The San Diego Master Chorale will be returning to Coronado on May 31 to showcase the breadth and range of their repertoire, in what they’re calling a “mixtape” performance.
The “playlist” for this performance started with more than 5,000 selections of music, according to San Diego Master Chorale music director John Russell. It was a big task to narrow down.
“I did my best to keep the final voting list [to] music that I thought the audience and singers would recognize … so it didn’t become too much of a chore for them to figure out,” Russell said.
Once they shaved off holiday music and obscure titles few would recognize, San Diego Master Chorale leadership asked people who attended previous performances and chorale performers to vote on pieces they would want to hear live.
“I found the voting very hard because there were too many wonderful things to vote on,” chorale singer Sally Greenleaf said.
The San Diego Master Chorale has been performing in San Diego County since 1961. The chorale features 130 of the region’s finest singers, and they perform a wide-range of music from classical masterpieces to new music by contemporary composers. The mixtape they have planned for their Coronado performance is a showcase of their breadth of genres.
“It’s kind of a great way to engage with the audience, engage with the singers, bring them into like the whole part of the process of planning a concert,” Russell said about community members having a choice in the songs, along with the performers. “[It’s] not just taking your music when you show up for the first rehearsal, or you get to the concert and looking at the program, but actually having a voice and choosing the music for the concert.”
Russell said the chorale received approximately 250 votes that contributed to the final decision on their set list.
Greenleaf, Rob Taylor and Katherine Waugh are three of the chorale singers who made their voices heard on the ballot. All three happen to also be Coronado residents.
Rob Taylor said the last time the chorale came to the Crown City was nearly 30 years ago.
“It was actually in May of 1996 at the Hotel Del,” Taylor explained.
It’s a homecoming for the chorale.
“It means a lot,” Taylor said. “I grew up in Coronado. It’s been my home town since I was age 4.”
Taylor joined the group after making a New Year’s resolution in 2012.
Greenleaf and Waugh are newer residents to Coronado, but both said it was important for them to get involved with music and performance when they made the move to the island.
“I’m not sure how I can express it. It just is a valuable, valuable part of my life,” Greenleaf said.
Greenleaf had previously been part of a master chorale and knew she wanted to reconnect to one in her new home because of the impact music had on her day.
“I would always leave rehearsals so energized and so enlivened because of the beautiful singing and the whole physical act of singing which is so helpful for your body and your mind and your spirit,” Greenleaf said.
For Waugh, she said rehearsing the “mixtape” pieces has brought back fun memories.
“[It] brought back a lot of memories going through all of the song selections, referring back to times we’ve [or] I’ve sung those before in this group or in previous groups I’ve been a part of,” Waugh said.
Outside of the chorale, Greenleaf is a local music teacher. She said this performance is an opportunity to learn more about pieces that we often see in our everyday lives and hear them performed live.
“I’ve seen movements from classical things, like the Mozart Requiem, used in commercials and other things, so even though [the audience] may not know the whole work, they probably have heard some of this in commercials,” Greenleaf said. “After they hear it, they may go home and hear the commercial and go, ‘Oh, wait, I think that’s familiar…’ That’s the teacher in me, always trying to connect new learning with something that’s familiar that maybe you hear on TV or in other avenues.”
For Waugh, seeing the chorale prepare for this upcoming performance has shown the diversity of talent and experience.
“Definitely within one performance, it’s unique to be able to transition from genre to genre,” Waugh said. “I think just due to the general variety of our repertoire in general, our group is well suited to that. We have performers who are well-versed in all different types of genres and have different strengths when it comes to those types of performances.”
From the Beatles to Mozart, Greenleaf said these pieces featured in their performance taps into something deeper.
“The great composers, and those are not just classical composers, but the people who write music that’s enduring, they’re all finding a way to express something that is true and meaningful as a part of our world,” Greenleaf said. “That’s true whether it’s ‘Into the Woods,’ – a Broadway musical – or a piece like ‘The Lord Bless You and Keep You’ by John Rutter.”
The concerts will also include Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes,” with a special appearance by the San Diego Children’s Choir during the Saturday performance in Coronado.
“Those composers and lyricists are writing about something that’s important, that connects with our human condition and our walk in this world,” Greenleaf said.
Performers like Taylor hope this performance kick starts a new verse for the chorale, to share these powerful pieces with the City of Coronado.
“We’re going to just sort of demonstrate the gamut of what we do, and hopefully we’ll be back,” Taylor said.
The San Diego Master Chorale will perform at the Coronado Performing Arts Center on May 31. If you didn’t get the chance to vote on the music for this performance, there will be another opportunity the day of the performance. The chorale will be doing a live audience vote for the encore.
Ticket discount programs are offered for seniors, active duty military and students 13 and older. Tickets for children ages 12 and under are always free. For more information visit https://www.sdmasterchorale.org/tickets/
