Pacific Chorale lends world-class stage at Segerstrom to amateur singers in festival
Two hundred amateur singers will have the opportunity Sunday to flex their vocal cords before a live audience on a world-class stage, as Pacific Chorale hosts its annual Choral Festival at Costa Mesa’s Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.
Each year organizers extend an open invitation for adults of any experience level to participate in what operates like a mini-boot camp of rehearsals that begin Friday evening and continue all through Saturday, with one full dress rehearsal just before the big show.
Mixed in among the parents and grandparents, hobbyists and those who lend their vocal talents to smaller ensembles or church choirs are 80 professional members of the Costa Mesa-based chorus, who will be led by Grammy Award-winning Pacific Chorale Music Director Robert Istad.
“It’s a huge undertaking,” Istad said of the festival, co-sponsored by Segerstrom Center for the Arts and the city of Costa Mesa, which began in 2008 and is now in its 15th year.
“It really allows the organization to reach out to members of the singing community, to connect them with our singers and me and to give them access to the beautiful Segerstrom Concert Hall — it’s amazing.”
Singers are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis, with no auditioning necessary, meaning once the online registration period begins, spaces fill up in an instant. Those who make the cut are sent recordings of the piece that will be performed, to help them prepare ahead of time.
This year’s selection is Haydn’s “Mass in Time of War (Missa in tempore belli),” composed in 1796 as Napoleon’s army threatened war with Austria, Istad explained.
“It was meant for people listening and participating in it to have this cathartic experience, where they could express their worry and wishes for peace,” he said of the work, known for its use of militaristic-sounding timpani drums.
John Middlebrooks, a 69-year-old Irvine resident who’s been singing since his college days and has performed with various choral and ensemble groups, first joined in the Choral Festival in 2019 with wife Deborah and immediately returned in 2022, when the event returned from a pandemic hiatus.
A self-described “serious amateur” and regular attendee at Pacific Chorale performances throughout the year, Middlebrooks said the brief rehearsal period, culminating in an appearance on the Segerstrom stage, provides a nice creative jolt.
“This is ideal for me, because it’s just intense for three days, and then you walk on stage and have a pretty respectable performance. I like that,” he said Friday. “If you want to do top quality lite, this weekend is a real treat.”
In addition to Orange County residents like Middlebrooks, some singers travel to Costa Mesa from other states and even nations to perform in the annual festival, according to Istad.
“There are people who fly in from Europe for this and [from] all over the United States, and part of it is the camaraderie,” he said. “There’s one group of friends who only see each other throughout the year at this event.
For amateur choral singer Diana Hensley, the festival is a not-to-be-missed event. In fact, the Costa Mesa resident has participated in each event since its inception, after hearing about it from a choir director.
“He told us about it and said he was going to be singing in it, so I went and loved doing it,” Hensley, 86, said Thursday. “It’s really great. You get to know some of the singers and appreciate the music together. They say you breathe together and your hearts start beating together — I read that that happens.”
Istad confirmed that fact, saying that singers typically inhale at similar points within a musical piece and so fall into a rhythmic synchronicity with one another that adds to the vocal harmony a chorus produces.
Another experiential element of large group singing is an audible overtone, described by listeners as a sort of ringing sensation or vibration that cannot be captured in a recording of a live event.
“The only way you can experience that phenomenon as a human being is to be in that space, live,” he said. “It’s a very profound artistic experience. It’s bigger than a choral festival — it’s about what happens when a community comes together.
“It fills me with hope for the future,” Istad continued. “If we can do that in three days, imagine what you could do in other areas and other avenues of our lives.”
The 15th annual Choral Festival takes place Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets are free, but registration is required and available online at cart.pacificchorale.org/festival2024.
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