400 to Join Voices for Fall Choral Festival

Singers from eight high schools will join Westmont’s men’s and women’s chorales, chamber singers and college choir for the Fall Choral Festival Concert, Friday, Oct. 27, at the Marjorie Luke Theatre, 721 East Cota Street, at 7 p.m. The concert is free, but seating is limited.

The evening will include performances from each different singing group before they all join in a mass choir presentation. The final piece with all 400 singers will be Mozart’s “Kyrie from Missa Brevis in B Flat.”

The Westmont college choir will perform California contemporary composer Kirke Mechem’s “Island in Space,” a poetic description of a photograph of earth taken from space. Mechem’s composition uses prose from Apollo 9 astronaut Russell Schweickart and the poetry of Archibald Macleish, along with choral selections from the Renaissance to today.

The public is also welcome to listen to clinics in Porter Theatre and Montecito Covenant Church from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“It was great last year,” says Michael Shasberger, Adams professor of music and worship, “and we have twice as many schools this year. We’re going out and making people aware of the work we’re doing and sharing in it.”

Shasberger will direct the mass choir presentation and the Westmont College Choir. Grey Brothers, associate professor of music, directs the chamber singers and the men’s chorale. Rebecca Hodson, adjunct instructor, directs the women’s chorale. Wyant Morton,Cal Lutheran University director of choral activities, will assist during the afternoon clinics.

The participating high schools include: Agoura High School, under the direction of John Mosley; Dos Pueblos High School, under the direction of Brian Slotnick-Lastrico; El Camino High School, under the direction of George Bridgewater; La Habra High School, under the direction of David V. Montoya; Morro Bay High School, under the direction of Colleen Wall; Palos Verdes High School, under the direction of Patricia Maddaford; Santa Maria High School, under the direction of Donna Phillips; and Santa Susanna High School, under the direction of Bevin S. Abbe.

Under Shasberger’s leadership, the college has had three times as many students audition for music scholarships. The orchestra has tripled in size and both the men’s and women’s chorales have doubled in size. The string program also continues to grow with the recent addition of Philip Ficsor, assistant professor of violin.

“We’re off the ground and on trajectory,” says Shasberger. “There’s no question it’s very exciting. The music department seems to be bearing fruit and doing what we want it to do in the community.”