Pasatiempo | Spencer Fordin | Link to Article

Out There!

FOR THE EARS

The Desert Chorale season is in full swing, which means you’ll have a chance to see all of the group’s offerings on consecutive nights.

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi will play host to The Tudors and the Medici (7:30 p.m. Friday, July 28), The American Immigrant Experience (7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 29), and The Ecstasies Above (4 p.m. Sunday, July 30).

A few days later, the Desert Chorale’s Artist Spotlight Recital takes place at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, August 2, at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, and three of the group’s singers will take center stage. Soprano Chelsea Helm, bass-baritone Marques Jerrell Ruff, and mezzo-soprano Angela Young Smucker will each have a chance to perform as soloists accompanied by pianist Nathan Salazar.

Smucker will sing compositions by Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel, and Helm will sing selections written by Arnold Schoenberg and Claude Debussy, among others. Ruff will sing compositions by Irving Berlin, Moses Hogan, and noted composing and writing team Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens.

“Singers can be trained to be soloists, meaning they’re going to have an operatic career and their goal is to sing huge and loud and get up and over an orchestra,” says Joshua Habermann, the artistic director of Desert Chorale. “Then you get other folks who are able to blend their voices seamlessly together and make a really unified clear sound. There’s very few who can do both those things. That’s what distinguishes the Desert Chorale artists, because each of them can step into a section and contribute equally to this pure, crystalline, unbelievably clear sound. But at the same time they can step out and then deliver this amazing honking really robust solo.” — S.F.

details
Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, 131 Cathedral Place
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 550 W. San Mateo Road
Check for ticket availability
505-988–2282; desertchorale.org