Pacific Chorale Presents Duruflé Requiem and Jocelyn Hagen’s multi-media “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci”

WHAT:
Pacific Chorale Presents The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
Robert Istad, conductor
Pacific Chorale
Pacific Symphony
Jane Hyun-Jung Shim, mezzo-soprano
Jared Daniel Jones, bass
Jung-A Lee, organ
Isaac Gale, Joseph Midthun and Justin Schell, filmmakers

PROGRAM:
DURUFLÉ   Requiem
JOCELYN HAGEN   The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

WHEN:
Saturday, October 15, 2022, 8:00 pm

WHERE:
Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts
600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

TICKETS/INFORMATION:
$26 – $142
www.pacificchorale.org
714-662-2345

COVID PROTOCOLS:
For information on Pacific Chorale’s most current health and safety protocols, please visit https://www.pacificchorale.org/covid-returning-to-live-performances/.

Artists, date, program and venue subject to change

The Grammy Award-winning Pacific Chorale, led by Artistic Director Robert Istad with special guest Pacific Symphony, launches its 2022-23 Season with a program featuring Jocelyn Hagen’s The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, a stunning multi-media work for choir, orchestra, and film based on the imagery of the drawings, ideas, and writing that the Renaissance artist explored in his extensive collection of personal notebooks, on Saturday, October 15, 2022, 8 pm, at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. Composed to honor da Vinci’s remarkable legacy on the 500^th anniversary of his death in 2019, the nine-movement choral work is set to text from his notebooks, which draw on themes of art, science, nature and technology. The accompanying film, created by experimental filmmakers and video artists Isaac Gale, Joseph Midthun and Justin Schell, is set to the performers to provide flexibility with their musicality, rather than designed with a click-track that singers must follow.

The program is anchored by Duruflé’s eloquent and illuminating Requiem, considered to be his greatest work. Fusing Gregorian chant with 20^th century musical concepts, it embraces a rich tapestry of human emotions. Duruflé dedicated his masterpiece, which envisions taking the departed soul to a peaceful eternity, to the memory of his father. The soloists include Pacific Chorale members Jane Hyun-Jung Shim, mezzo-soprano; and Jared Daniel Jones, bass; along with frequent Chorale collaborator Jung-A Lee at the William J. Gillespie Concert Organ.

For tickets ($26 – $142) and information, visit www.pacificchorale.org or call 714-662-2345. The Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall is located at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

ROBERT ISTAD, a Grammy Award-winning conductor who “fashions fluent and sumptuous readings” (Voice of OC) with his “phenomenal” artistry (Los Angeles Times), was appointed Pacific Chorale’s Artistic Director in 2017. Under his leadership, the chorus continues to expand its reputation for excellence for delivering fresh, thought-provoking interpretations of beloved masterworks, rarely performed gems and newly commissioned pieces. His artistic impact can be heard on two recent recordings featuring Pacific Chorale, including the 2020 Grammy Award-winning “Mahler’s Eighth Symphony” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel on Deutsche Grammophon (2021), for which he prepared the chorus. It won Best Choral Performance and also garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Engineered Album, Classical. Additionally, Istad conducted the Pacific Chorale’s recording “All Things Common: The Music of Tarik O’Regan” released on Yarlung Records (2020). Istad has prepared choruses for such renowned conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Williams, John Mauceri, Keith Lockhart, Nicholas McGegan, Vasilly Sinaisky, Sir Andrew Davis, Bramwell Tovey, Carl St.Clair, Eugene Kohn, Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop, George Fenton, and Robert Moody. He regularly conducts and collaborates with Pacific Symphony, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Sony Classical Records, Yarlung Records, Berkshire Choral International, and Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. An esteemed educator, Istad is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Fullerton, where he was recognized as CSUF’s 2016 Outstanding Professor of the Year. He conducts the University Singers and manages a large graduate conducting program, in addition to teaching courses on conducting and performance practice. Istad, who is on the Executive Board of Directors of Chorus America and serves as Dean of Chorus America’s Conducting Academy, is in demand as guest conductor, lecturer, and clinician.

PACIFIC CHORALE, a Grammy Award-winning Orange County “treasure” with a “fresh viewpoint” that “can sing anything you put in front of it, with polish, poise and tonal splendor” (Orange County Register), has “risen to national prominence” (Los Angeles Times) since its inception in 1968. Hailed for delivering “thrilling entertainment” (Voice of OC), the resident choir at Segerstrom Center for the Arts is noted for its artistic innovation and commitment to expanding the choral repertoire. It has given the world, U.S., and West Coast premieres of more than 35 works, including numerous commissions, by such lauded composers as John Adams, Jake Heggie, James Hopkins, David Lang, Morten Lauridsen, Ravel, Tarik O’Regan, Karen Thomas, Frank Ticheli, András Gábor Virágh, and Eric Whitacre. In addition to presenting its own concert series each season, Pacific Chorale enjoys a long-standing partnership with Pacific Symphony, with whom the choir made its highly anticipated Carnegie Hall debut in 2018. The chorus also regularly appears with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with which it won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Engineered Album, Classical, for its contribution to the live classical recording of “Mahler: Symphony No. 8, ‘Symphony of A Thousand,'” conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, featuring Leah Crocetto, Mihoko Fujimura, Ryan McKinny, Erin Morley, Tamara Mumford, Simon O’Neill, Morris Robinson and Tamara Wilson; Los Angeles Philharmonic; Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, Los Angeles Master Chorale, National Children’s Chorus and Pacific Chorale. The choir has performed with such leading orchestras as the Boston Symphony, National symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and Musica Angelica, among others. Pacific Chorale has garnered international acclaim as well, having toured extensively to more than 19 countries in Europe, South America, and Asia, and through collaborations with the London Symphony, Munich Symphony, L’Orchestre Lamoureux and L’Orchestre de St-Louis-en-l’Île of Paris, National Orchestra of Belgium, China National Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Estonian National Symphony, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Argentina, among others. Deeply committed to making choral music accessible to people of all ages, the organization, which has a discography of 14 self-produced recordings and an extensive collection of exceptional free digital offerings, places a significant emphasis on choral music education, providing after-school vocal programs for elementary school students, a choral summer camp for high school students, and an annual community-wide singing event at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. www.pacificchorale.org