Image: The Westmont Chamber Singers
On SATURDAY, APRIL 2 at 3 p.m. the SANTA BARBARA MUSIC CLUB will present another program in its popular series of concerts of beautiful Classical music at Faulkner Gallery in the downtown Public Library.
The program opens with an eclectic and fascinating display of choral music by the Westmont Chamber Singers, M. Grey Brothers, music director. The program will conclude with the exquisite Quartet in C major, K. 465 (“Dissonance”) of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, presented by the Channel Islands String Quartet.
Program Details
(1902-1989)
arr. Paris Rutherford
M. Grey Brothers, music director
Soprano: Tatum Blinn, Laura Coors, Meredith Mueller
Alto: Wendy Kent, Serena Lee
Tenor: Scott Myrvold, Grey Brothers
Bass: Micah Anthony, Christian Burnias, Connor Riva
(1756-1791)
- Adagio-Allegro
- Andante cantabile
- Minuetto: Allegro
- Allegro molto
Irving Weinstein, violin
Gary Chandler, violin
Diana Ray-Goodman, viola
Ervin Klinkon, cello
Notes on the Program
by Betty Oberacker
One of the highlights of Santa Barbara Music Club’s concerts is the opportunity for audiences to hear great music from a variety of historical periods, with a diversity of musical forms, performed by excellent artists.
The program opens with an eclectic and fascinating display of choral music by the Westmont Chamber Singers, M. Grey Brothers, music director. Featured will be O Sonno, by the Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer Cipriano de Rore, Five English Folk Songs and The Dark-Eyed Sailor, the Springtime of the Year, and Just as the Tide Was flowing, arranged by the renowned British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, Praise the Lord, by the British church organist and composer David Halls, and Alice in Wonderland, by the popular songwriter Sammy Fain and arranged by Paris Rutherford.
The program will conclude with the exquisite Quartet in C major, K. 465 (“Dissonance”) of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, presented by the Channel Islands String Quartet. The work’s four movements, “Adagio-Allegro,” “Andante cantabile,” “Minuetto,” and “Allegro,” comprise one of the most revolutionary as well as profound utterances by the composer. The quartet earned the nickname “Dissonance” due to the unusually chromatic harmonic structure of the introduction, and the work as a whole was once completely foreign to its audience – but is now considered a transcendently fresh and emotionally poignant creation.
The work is the last of a set of six String Quartets inspired by and dedicated to Haydn’s Op. 33, itself a set of six String Quartets (Mozart’s six are known as the Haydn Quartets). Mozart and Haydn had established a friendship untainted by envy and characterized by mutual admiration, so Mozart had sent the set to Haydn. There followed a most wonderful interchange of correspondence:
Upon receipt of Mozart’s set Haydn asserted to Mozart’s father, “I tell you, before God and as an honest man, that your son is the greatest composer known to me, either in person or by name. He has taste, and, what is more, a most thorough knowledge of composition.” And Mozart, in turn, replied: “Your good opinion encourages me to offer these string quartets to you, and leads me to hope that you will not consider them wholly unworthy of your favour. Please, then, receive them kindly and be to them a father, guide, and friend!”
The Performers
The Westmont Chamber Singers, Grey Brothers, director, is a select ensemble drawn from the Westmont College Choir. The ensemble offers elite, small-vocal-ensemble experience to advanced singers who wish to explore challenging literature written for few voices per part, and specializes in sacred and secular music from the 15th century to present-day. Their repertoire includes madrigals and motets of the Renaissance, contemporary sacred and secular music, folk-song arrangements, spirituals, and present-day jazz and pop music, as well as early Spanish choral music from Mexico and the United States. The ensemble comprises soprano: Lillyana Huerta, Bethany Le, Jessica Lingua; alto: Sharon Ko, Justice Patocs, Naomi Pulver, tenor: Christopher Browning, Kenny Galindo, Fritz Mora; bass: Alex Dell, Sean McElrath, Nathan Sirovatka.
M. Grey Brothers, music director, is in his 20th year on the music faculty at Westmont College, where, in addition to directing the Chamber Singers and Choral Union, he teaches Music History and World Music. He has appeared as tenor soloist with Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura choral groups and in local stage productions. Dr. Brothers earned his Ph.D. in musicology at UCSB with a dissertation on the choral music of colonial Mexico, and his edition of the Passions of viceregal Mexican composer Antonio Rodríguez Mata was published by A-R Editions in 2012. A longtime church musician, Professor Brothers is also Director of Choral and Congregational Music at Trinity Episcopal Church.
Irving Weinstein, violinist, received his MA Degree from DePauw University and an Artist Diploma from the Los Angeles Conservatory, where he studied with Toscha Seidel. Violinist with the Oceano Chamber Players and violist in the Roth String Quartet, resident quartet at UCLA for 11 years, he taught violin and viola in the Los Angeles Public School System. Irving has been Administrator in the LA Community College District, Academic Vice President at two of its colleges, and retired as the Vice Chancellor of the college district. He currently performs in several local orchestras and chamber music ensembles.
Gary Chandler, violinist, received his Bachelor’s Degree from UCLA with a major in motion pictures and a minor in music, and worked in the motion picture post-production industry at Paramount, Lorimar and Disney Studios for 40 years. He has played in a number of orchestras, including the Santa Monica Symphony, the Valley and New Valley Symphonies, and the Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra. An avid collector of fine violins, he is active in presenting lectures and demonstrations, discussing the beauty and history of extraordinary violins, sharing both his insight and his collection of violins and bows.
Diana Ray-Goodman, violist, received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in music from California State University Northridge and worked on her Master’s Degree at Arizona State University. She has performed with several orchestras, including the Phoenix, Santa Barbara and Conejo Valley Orchestras and the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic. A member of the music faculty at both California State University Channel Islands and Moorpark College, she is an adjudicator and registered teacher with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and also maintains a studio for violin and viola students in Thousand Oaks.
Ervin Klinkon, cellist, received his musical training in Germany and New York. He has performed as soloist and with chamber music ensembles in Europe and the U.S., and with orchestras in Houston and in Washington, D.C. (Kennedy Center Opera House, National Gallery, and National Symphony). Ervin served as Chairman of the Music Department at Montgomery College (MD) and conducted the Montgomery College Symphony Orchestra for twenty years. He now lives in Santa Barbara where he continues to lead an active musical life, playing with various ensembles, teaching cello, and coaching chamber music groups.
