Pasadena Chorale Celebrates American Choral Tradition With SING AMERICA PART 2 In June

Pasadena Chorale will conclude its 2024–2025 season with Sing America Part Two: E Pluribus Unum, a sweeping and celebratory program that showcases the richness and diversity of America's choral tradition, on Wednesday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church Pasadena. This inspiring concert is free to the public with a ticket reservation.

Building on the themes of Sing America Part One, this second installment expands the lens to include a broad spectrum of American composers and musical styles. The program features Aaron Copland's In the Beginning, a rarely performed yet monumental work that sets the Genesis creation story in a bold and dramatic choral setting.

Also included are works by Leonard Bernstein and Randall Thompson, as well as selections by some of today's most celebrated American choral composers including Michal Dawson Connor, Emily Feld, Marques L.A Garrett, Susan LaBarr, and Jen Wang. Together, these pieces reflect a musical landscape shaped by many voices—diverse in style, origin, and cultural influence.

The Sing America concert series examines the story of American choral music as a 100-year-old conversation among composers. Part One explored the music of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds, two Black women whose compositions are finally receiving the recognition they deserve.

“Sing America Part Two presents the music of 12 American composers and traces the sound of American choral music from earlier works like Randall Thompson's Alleluia, the work that opened Tanglewood, and ‘Make Our Garden Grow' from Leonard Bernstein's Candide, to the music of living composers like Emily Feld, Marques L.A. Garrett, and Jen Wang.” said Jeffrey Bernstein, Founding Artistic and Executive Director of the Pasadena Chorale. “Out of an incredibly diverse range of musical points of view, something like an American sound emerges, beautiful, raw, and expressive, almost like an American landscape. Come hear it for yourself.”

This concert is the second and final installment of the Sing America series, a two-part exploration of the American choral tradition past and present.

For more information on the Pasadena Chorale and to reserve free tickets to Sing America Part Two, please visit pasadenachorale.org.