With a big project ahead during artistic director John Alexander‘s last season with Pacific Chorale, the OC choir joins Pacific Symphony in a trek to the Big Apple this spring. With the announcement coming through just this week, the two orgs will appear at the world-famous Carnegie Hall on April 21, performing Philip Glass’ The Passion of Ramakrishna as part of his grand 80th birthday celebration. SoCal and the Listerhood can be particularly proud, as these local orgs and our own soloists feature prominently in the event.
Email release follows.
Pacific Chorale will join Pacific Symphony at Carnegie Hall in New York on April 21, 2018!
Orange County’s “Pacifics” Have Been Invited to Make Their Carnegie Hall Debut Performing the Music of Philip Glass
This morning, Carnegie Hall announced that on Saturday, April 21, 2018, Pacific Chorale and Pacific Symphony will be taking part in its yearlong celebration of Philip Glass’s 80th birthday, performing the work they premiered at the opening of the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in 2006 and recorded in 2012, The Passion of Ramakrishna. Chorale members I-Chin “Betty” Lee and Nick Preston will reprise their roles as devotees of Ramakrishna, as will baritone Christòpheren Nomura. Elissa Johnston, recent guest artist with the Chorale in the Poulenc Gloria, Howells Hymnus Paradisi, and Brahms German Requiem, will also be a featured soloist. This will mark the New York premiere of the Passion.
The Carnegie Hall appearance will be preceded by three performances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts on April 12–14, 2018 as part of Pacific Symphony’s 2017-2018 concert season. Tickets for the Carnegie performance go on sale August 28th at CarnegieHall.org.
In a statement released this morning, Pacific Symphony Music Director Carl St.Clair said, “I am especially pleased that we will be in New York by invitation, and that our program will feature a work that is such an important part of our own Orange County history. I am also delighted that Pacific Chorale, with whom we have had so many wonderful collaborations, will be part of this pinnacle of accomplishment for Pacific Symphony and Orange County. It’s the cultural ‘Super Bowl,’ and I know we are going make Orange County very proud while we celebrate one of America’s most celebrated composers.”
We are profoundly grateful to Pacific Symphony for inviting us to join them in this adventure, and we are proud and excited to share this opportunity with our talented singers, our Symphony colleagues, our Orange County community, and you, our extended Pacific Chorale family!
Please click here for the announcement from Carnegie Hall and here for the press release from Pacific Symphony.
The recording of The Passion of Ramakrishna may be found on iTunes and Amazon.com.
