Pacific Chorale is singing again. The Orange County ensemble, led by Artistic Director Robert Istad, will be back onstage at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall this month with its season-opening program. And like the rest of its concerts in 2021 and 2022, the Oct. 30 performance finds the group on familiar ground, even when the repertoire is new.
Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil closes Saturday’s program, which opens with three contemporary works, including the world premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s The Stillness Chained. O’Regan, Pacific Chorale’s former composer-in-residence, will stay a fixture this season. Another new piece of his gets its premiere May 7, 2022, with a concert that also has a choral masterwork, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem, to end.
Between then and now, Pacific Chorale revisits more favorites. The group sings its standard holiday programs in December: “Carols by Candlelight” and the family-friendly “Tis the Season!” In March 2022, it’s back to the comfortably contemporary — works by Caroline Shaw, Los Angeles composer Dale Trumbore, and more — though at a different venue, Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Newport Beach.
The chorus keeps up its partnership with Pacific Symphony throughout the year. With the orchestra, Pacific Chorale premieres James MacMillan’s Fiat Lux (Feb. 17–19, 2022), is the opera chorus for Verdi’s Otello (April 7–12, 2022), and takes the starring role in Mozart’s Requiem (May 19–22, 2022).
The collaboration even kicks off in a small way with that Oct. 30 season-opening performance. Pacific Symphony principal cellist Warren Hagerty joins the chorus for Damien Geter’s Cantata for a More Hopeful Tomorrow, which also features guest soprano Aundi Marie Moore.
For tickets, plus more information on the upcoming season, visit Pacific Chorale’s website or call (714) 662-2345.
