The University of California, Santa Barbara’s Chamber Choir will
inaugurate a concert series at Old Mission Santa Inés on Nov. 23 with its
program, “Hymn to St. Cecilia,” honoring the patron saint of music.
Michel Marc Gervais, the choir’s director, chose music dedicated
to St. Cecilia.
The choir will sing twentieth century choral works, including “Hymn
to St. Cecilia” by Benjamin Britten, “Villarosa sarialdi” by Thomas Jannefelt
and sacred works by American composers Eric Whitacre and Morten Lauridsen.
The concert is the first in a series of four by the UCSB group at
the historic mission. The quarterly concerts will be free and open to the
public.
Gervais, who is director of choral studies at the university and
who came up with the idea for the series, is enthusiastic about the project.
“It is a great and highly fitting way to begin this series of
concerts,” he said. “I am delighted with the launching of this new
collaboration with Mission Santa Inés. Some years ago, in the course of two
concert tours of the California missions, the Chamber Choir had very successful
concerts in the valley, and we have since been longing to return to Mission
Santa Inés.
“I believe this type of community outreach is extremely important,
and I am hopeful that, through its free concerts at the mission, the university
students and I may be able to make a positive contribution to the valley’s
classical music scene.”
Before coming to UCSB in 1995, Gervais founded the Pro Coro Canada
professional choir and established several choir schools internationally. In
recognition of his contributions to the choral arts, he was made a Knight of
the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France.
The Chamber Choir is made up of 34 music majors and others from
UCSB and the Santa Barbara community. It specializes in virtuoso a cappella
choral music from the Renaissance to the 20th century. The choir has
participated in a number of international concert tours and has made seven CD
recordings.
The mission’s Father Michael Mahoney believes this is a good way
for the community to benefit from the choir.
“We’re very pleased that the UCSB Chamber Choir is coming to our
mission,” Mahoney said. “It is an excellent place for a choir to perform. The
setting is a beautiful 200-year-old building with superb acoustics. We are
honored to be able to provide this opportunity for the entire community to
enjoy wonderful music by this highly acclaimed choir.”
The main piece, the work by Benjamin Britten composed during World
War II, is set to a poem by fellow Englishman W.H. Auden, who wrote the verses
between 1940 and 1942. Auden dedicated the poem to the composer because Britten
had for a long time contemplated writing a work dedicated to St. Cecilia.
Not only was Britten born on the saint’s name day in 1913, but he
wanted to follow in the footsteps of the poet John Dryden who wrote “A song for
St. Cecilia’s Day” in 1687.
In addition, musical tributes to the saint were written by British
composers Henry Purcell, Hubert Parry and George Frideric Handel, who was born
in Germany but lived and worked in England for a large part of his life.
The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 23, at Old Mission Santa
Inés, 1760 Mission Drive in Solvang. More information is available by telephone
at (805) 893-3230 or online at www.music.ucsb.edu.
The Chamber Choir will present the same concert two days earlier,
Nov. 21, at 8 p.m. at St. Anthony’s Seminary in Santa Barbara, 2300 Garden St.
Reach Margo
Kline at mkline@syvjournal.com.