Wednesday, November 26, 2014

TICKETS on SALE! Our evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein truly is SOMETHING WONDERFUL

Sunday, April 26, 2015 at 7:30 pm
Orchestra Hall / Symphony Center
Chicago

CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CHORUS
David Katz, founding music director & conductor
Rebecca Patterson, chorus director

ELGIN MASTER CHORALE
Andrew Lewis, director

and featuring national winners of
THE AMERICAN PRIZE in VOICE
Friedrich & Virginia Schorr Memorial Award

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE: http://cso.org/TicketsAndEvents/EventDetails.aspx?eid=7040


ACT I

CAROUSEL WALTZ (Carousel)—ORCHESTRA
OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNIN' (Oklahoma!)—BARITONE       
IT'S A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING (State Fair)—CHORUS & SOLOISTS
GETTING TO KNOW YOU (The King and I)—SOPRANO with CHORUS
I WHISTLE A HAPPY TUNE (The King and I)—CHORUS
BALI HA'I (South Pacific)—MEZZO with CHORUS
YOUNGER THAN SPRINGTIME (South Pacific)—TENOR   
TEN MINUTES AGO (Cinderella)—SOPRANO & TENOR DUET
JUNE IS BUSTIN’ OUT ALL OVER (Carousel)—MEZZO with CHORUS
SOME ENCHANTED EVENING (South Pacific)—BARITONE   
THERE IS NOTHIN' LIKE A DAME (South Pacific)—MEN’S CHORUS
CLIMB EV'RY MOUNTAIN (The Sound of Music)—CHORUS & SOLOISTS   

INTERMISSION

ACT II

SOMETHING WONDERFUL (The King and I)—MEZZO   
A RODGER’S & HAMMERSTEIN INTERLUDE—ORCHESTRA
KANSAS CITY (Oklahoma!)—CHORUS
IN MY OWN LITTLE CORNER (Cinderella)—SOPRANO
IF I LOVED YOU (Carousel)—TENOR
THE SOUND OF MUSIC (The Sound of Music)—CHORUS
EDELWEISS (The Sound of Music)—BARITONE   
DO RE MI (The Sound of Music)—CHORUS
I HAVE DREAMED (The King and I)—SOLO QUARTET
YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE (Carousel)—CHORUS & SOLOISTS

ENCORE:
OKLAHOMA (Oklahoma!)—CHORUS & SOLOISTS

We expect tickets to be available for sale on the CSO.org website at Orchestra Hall/Symphony Center very soon, and will post the link here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

HALF & HALF II is November 19th. Tickets on sale now!


Here's the link to purchase advance tickets at special savings: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/e/870459

And don't forget OKTOBERFEST on October 10 at the CBA Building. (See the announcement, below.)

Sunday, September 21, 2014

OKTOBERFEST is October 10th at the CBA Building




Join the CBA in celebrating Oktoberfest on Friday, October 10, 2014 at 5:30 p.m., at the CBA Building, 321 S. Plymouth Court, Chicago. There will be a craft beer tasting, Oompah music and general fun and Gemütlichkeit. $25 per person. The event will be limited to 200 guests so make your reservation now by contacting Tamra Drees at (312) 554-2057.

This fun event is being held to raise funds for the CBA Symphony Orchestra and Chorus upcoming performance of “Something Wonderful!” at Orchestra Hall on April 26, 2015 – a tribute to the sublime music of Rogers & Hammerstein. Guests will be able to purchase advance tickets for Something Wonderful, and by doing so, put their name in the hat for a grand prize to take home form the Oktoberfest.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

A VERY SPECIAL EVENT coming in APRIL 2015

Following our triumphant performance of Orff's Carmina Burana before a capacity crowd at Orchestra Hall in 2011, The Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra and Chorus return to the home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for an evening featuring the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein, this time joined by the Elgin Master Chorale. Ticket information will be published soon!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

ANNOUNCING The American Prize winning SOLOISTS for our MAY concert

The American Prize is pleased to announce the WINNERS of the Chicago Oratorio Award, 2014.

Four $500 prizes, one each for soprano, mezzo-soprano (alto), tenor, baritone (bass), have been awarded as performance fees to soloists selected to appear under the baton of Maestro David Katz in concert with the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, performing the solo portions of Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and the Quartet from Verdi's Rigoletto on Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at St James Episcopal Cathedral, Chicago.

This additional opportunity, offered as part of 2014 The American Prize in Vocal Performance Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Awards national competition, is judged entirely independently from the rest of the contests.

Tickets for the performance may be purchased by clicking here.

The 2014 winners are:

JULIANNE GEARHART, soprano

Soprano Julianne Gearhart is quickly becoming known on both sides of the Atlantic for her remarkable theatrical presence as well as the crystalline quality of her singing. She started her career as a devoted singer of Strauss, singing Zerbinetta for numerous companies including The Grand Theatre de Geneve and the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, and Der Rosenkavalier’s Sophie for the Seattle Opera and in her German debut for Theater Lübeck.

Gearhart's relationship with Seattle has been close and longstanding. A graduate of their Young Artist Program, she made her mainstage debut in Seattle as Helen Niles in the premiere of the revised Mourning Becomes Electra. Other roles followed, including Woglinde and the Waldvogel in their Ring Cycle as well as a relationship with the Seattle Symphony, where she most recently sang Poulenc’s Gloria, and for whom she has also sung Bach's notoriously difficult Cantata #51, Jauchzett Gott in allen Landen.  She reprised the Bach for the White Mountain Bach Festival last season.

Gearhart made her Italian debut at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Sardinia, as Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. She also sang Blonde for the Vlaamse Opera’s 2010 production. She has  performed with the Edinburgh Festival, Opera North, Seattle Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Seattle Symphony, The Canadian Chamber Orchestra of New York, Port Angeles Symphony, Salem Philharmonic Orchestra, Palm Beach Symphony, the Alba Music Festival in Alba, Italy, Grieg Choral Festival in Bergen, Norway, Chamber Music Amarillo, New Israeli Opera, and the Grand Theatre Geneve. She made her Carnegie Hall debut singing under the baton of Maestro Rutter in Handel’s Messiah and Rutter’s Magnificat.

 
COURTNEY MILLER, mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-Soprano Courtney Miller is the 2013 winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs’ Young Artist Competition in Women’s Voice and and First Place winner of the American Prize in Art Song.  Ms. Miller returns to Virginia Opera as an Emerging Artist for the 2014-15 season singing Cousin Hebe in HMS Pinafore, Page in Salome, and Flora in La Traviata.  During Virginia Opera’s 2013-14 season, Ms. Miller sang Meg Page in Falstaff, Second Lady in The Magic Flute, Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos while covering the Composer, and Mercédès in Carmen.  Recent highlights include Sister Helen in Dead Man Walking, the title role in L’enfant et les sortilèges, and Concepción in L’heure Espagnole.  Ms. Miller has worked with the Glimmerglass Festival, Chautauqua Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Ohio Light Opera, and Seagle Music Colony.  A Wisconsin native, Ms. Miller holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the Boston Conservatory. www.courtneyallycemiller.com

DANIEL KAMALIC, lyric tenor
Lyric tenor Daniel Kamalić has been praised for the “exciting, tremendous force and burnished tonal quality” of his voice. He has performed regularly with Connecticut Lyric Opera and Opera Boston, as well as with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Juventas New Music Ensemble, and the International Rachmaninoff Festival. He was recently selected by Joan Dornemann and Paul Nadler of the Metropolitan Opera to receive a full scholarship to attend the prestigious International Vocal Arts Institute. In addition to the repertoire standards, he champions new and rarely performed works. Mr. Kamalić has created roles in operas by composers Eric Sawyer, Charles David Younger, Thomas Oboe Lee, and Sarah Meneely-Kyder.  The Croatian-American tenor has also reveled in the opportunity to explore and present the music of Croatia. He made his European debut in 2012 with Kvartet Veljak in Valun, Croatia and returns in 2014 to sing at the Rijeka Festival of Chamber Music in Rijeka, Croatia.

PETER LIGHTFOOT, dramatic baritone
Dramatic baritone Peter Lightfoot performed Falstaff in Verdi’s Falstaff in Cagli and Mercatello, Italy.  His performance of Marbuel at the Wexford Festival in The Devil and Kate is on DVD.   Lightfoot was Bass soloist in Mozart's Requiem with Sir John Rutter at Carnegie Hall. His operatic roles include Verdi's Macbeth; Tonio in Il Pagliacci; Scarpia in Tosca and Rigoletto in Verdi's Rigoletto.  His orchestral credits include the Stockholm Philharmonic, the Amsterdam Radio Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Dallas Symphony. Mr. Lightfoot was born in New York and holds degrees from the Juilliard School and Tufts University. He is winner of a National Opera Institute Grant, a Sullivan Foundation Grant and a Harp Grant.  He is associate professor of voice Michigan State University's College of Music. Lightfoot's "An American Tapestry" with pianist Dr. Deborah Moriarity, can now be heard on Blue Griffin Records.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

CBASO & Chorus perform Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (version with chorus!), and more

COMING UP NEXT: a very special opportunity to hear Tchaikovsky's famed "1812" OVERTURE in the version with chorus! (Plus cannon sounds and church bells, of course...) Also featuring the Beethoven CHORAL FANTASY (with pianist Neil Posner and winners of The American Prize Chicago Oratorio Award) and PDQ BACH's "Unbegun Symphony." Music by Verdi and Berlioz, too. A very happy concert!

Coming to St James Cathedral Wednesday, May 21, 2014. Click for tickets!


Saturday, March 29, 2014

PHOTOS from BIG APPLE RAZZLE DAZZLE

Here are some iphone shots of the CBA Chorus from the terrific combined concert they presented with the New York Bar Chorus at the New York Bar Association Building on 44th Street in NYC last evening (March 28, 2014.) It was standing room only, whistles and cheers for a special evening of musical collaboration.

CBA Echo Chorus










CBA Chorus in performance.








Percussion provided by Home Depot. (That's the top of Janet E's head.)      



Rebecca Patterson looking very happy.


Call her "Becky Claves"
























Conductors back-to-back. Rebecca Patterson and Kathryn Schneider (of the NY Bar Chorus)
























Conductors face-to-face. David Katz (CBA Symphony) and CBASO assistant conductor Michael Poulos, both there to see the show. (Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg looks down from the wall.)

Friday, March 14, 2014

The CBA CHORUS tours to NYC later this month!

Big Apple Razzle Dazzle: New York City Bar Chorus and Chicago Bar Association Chorus Joint Concert MARCH 28, 2014 in New York City.

More information is available at www.citybarchorus.org and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/citybarchorus

Here's the flier:





Tuesday, February 11, 2014

CALL FOR SOLOISTS: Sing BEETHOVEN's CHORAL FANTASY in Chicago—Four $500 contracts

CHICAGO ORATORIO AWARD—deadline approaching February 25th.

Four $500 prizes, one each for soprano, mezzo-soprano (alto), tenor, baritone (bass), will be awarded as performance fees to soloists selected to appear under the baton of Maestro David Katz in concert with the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, performing the solo portions of  Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and the Quartet from Verdi's Rigoletto on Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at St James Episcopal Cathedral, Chicago. (Dress rehearsal Tuesday evening, May 20, 2014, same location.)

This additional opportunity is offered as part of The American Prize in Vocal Performance Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Awards national competition and is open to 2014 applicants in the professional and college/university categories, only.

Each winner will receive a $500 all-inclusive fee (no additional housing, travel or per diem), payment to be made on the day of the performance. Although the Chicago Oratorio Award is an additional contest open to all professional and college/university applicants for The American Prize in Vocal Performance, 2014, it is geared primarily to those who live within comfortable travel distance of Chicago and/or who can make their own housing/travel arrangements.

Complete information, application forms and requirements: http://www.theamericanprize.org/vocalperf.html

Automatic postmark deadline extensions to Monday, February 25, 2014 are available to those email by that date with their intention to apply: theamericanprize@gmail.com

Vocal scores to the Beethoven and Verdi may downloaded here:
http://www.theamericanprize.org/artsong.html
(see link, middle of the page)

Questions? theamericanprize@gmail.com

Sunday, January 19, 2014

TICKETS on SALE NOW for our next concert!

Please join us for our next concert, Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 7:30 pm at St James Cathedral. Called HALF & HALF, the program will feature the CBA Chorus in music they perform on tour in March in New York City with the NY Bar Chorus, plus the CBA Symphony in beloved masterworks by Berlioz and Brahms.

TICKETS HERE: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/profile/80112