INTRODUCING OUR SPRING 2025 CONCERT
FALL 2024 CONCERT
The Contra Costa Chorale, led by its new Artistic Director Dr. Brad Schultz, and accompanied by Martin Morley and a small orchestra, returned with a program representing some of the great composers of Vienna, on Friday, December 6, at 7:30PM at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Road, Kensington; and on Sunday, December 8, at 5:00PM at Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church, 1801 Lacassie Avenue, Walnut Creek.
Vienna, Austria has been considered one of the most important centers for music since Mozart’s time. Since then, many of the great European composers have spent time in this city, studying their predecessors and setting the tone for future musicians.
“Viennese Influence(r)s” presented the opportunity to feature a woman whose music was highly respected in the late 1700s., but who has been virtually forgotten until recently. Marianna von Martines, whose “Dixit Dominus” the Chorale performed, studied as a child with Joseph Haydn and grew to heady stature among her musical colleagues, even performing multiple times before Austria’s Empress Maria Theresa. The Chorale also highlighted a performance of “A Silence Haunts Me,” composed by Jake Runestad to a poem by Todd Boss, which represents the dark thoughts of Beethoven as he faced his growing deafness and questioned his strength to continue living.
“Classical music lovers often feel a strong connection to the music centers of Europe–especially Vienna,” says Artistic Director Brad Schultz. “This was certainly the case for my predecessor, Cindy Beitmen, who spent many formative years there. Many composers in this concert are likely quite familiar, but even in a city so rooted in the Classical canon as Vienna, there are still some surprises to be found. In this, the Contra Costa Chorale’s next chapter, I explored that blend of the familiar and surprising, with singers and audience alike.”
“Viennese Influence(r)s” looked at some of the greatest of these composers, examining the connections that stretch both backward and into the future. Today, Vienna and music are inseparable, thanks to the heritage established in the 1700s and new music that thrives today. From Mozart to Martines, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, the Contra Costa Chorale has celebrated a city that has inspired musicians all over the world.
For further information, please contact cocochorale@gmail.com, or call at 510-730-0202.
Would you like to hear us right now? Click on the audio files below to experience works from our past concerts:
Ain’ a that good news – arr. William Dawson
Bonse aba – arr. Andrew Fisher
Agnus Dei from Lux Aeterna – Morten Lauridsen
Chichester Psalms_Mvt 1 – Leonard Bernstein
Who is Silvia – George Shearing