Back to its roots

More than 40 years after its humble beginnings, the Saddleback Master Chorale has come home.

The chorale will celebrate the season with a free holiday concert at 2 p.m. Saturday, at St. Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church, 1042 Temple Terrace, where it now rehearses.

“There is a feeling that we are respecting our tradition,” Peter Hornby, president and a tenor for the group, said of the return.

The chorale, which calls itself the oldest continuously performing choral group in Orange County, was originally founded as the Festival of Arts Chorale by Doris Shields in 1963 to sing background music for the Pageant of the Masters. Shields was also responsible for founding the city’s long-established Music in the Park program.

After the end of the festival season, Shields was determined to keep the group of singers together. It performed throughout town, and changed its name and director several times.

In 1965, it performed in a run of “John Brown’s Body” at the Laguna Playhouse with a very young unknown actor named Harry Ford, who would take on the name Harrison in future roles after being scouted at the Playhouse.

The chorale then became affiliated with Saddleback College in Mission Viejo since 1975, where it grew to more than 100 members at its peak and performed throughout Southern California and in Italy.

In 1994, it joined either other choirs in a 1,000-voice performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the event known as the Daiku at the Hollywood Bowl.

And it performed in Italy in 2001 along with 13 other choirs in the performance of Verdi’s Requiem to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death.

“As of this fall, we decided to disconnect ourselves from the college and test the waters as an independent community choir,” Hornby said.

The chorale previously served a dual purpose as a standard non-profit and a college class, Hornby said; this caused constant fluctuation in the group’s ranks.

“We’re not breaking off and starting again,” he added. “The Chorale has just moved.”

The group’s membership also dropped from around 90 to 25 after the move to Laguna Beach, but Hornby said that those who were most passionate about the ensemble stayed, and they will begin adding to their ranks again.

“The goal over the next six months is to attract some good new singers,” Hornby said. But he is undetermined as to the ultimate number of singers desired.

“We have to decide what kind of group we want to be,” he said. “There’s spectacular choral music at either end of the scale.”

He is also excited at the prospect of hiring professional instrumental musicians to perform, where previously the chorale used students from the college.

“Right now is a transitional period,” Hornby said. “The chorale has changed its focus and direction many times over the years.”

The chorale also hopes to find a new musical director for the 2007 season.

The interim director is Charles Stephenson, who has sung with the chorale since the mid-1970s. He is also the music director at St. Catherine’s, where they practice in the church pews.

“We have a lot of opportunity in front of us, and we don’t know where it’s going to take us,” Hornby said.

The one constant is the members’ passion for their music.

“It’s spine-tingling when it works properly,” Hornby said. “There’s just nothing like it.”