Musical Collaboration with VC, MC and UCSB
Attend a FREE concert this weekend. This event marks the first major collaboration between the choirs of UC Santa Barbara, Ventura College, and Moorpark College.
There will be more than 100 singers from these three Central Coast institutions that are combining forces for the first time for a rare and ambitious collaboration: a full performance of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle. They will perform alongside the Ventura College Symphony Orchestra and a quartet of guest soloists.
The concerts are free and open to the public!
Saturday, May 16 at 2 p.m.
Trinity Episcopal Church 1500 State Street, Santa Barbara
Sunday, May 17 at 7 p.m.
Oxnard Performing Arts Center 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard
Rossini composed the Petite Messe Solennelle in 1863, more than thirty years after he had largely set aside composition. He called it "the last mortal sin of my old age.” This masterwork is a deeply personal, dramatically rich work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra that represents one of the great composer's most mature and searching statements.
Conducting is Brent Wilson, Director of Choral Activities at UC Santa Barbara and Department Chair of Performing Arts at Ventura College, and the former Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor of Opera Santa Barbara. Says Wilson, "Rossini's 'Petite Messe Solennelle' is one of the composer's final and most personal works. Despite the denotation as ‘petite,” the work is anything but small! This piece brings highlights the unmistakable voice of a master composer writing with freedom and wisdom that comes with a lifetime of composing. We are so proud of all of our students’ amazing work and the kind of partnership across institutions that makes a project of this scale possible."
The soloists will be familiar to Santa Barbara audiences. Soprano Anastasia Malliaras sang the role of Cleopatra in Opera Santa Barbara's recent production of Handel's Giulio Cesare this season. Mezzo-soprano Christina Pezzarossi recently starred in Opera Santa Barbara's Elmer Gantry. Tenor Benjamin Brecher (Professor of Voice at UCSB) and Baritone Brian Hotchkin (Professor of Voice at Ventura College) – both frequent presences on Santa Barbara stages – complete the quartet.
