Irvine Park Railroad’s Annual Easter Bunny Visit & Train Ride

Saturday, March 28 through Saturday, April 11, 2009

If

PACIFIC CHORALE’S CHORAL FESTIVAL
FEATURES FREE PUBLIC CONCERT

Choral Festival on August 23, 2009, sponsored by The Shanbrom Family Foundation,
to feature up to 400 choristers, with conductor John Alexander and organist Frederick Swann

Free public performance of choral masterworks at Orange County Performing Arts Center

Santa Ana, CA, August 7, 2009 – On Sunday, August 23, 2009, at 5:00 p.m., members of Orange County’s choral community will join Pacific Chorale and Artistic Director John Alexander in a free public performance of great choral treasures in the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Joining the assembled singers will be eminent organist Frederick Swann at the C.B. Fisk Opus 130 William J. Gillespie Concert Organ. Pacific Chorale’s Choral Festival is generously sponsored by The Shanbrom Family Foundation.
Seating for this free, unticketed event will be first-come, first-serve. Pacific Chorale recommends arriving early for best seating availability. The concert hall doors will open at 4:30 p.m.
The Choral Festival initiative is modeled after the highly successful finale performance of Pacific Chorale’s 2008 NEA-sponsored American Masterpieces Choral Festival. That performance, which drew a capacity audience, also featured community choristers performing alongside members of Pacific Chorale.
The performers for this year’s Festival will gather to rehearse on Friday and Saturday prior to the concert.
A new component this year was an optional musicianship class offered to participants in advance of the Festival weekend. Forty members of the Festival Chorus took part in these sessions in early August, where they received valuable sight-singing and rhythm training through a curriculum grounded in the Festival repertoire.
Music for the Choral Festival has been selected from masterworks of the choral literature, and is designed as a showcase of “Great Choral Treasures.” In addition to the Festival Chorus’s performance, Dr. Swann will also be featured at the organ in several solo works.

FESTIVAL REPERTOIRE:
Beethoven Hallelujah from The Mount of Olives, Op. 85
J. S. Bach Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, BWV 147
Toccata and Fugue in D minor (organ solo)
Fauré Introit and Kyrie from Requiem, Op. 48
Mendelssohn He watching over Israel from Elijah
And then shall your light break forth from Elijah
Cocker Tuba Tune (organ solo)
arr. Wilberg Peace Like a River
arr. Swann Improvisation on “Londonderry Air” (organ)
arr. Wilhousky Battle Hymn of the Republic

Additional support for Pacific Chorale’s Choral Festival has been provided by The Capital Group Companies and the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The Festival is part of the Performing Arts Center’s Free at the Center.


ABOUT PACIFIC CHORALE
Founded in 1968, Pacific Chorale is internationally recognized for exceptional artistic expression, stimulating American-focused programming, and influential education programs. Pacific Chorale presents a significant performance season of its own at the Orange County Performing Arts Center and is sought regularly to perform with the nation’s leading symphonies. Under the inspired guidance of Artistic Director John Alexander, Pacific Chorale has infused an Old World art form with California’s hallmark innovation and cultural independence.
Pacific Chorale has a membership of 140 professional and volunteer singers. Ensembles of various sizes are selected from the membership according to the needs of the repertoire. In addition to its long-standing partnership with Pacific Symphony, the Chorale has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Disney Hall on numerous occasions. Other noted collaborations include the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, and the Long Beach, Pasadena, Riverside and San Diego symphonies. John Alexander and the Chorale have toured extensively in Europe, South America and Asia.


ABOUT JOHN ALEXANDER
Artistic Director of Pacific Chorale since 1972, John Alexander is one of America’s most respected choral conductors. His inspired leadership both on the podium and as an advocate for the advancement of the choral art has garnered national and international admiration and acclaim. In his long and distinguished career Alexander has conducted hundreds of choral and orchestral performances in 27 countries around the globe. Noted as a specialist in conducting the choral/orchestral masterworks, he is also a strong proponent of American music, programming groundbreaking works by California composers and bringing numerous West Coast and world premieres to Southern California performance halls. Choruses prepared by John Alexander have performed under many of the most renowned conductors on the world stage, including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Slatkin, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez, Lukas Foss, Keith Lockhart, John Mauceri, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gustavo Dudamel, Carl St.Clair, Marin Alsop, John Williams, Gerard Schwarz and Max Rudolf.


ABOUT FREDERICK SWANN
Frederick Swann is the immediate past President (2002-2008) of the American Guild of Organists, an organization of over 20,000 members in chapters throughout the United States and several foreign countries. He is Organist Emeritus of the Crystal Cathedral and of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, and Organ Artist-in-residence at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert. Mr. Swann is also University Organist and Artist Teacher of Organ at the University of Redlands, and Organist for the Mark Thallander Foundation choral festivals held in various parts of the country each season. Mr. Swann is sought after as a leader of organ and church music workshops and has been retained frequently as a consultant for new pipe organs, including some of the largest and most prominent in the country. His many recordings, past and present, have assisted in making his name one of the best known throughout the music world.