Concerts and Events
The Contra Costa Chorale typically holds four concerts a year, two in the fall and two in the spring. The fall concerts are in early December and the spring concerts in mid-May. Due to COVID restrictions over the past few years, we have been presenting one performance per season, with the addition of a livestream option. Thus, our audience can now choose between attending concerts live at our regular concert venue at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley in Kensington or by livestream in their home. Beginning in the fall of 2023 we will be going back to our normal schedule of 4 concert performances a season. Kicking off this wonderful return to normal will be two thrilling performances of the Mozart “Requiem.”
Our performances all take place at 5:00PM Pacific Time to accommodate anyone who might want to watch the livestream of our concerts on the East Coast. We’ve got the country covered!
SPRING 2024 CONCERT
Make Our Garden Grow
Contra Costa Chorale Spring 2024 Concert
Over the years the Contra Costa Chorale has performed concerts highlighting choral music specific to minority representations. “Amazing Grace” followed the development of Black music from its origins in Africa, to the music of enslaved people, which ultimately led to jazz, blues, and gospel music. “Out of the Shadows” was a concert consisting totally of women composers from the medieval and Renaissance periods to the 21stcentury.
Even though progress has been made in including underrepresented groups of composers, we must take the responsibility through our performances to do whatever is possible to have equal footing in programming with the white male composers who have dominated the world of Western Music.
Our Spring concert, “Make Our Garden Grow,” will bring together music written by Blacks, women, Indigenous peoples, and the LGBTQ+ community to make our audiences aware of, not only the inequities in programming, but also the amazingly beautiful music that too often is not given the status it deserves, overtaken by the dominance of the traditional white male in Western Music.
The highlight of the concert will be a commissioned piece by Joan Szymko, widely regarded as an outstanding composer of choral music in America today. Her piece, “Seed,” is based on a poem “Declaration” by Elsa Gidlow, best known for writing On a Grey Thread, the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry published in North America. We are honored that Ms. Szymko has taken on this commission in celebration of Cindy Beitmen’s 12th anniversary directing the Chorale, and we will be very excited to present it for the first time at our spring concert.
This concert showcases guest artists Rev. Carolyn Anderson and the Gathering Desire Community Fellowship singing gospel presentations of the historical ‘Spirituals’ in addition to joining the Chorale in singing Let Everything That Hath Breath, a gospel piece by composer Jeffery Ames.
We celebrate the diversity of choral music, bringing together composers who may have been previously marginalized or overlooked. We also rejoice in this opportunity to make a place at our table for guest artists with a variety of perspectives, cultures, musical styles, gender expressions, and lived experiences historical and contemporary. We invite you to recognized with us that music becomes all–especially music that comes from with ourselves, sung by and for all of us.
The Chorale will present two live performances:
May 11, 5:00pm PDT
Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley
1 Lawson Road, Kensington
(livestream also provided)
May 12, 5:00pm PDT
Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church,
1801 Lacassie Avenue, Walnut Creek
FALL 2023 CONCERT
HEADLINES FROM VIENNA, AUSTRIA!
Savvy reporters have uncovered the somewhat well-kept secret that Mozart only wrote about one half to two thirds of his famed Requiem before he died! Even though the entire work is attributed to our darling savant, Wolfgang, the last three movements were written by, shall we say, lesser composers, since he did not survive to finish it in its entirety.
On December 2nd and 3rd, the Contra Costa Chorale performed the newly published 2022 Bärenreiter edition of the Mozart “Requiem,” which was completed and edited by Michael Ostrzyga. Mozart died before the completion of the “Requiem,” and thus various composers, most outstanding of whom was Franz Süssmayr, one of Mozart’s students, finished about one third of the total “Requiem.” There has been much controversy over the years concerning Süssmayr’s completion and therefore since 1941 there have been 4 partial completions, and no less than 16 full completions from various composers.
What may set this edition apart is that Ostrzyga has done an enormous amount of historical research in considering valid possibilities for the last three movements for which Mozart left no sketches. As Ostrzyga states, “I do not see my edition as being a substitute for Süssmayr’s completion, but rather as an alternative as perhaps Mozart could have composed in 1791.” Although any of these 16 completions in the last 82 years may be valid in one way or another, Ostrzyga comes to his completion with much historical evidence to back up his musical decisions.
We presented Mozart’s “Requiem” from a fresh perspective that, nonetheless, is closely tied to the “Requiem” you have always known through the years as a masterpiece in choral literature.
Accompanying the singers were two pianists, Martin Morley (the Chorale’s regular accompanist) and Chun Mei Wilson, and a string chamber orchestra. The soloists were Rita Lilly, soprano; Gabriela Estephanie Solis, alto; Mitch Ashley, tenor; and Liam Daley, bass.
The Chorale performed two live concerts with one live-streamed.
Photos from the Livestream: Saturday, December 2 at 5:00PM
Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley
1 Lawson Road, Kensington
The concert was also performed live on Sunday, December 3 at 5:00PM
Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church
1801 Lacassie Avenue, Walnut Creek
PREVIOUS CONCERTS
SPRING 2023 CONCERT
What’s the difference between opera and musicals? They were conceived in two different worlds but now often crisscross the divide. The Contra Costa Chorale directed by Cindy Beitmen and accompanied by Martin Morley and guest instrumentalists, will present a concert of music from the Golden Age of opera and noteworthy Broadway musicals. We will sing a chorus from the first surviving opera written in 1600 by Jacopo Peri, as well as grand opera choruses by Verdi, Smetana, Bizet and Mascagni. Then on to the Great White Way and the bright lights of Broadway with pieces by Cole Porter, John Kander, Thomas “Fats” Waller, George and Ira Gershwin, Jonathan Larson, Jerry Bock, and Cy Coleman. In this concert we took a look at the differences and commonalities between these two great musical genres.
FALL 2022 CONCERT
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
Victor Hugo
During times of hardship, it seems that many turn to music in some form to heal the soul, protest war, or express injustice, along with many other hardships. The geopolitical environment over centuries has created a world where polarization within societies, and among those whose views of the world seem irreconcilable, make it almost impossible to communicate. It has been shown again and again how the extraordinary power of music can make a difference. It is not an overstatement to say that singing seems to bring comfort, joy, healing, and strength to people of all political views and social backgrounds. Singing is a language that can be spoken by everyone, and that combination of multiple voices creates a healing force as well as an accessible and uncontentious tool to create conversation between people and societies in conflict.
Most of the music on our concert program is unifying through protest, such as “Malala,” about Malala Yousafzai, an activist for the rights of girls to be educated who survived a gunshot wound to the head at the hands of the Taliban; “We shall overcome,” a protest song of the American civil rights movement; “March of the Women,” a women’s suffrage song; “Bella Ciao,” a song of resistance from the Italian Civil War. Then there is the song “Ani ma’amin,” that provided victims some sort of comfort and, perhaps, spiritual freedom from the inexplicable horrors in the concentration camps of the Holocaust.
As John Donne wrote, “No man is an island.” Ignoring the sadness in the world makes us complicit in silence. To hear this beautiful music in direct response to the tragedies that befall our fellow humans through the ages is part of the process of understanding just a little better how music can heal, transform, and, ultimately, give us all hope for the future.
We sing on!
SPRING 2022 CONCERT
Saturday, June 4 at 5:00PM Pacific Time
Our spring concert, directed by Cindy Beitmen and featuring accompanist Martin Morley, highlighted Czech composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The program included Antonín Dvořák’s Mass in D Major and “Till I Wake,” a beautiful and moving piece by Black composer Harry Burleigh, who was a powerful influence on Dvořák while he was in America. Martin Morley performed a piano solo by John Mokrejs, which left everyone smiling. This was followed by “Goin’ Home,” a choral arrangement based on the second movement of Dvořák’s New World Symphony. We ended our program with a rousing rendition of the opening chorus from the opera The Bartered Bride, by Bedřich Smetana, in which the Chorale sang their hearts out in the Czech language.
Home
As we gather together in music,
We sing a Prayer for Ukraine
As they demonstrate magnificent courage
In defending their homeland.
All free people stand with Ukraine.
We also sing music of the Czech Republic
And composer Antonin Dvořák.
His “Mass in D Major,” in traditional form
Kyrie begins like a gentle waltz,
Our voices trumpet in the fugue-like opening of the Gloria
The vivace Osanna In Excelsis-
That’s just fun to sing..
In the song “Goin’ Home”
From Dvořák’s New World Symphony
He gives us a lovely, comforting melody,
Promising grace, kindness and joyous reunion
With those who have crossed over before us.
Home – our childhood home?
When we were innocent, possibly boisterous,
Where we sang songs about a twinkling star
And a short and stout teapot,
Or the home we go to today.
Perhaps our true home lies within each of us.
It is that internal compass that urges us to be
Compassionate, welcoming and caring,
And for all of us here today, singing will always shine
As part of our home.
We are the Contra Costa Chorale.
FALL 2021 CONCERT
Let Everything That Hath Breath…Sing!
THE CONTRA COSTA CHORALE RETURNED! Our first concert since the Fall of 2019 was on December 4.
For the protection of all, we performed to a small audience and also live streamed our concert. We were very excited to have you tune in to our only concert of the Fall 2021 season.
Conducted by Cindy Beitmen with Martin Morley at the piano and Philip Knudsen on drums, we sang pieces of comfort, music from Africa and Black composers, American folk songs, California Sunshine Pop and Broadway, and a few classical selections. We rounded out the concert with an uplifting piece based in the gospel music tradition, “Let Everything That Hath Breath.”
Spring Sing 2021
A Gift to Our Friends
Virtual Concert, Spring 2020
Dear Friends,
This is a gift from the Contra Costa Chorale to you, great warriors against the Coronavirus. Our lives have been turned upside-down; we have had to reinvent how we proceed with most of the aspects of our daily lives. We invite you to take a moment to sit back and just listen to music. We present here music sung by the Chorale from 2013 to this past fall. Today would have been the first of our 2020 spring concerts and, since we were forced to cancel them, it seems the next best thing would be to offer you a virtual concert. We are bereft that we cannot be one in song every Monday night, but we WILL get though this with patience and certainty that we can, at some point, feel safe enough to continue making music together and offering it live to our wonderful and very appreciative audiences.
Most every concert we do ends with an audience sing-along, so the last piece on this recording is the final chorus of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the “Ode to Joy,” the words to which can be found in the program notes. Sing along and be inspired by the last verse that says all I feel right now in just a few words: “Ever singing march we onward, Victors in the midst of strife! Joyful music leads us sunward in the triumph song of life!”
We so look forward to singing together again and seeing you all at our concerts. We don’t know when, but we DO know it will happen, and we will all get through this! STAY SAFE!
Cindy
Fall 2019
Bernstein & Copland:
Icons of 20th Century American Music
Fall Concert 2019 (December 7 & 8)
The Contra Costa Chorale, directed by Cindy Beitmen, presented a concert featuring two masters of American music, Leonard Bernstein (Chichester Psalms and selections from Mass) and Aaron Copland (selections from The Tender Land and Old American Songs). Accompanied by Martin Morley.
Guest artists included Jonathan Dimmock, organ; Jennifer Ellis, harp; Elizabeth Hall, percussion; Cayden Kurio, treble; Rita Lilly, soprano; Susan Russell, alto; Michael Mares, tenor; and Mitch Ashley, bass; David Olachea, piano.
We performed twice to packed houses, and came away full of enthusiasm and energy for the Spring 2020 concert.
Here’s an example of the wonderful response we received:
“Each Christmas I try to find a concert that is particularly wonderful and, most importantly, unique. It is the official annual launching of the Christmas season.
The program initially caught my eye due to the Bernstein & Copland combination and the pieces selected for the event. It sounded spectacular and we were not disappointed. The program selected, the quality and sparkling energy of CC Chorale, musicians and the wonderful Dougherty Valley High School Chamber Singers took our breath away. We love that the CCC mentors young singers and provides opportunities for them to grow professionally.
The information provided by the director, Cindy Beitmen, really enhanced our appreciation of each piece. Also her enthusiasm, humor and engaging style warmly welcomed and prepared us to have a wonderful experience and we did. We look forward to future events.”
The Spring 2020 concert will examine the differences and similarities between grand opera and Broadway musicals.
Out of the Shadows: Choral music by Women Composers
Spring Concert 2019 (May 18 & 19)
Women composers since medieval times were and still are vastly underrepresented, whether because of direct discrimination, unconscious bias, or even a biased lack of encouragement in pursuing composition, not to mention lack of adequate precedent. In recent history there have been concerted efforts to uncover the works of great female composers, many of whom were discouraged from publishing during their lifetime. And as modern performance demonstrates, there is still much work to be done fighting gender bias in exposure and training of current female composers.
The Contra Costa Chorale, directed by Cindy Beitmen, brought some of these women and their choral compositions “out of the shadows” to reveal the amazing works that, in many cases, are rarely performed but, nonetheless, gems of the choral repertoire. We presented choral and piano music from the 12thto the 21stcentury. Composers included Hildegard von Bingen, Isabella Leonarda, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Alicia Ann (Lady John Scott), Ethel Smyth, Margaret Bonds, Alice Parker, Rosephanye Powell, Esther Scliar, Joan Szymko, Mimi Fariña, and Dolly Parton. Those attending our spring concert heard songs of sacred devotion, beauty, love, and protest for equal rights.
Fauré Requiem – Fall Concert 2018 (December 1 & 2)
Our 2018 fall concert, presented by the Contra Costa Chorale directed by Cindy Beitmen, highlighted the music of Gabriel Fauré, one of the most celebrated French composers of his generation, whose musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. In addition to Fauré’s sublime “Requiem,” we performed two other sacred pieces, Salve Regina, and Cantique de Jean Racine. Fauré was known for many beautiful, solo art songs, and we sang two arrangements for choir, one based on Après un Rêveand the other arranged for women’s voices, Au Bord de l’Eau. The Chorale also performed Madrigal and his choral arrangement of the world famous Pavane. Guest soloists were Helene Zindarsian, soprano, and Sepp Hammer, baritone, with Martin Morley, Chorale accompanist.
Meet our soloists! Click here to read bios: http://ccchorale.org/meet-our-soloists/
The Food of Love – Spring 2018 Concert (May 18 & 20)
“If music be the food of love, sing on!” Our 2018 spring concert, presented by the Contra Costa Chorale directed by Cindy Beitmen, celebrated the poetry of Shakespeare through musical settings of his words from the Renaissance to the 21st century. Our concert, entitled “The Food of Love,” included music by David Dickau, Thomas Morley, Benjamin Britten, John Rutter, William Mathias, Emma Lou Diemer, George Shearing, and PDQ Bach. Accompanying the Chorale on the piano was Martin Morley with guest artists David Auerbach, piano, and Kyle Wong playing the double bass.
Eternal Light – Fall 2017 Concert (Dec 9 & 10)
The Lux Aeterna for chorus and chamber orchestra or organ was composed for the Los Angeles Master Chorale and its Maestro Paul Salamunovich, who premiered the work at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on April 13, 1997. Each of the five connected movements in this choral cycle contains references to ‘Light’ assembled from various sacred Latin texts. I composed Lux Aeterna in response to my Mother’s final illness and found great personal comfort and solace in setting to music these timeless and wondrous words about Light, a universal symbol of illumination at all levels—spiritual, artistic and intellectual.
– Morten Lauridsen
Waldron Island, Summer, 2008
Since its premiere in 1997, Lux Aeterna has been performed countless times throughout the world in either the orchestral version or that with organ accompaniment (the organist performs from a separate organ part, not from the choral/orchestral reduction score). The Contra Costa Chorale’s performance was with organ accompaniment.
If you would like to learn more about Morten Lauridsen, composer of our central piece, “Lux Aeterna,” you might want to watch Michael Stillwater’s documentary about this amazing artist: http://thegreatsong.net/portfolio_page/shining-night/.
Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem – Spring 2017 Concert (May 13 & 14)
The Contra Costa Chorale, with guest director John Kendall Bailey, presented Ein Deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms, one of the greatest masterworks in all of choral literature. The four-hand piano accompaniment, arranged by Leonard Van Camp for the 100th anniversary of the Requiem, is based on the original Brahms manuscript in the Library of Congress, which was premiered in London on July 18, 1871. Joining the Chorale were soloists Rita Lilly, soprano and Sepp Hammer, baritone, with Cara Bradbury and Skye Atman on piano.