Pacific Chorale Sets Season Finale Concert

Pacific Chorale, the internationally acclaimed resident choir of Segerstrom Center for the Arts, will be presenting a powerful finale concert on May 17 at 5:30 p.m., featuring works by Verdi, Howells and Poulenc. Uniquely, the concert will feature two conductors: the current Artistic Director, John Alexander, in the second half of the concert - and Pacific Chorale's future Artistic Director, Robert Istad, making his debut on the Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall stage, in the first half.

British composer Herbert Howells' Hymnus Paradisi has been described as one of the 20th century's most beautiful depictions of Paradise - an ethereal, uplifting work for soprano and tenor soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra. The work was inspired in part by the death from polio of the composer's son Michael in 1935. Howells wrote the work from 1936 to 1938, but then retained the music privately, without public performance. Howells maintained later in life that Ralph Vaughan Williams convinced him to allow the work to be performed publicly at the Three Choirs Festival in 1950. Robert Istad will be conducting this piece; the featured soloists are Elissa Johnston and Nicholas Preston.

John Alexander will be conducting Verdi's dramatic, passionate (and seldom-performed) Te Deum. One of four masterful choral works that the composer - better known for his operas - completed late in his life, Te Deum is a setting of a celebratory hymn dating to the year 387. Verdi uses his skill as a dramatic composer to bring this time-honored text to vivid life. Te Deum was first performed by the Paris Opera on April 7, 1898.

Alexander will also conduct 20th century French composer Francis Poulenc's most celebrated work, Gloria, which premiered on January 21, 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with chorus Pro Musica under conductor Charles Mu?nch. Elissa Johnston returns as the featured soloist for this work.

Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 5:30 p.m. • Concert preview at 4:30 p.m. by Conductors Alexander and Istad Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Costa Mesa
615 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Tickets start at $25. Senior/student discounts available.
For information or to purchase tickets, visit: www.pacificchorale.org or scfta.org, or call 714/662-2345.

To post a comment, you must register and login.