other singers reflect quite well in the new Segerstrom Concert Hall.
The Chamber Singers had this opportunity to perform with the Pacific Chorale because of Cypress College Music Professor Sheridan Ball's connection with John Alexander, director of the Pacific Chorale.
The event was funded by a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
The NEA provided the grant to "celebrate our national musical heritage by highlighting significant American choral composers."
Students and faculty get a chance 7 p.m. Saturday to see the Cypress College Chamber Singers at home following its April 23 performance at the Orange Country Performing Arts Center (OCPAC).
The Chamber Singers will be performing in the theater lobby, followed by the performance of the Masterworks Chorale on stage.
The singers performed at OCPAC at the invitation of The Pacific Chorale, one of the top three masterworks chorales in the nation. The Chamber Singers were invited to perform with the Pacific Chorale in a 500-singer choral festival in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert.
This was the first time the Pacific Chorale invited outside choruses to perform with them. There were 500 singers on stage at the same time singing pieces conducted by three American composers, Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen, and Alice Parker. It was a rare opportunity to have the actual composers of the pieces in a performance; especially with composers who are very well known.
Instead of having a conductor interpreting someone else's work, the singers had the opportunity to understand the piece from the composer's perspective. Whitacre was there painting his piece with the motion of his hands, directing and molding the piece, controlling the piece's emotional intensity, exactly as he intended his composition to sound.
The richness and resonance was just incredible, the voices of 500 other singers reflect quite well in the new Segerstrom Concert Hall.
The Chamber Singers had this opportunity to perform with the Pacific Chorale because of Cypress College Music Professor Sheridan Ball's connection with John Alexander, director of the Pacific Chorale.
The event was funded by a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
The NEA provided the grant to "celebrate our national musical heritage by highlighting significant American choral composers."
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