University Chamber Chorus |
Marika Kuzma, director |
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DescriptionRehearsal InformationAudition InformationCurrent SeasonDiscographyRecent performancesDepartment of Music
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For the 2007-08 academic school year Marika Kuzma is on leave from the University. The Chamber Chorus is not being offered as a course during time. However, the Chamber Chorus will continue to meet as an ensemble with guest directors, rehearsing on Wednesdays from 5:30-7:30 PM in Hertz Hall. Details about the Chamber Chorus season are below. For audition information please see the choral audition information. Students wishing to receive credit for singing in Chamber Chorus should register in the University Chorus (Music 144) and will be required to participate in the University Chorus on a reduced schedule.
The Chamber Chorus of the University of California, Berkeley, Marika Kuzma director, is the university's premiere vocal ensemble and a musical jewel in the San Francisco Bay Area. A select group of some thirty singers, the ensemble is particularly acclaimed for its readings of both early and contemporary music. The chorus regularly performs with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, its collaborations with that orchestra and the Mark Morris Dance Group meeting with sold out audiences and enthusiastic critical acclaim. It has also premiered and recorded works by such noted American composers as Elinor Armer, Richard Felciano, Morton Feldman, Lou Harrison, Jorge Liderman, and John Thow. Their concerts have been featured in broadcasts of the Voice of America, Public Radio International, and Austrian Radio. Concert engagements have included appearances locally in Hertz Hall, St. Mark’s Church, Zellerbach Hall, Oakland's Paramount Theater, Grace Cathedral, and Davies Symphony Hall and throughout California as well as concert tours to Canada, England, Germany (Goethingen Festival), Austria, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. This year, the chorus performed the Bach St. Matthew Passion under Marika Kuzma with Evangelist Alan Bennet and toured the East Coast with repertoire from Eastern Europe and Latin America.
Critics from the New York Times, Washington Post, San
Francisco Chronicle, and Opera News alike have praised the chorus
as "excellent," "splendid," "electric." "The
UC Chamber Chorus leaves no syllable unarticulated and no musical marvel unexplored"
(San Francisco Examiner). Among Chamber Chorus recordings, its Handel's Susannah
on the harmonia mundi label and Liderman Song of Songs received Grammy
nominations and its Icons of Slavic Music is known in Eastern Europe
as well as America.
The chorus is competitively selected from singer-musicians in the greater campus
community: undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, community members.
Singers in the chamber chorus are expected to have advanced musicianship skills
and significant vocal/choral experience. Members of the chamber chorus typically
regard music as their primary vocation or as a highly committed, passionate
avocation.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
6pm, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
Matt Oltman (Assistant Music Director of Chanticleer), guest
director
A concert for All Saint's Day including Tomás Luis de Victoria's Requiem,
Officium defunctorum (1605)
Free admission to both the concert and galleries, as part of Free First Thursdays
at BAM/PFA.
More information
Wednesday, December 5
Holiday Choral Music, repertoire to be announced
University Chamber Chorus, Ian Kirk (distinguished
University Chamber Chorus alumnus), guest director
Wednesday, March 12, 2008; 12 Noon
John Kendall Bailey (distinguished University Chamber Chorus
alumnus), guest director
Choral music by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Canteloube, Lili & Nadia Boulanger,
Messiaen, Duruflé with soloists Christa Pfeiffer, soprano & Edward
Betts, tenor
April 26, 2008; 8 PM
Jan Harrington (Director of Choral Conducting, Indiana University),
guest director
Steve Reich, The Desert Music (1982-84)
2006-07 Season
September 30-October 7, Zellerbach Auditorium, 8 PM
American Premiere
King Arthur by Henry Purcell
Mark Morris, director/choreographer
Jane Glover, conductor
Mark Morris Dance Group
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Featuring the original English cast from the June premiere
For further information: www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/presents/season/2006
November 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 7 PM
Music for All Souls Day
Pierre de la Rue Missa pro fidelibus defunctis [Requiem]
Free admission
BAM: 2626 Bancroft Way
General Information: (510) 642-0808
December 6
Holiday Noon Concert "A
Child is Born"
Collaboration with the University Chorus and Young Inspiration Gospel Chorus
Selections in styles from medieval monastic to contemporary gospel
Excerpts from Britten, A Boy was Born; Handel, Messiah; Messiah:
A Soulful Celebration
April 20, Hertz Hall, 8 PM
April 22 or 25th, location TBA
The Medieval Carmina Burana: 13th
Century Poetry and Music
Love Songs, Biblical Scenes, Dance Songs.
This is theatrical reconstruction based on medieval manuscripts of student songs
and poetry from Benediktbeuern and borrowing from Thomas Binkley's staging for
the 1990 Berkeley Festival.
With guest instrumentalists Frances Felden, Shira Kammen, Peter Maund, Roy Whelden.
Additional concert or tour in May TBA
The California Festival Camerata, comprised of members of the UC Chamber Chorus, distinguished alumni, and singers in the greater university community including members of the American Bach Soloists, the Carmel Bach Festival Chorus, and Philharmonia Baroque Chorale was been invited to Brazil in August 2006 to perform the Bach St. Matthew Passion under maestro Kent Nagano with concerts in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.
Music for Sacred Spaces
Plainchant and chant by Hildegard of Bingen, motets by Guillaume Dufay, and
the West Coast premiere of Robert Moran's Stimmen des letzten Siegels
University Art Museum
Spring 2004
From Sacred to Salsa
Latin American music by Franco, Ginastera, Lavista, Liderman, Nin-Culmel, Orrego-Salas,
Ortiz, Sierra.
International House
Spring 2004
Monk and Brahms
Meredith Monk, Book of Days - West Coast premiere.
Brahms, Lieder, Quartets & Love Songs
with guest directors Vance George (Grammy Award-winning director of the San
Francisco Symphony Chorus) and Kelly Crandell (Assistant to Meredith Monk)
St. Mark's Church
Fall 2003
Handel L'Allegro
with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the Mark Morris Dance Group
Zellerbach Auditorium
Fall 2003
Britten Hymn to St. Cecilia, selections by Arvo Pärt
and others
Tour to Pacific Northwest
Spring 2003
Schütz Musicalische Exequien (Performance
at Grace Cathedral)
Spring 2003
Monteverdi Vespers of 1610
Fall 2002
In Memoriam (part of campus-wide commemoration)
Selections by Mozart, Schnittke, Brahms, Copland, McFerrin, Malkin
September 11, 2002
Voices of Byzantium
Eastern Psalmody from Mount Athos to Moscow
(Part of the Berkeley Early Music Festival)
Spring 2002
J. S. Bach Mass in B Minor
Spring 2000
Twentieth-Century Choral Music
Selections by Steve Reich, Richard Felciano, Lesia Dychko
Fall 1999
October 21, 8 PM, Hertz Hall
Music Department Centenary Concert
Randall Thompson excerpts from his Requiem (a work composed for the
University Chorus and premiered in Hertz Hall in the 1950s)
November 4 and 5, 8 PM, Hertz Hall
"Lux aeterna"
Fauré, Requiem
Stravinsky Requiem Canticles
Tavener "Song for Athene"
Collaboration with the University Chorus
With orchestra and alumni soloists
December 7, Hertz Hall Noon Concert
Holiday Noon Concert of French
Christmas music and carols:
Charpentier, Messe de Minuit, Poulenc motets, French and Cajun carols
December 10, St. Mary's College, Moraga
"Holiday Music with a French Accent and Southern Twist"
Charpentier Messe de Minuit, Poulenc motets, French carols
With period instrument chamber ensemble
Carols from the American South: Appalachian, Cajun, etc.
With guest fiddler Sue Draheim
March 19, Hertz Hall, 5 PM
J.S. Bach, St. Matthew Passion
With period orchestra and guest soloists
Alan Bennett, Evangelist
Benjamin Park, Jesus
Other guest soloists
April 20-23, Davies Hall, First Congregational Church Berkeley
Beethoven, Symphony No. 9
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Collaboration with the Philharmonia Chorale and SF Choral Artists
May 25-28, East Coast Tour
"A Cappella Music from Latin America and Eastern
Europe"
Cambridge, MA-First Church Congregational, May 25
New York, NY-St. Michael's Church 99th St, May 26
Washington, DC-St. John's Church Lafayette Square, May 28 11 AM
Church of the Epiphany, May 28, 5 PM
October 16, 22, 23, Hertz Hall, Little Bridges Hall, Pomona College,
All Saints Church Beverly Hills
“North and South of the Border”
Latin American music by Lavista, Liderman, Nin-Culmel, Orrego-Salas,
Cobián
Selections by Samuel Barber: Reincarnations
and Agnus Dei
December 8, Hertz Hall Noon Concert
“Music for a Glorious Season”
Collaboration with the University Chorus
Including Part V of Bach, Weihnachtsoratorium [Christmas
Oratorio] "Ehre sei dir Gott"
With Baroque orchestra and student soloists
February 16, Hertz Hall Noon Concert
“American Songs of the Last Century: Songs
of a Purple Country”
Choral and Solo selections by Samuel Barber, Ives, Copland and William
Bolcom (visiting composer and Bloch Lecturer)
With pianist I-Fei Chen and student soloists
Sunday April 10, 3 PM, Hertz Hall
“Poyte Pesni! Sing Songs!”
Choral concertos by Bortniansky, choral arrangements of Glinka
songs, concluding with Stravinsky's Svadebka [Les
Noces, or The Wedding]
(This concert was part of the Cal Performances Series "Ballet and
Music in Russian History and Culture" and the final event of the
Department of Music international conference "Glinka and His Legacies")
Sunday May 1, 3 PM, Berkeley Art Museum
“In Illo tempore: Music of the Time of Rubens”
Motets by Giaches de Wert and Monteverdi,
excerpts from Monteverdi L’Orfeo
With violas da gamba and student soloists
(In collaboration with the BAM exhibition “Drawn by the Brush:
Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens”)
For further information please contact Marika Kuzma at (510) 642-5519 or at mkuzma@socrates.berkeley.edu
Updated 1/21/2008
For information about this website please e-mail: music@uclink.berkeley.edu