Pacific Chorale is steadily reaching audiences beyond Orange County. The group, headed by Artistic Director Robert Istad, has racked up national acclaim with its Carnegie Hall debut in 2018, part of a program with Pacific Symphony, and a 2022 Grammy Award, for a recording with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
And the momentum shows no sign of stopping. The chorus will set out on an international tour — its first in seven years — at the end of this upcoming season, summer 2023. Concerts in Austria, Germany, and the United Kingdom will be the cap on a varied 2022–2023 schedule that has the ensemble tackling just the sort of music it does best.
A mix of old and new features on the program for those overseas performances. Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (or “Lord Nelson” Mass) pairs with Florence Price’s Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, composed sometime before 1949 but only surfacing now. Pacific Chorale, joined by Pacific Symphony, gives the orchestral world premiere of the recently discovered work as the final concert of its regular season, May 20, 2023, at Segerstrom Hall.
The group sticks to the same venue and the same orchestra for the start of the performance year. It’s again a combination of choral masterwork — Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem — with something different — Jocelyn Hagen’s multimedia piece The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci — for the season-opening program on Oct. 15.
Pacific Chorale branches out in between. The singers team up with Bach Collegium San Diego for a historically informed take on Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine (or “Vespers of 1610”), March 4, 2023, at Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Newport Beach. Veteran concertgoers will know the space from a holiday tradition, the chorus’s “Carols by Candlelight” concerts, which return this year (Dec. 3 and 7) along with another Christmas favorite, “Tis the Season!” (Dec. 18 and 19), which sees everyone back at Segerstrom Hall.
For season tickets and more information, visit Pacific Chorale’s website or call (714)-662-2345.
