Founded in 1993, the Pacifica Choirs have grown to include four performing levels. Enrollment has grown from the original 38 to over 70 singers.
The choir presents a magical blend of music, poetry and prose in at least 3 concerts during our 8-month season, performing all types of music (folk, classical, jazz and contemporary), while remaining chiefly devoted to a repertoire of world folk music. Regions represented in past concerts include Brazil, Eastern Europe (Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria), Canada, Hawai’i, Hungary, Israel, France, Mexico, Newfoundland, Sweden, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Japan, Germany, Africa, the United States, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Greece, England and more.
Past musical guest teachers have included Mary Sherhart with music of the Balkans, Eduardo Mendonca with music from Brazil (both can be heard on our CDs), Deneen Grant, who introduced gospel music to the choir, and in spring 2011, Dave Clellan of Dave and the Dalmatians, teaching the music of Croatia. The Ensemble and Chamber Singers have also performed traditional Javanese with Gamelan Pacifica an Indonesian orchestra in residence at Cornish College of the Arts.
Concerts: April 30, 2011 at Maple Leaf Lutheran Church. The Pacifica Chamber Singers proudly presented the Fauré Requiem, under the direction of Susan Senft. An expanded choir of 10 youth and 11 adults were joined by Sheila Bristow on the organ with Wil Sederholm, bass, and Katherine Stuber, soprano, as soloists. Dave Clellan of “Dave and the Dalmatians” taught us some wonderful Eastern European music for performance at this concert and the Dalmatians also performed. The Treble Choir, directed by Alina Gibitz and the Ensemble, directed by Melyssa Stone also performed.
