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Bay Choral Guild is a 45-voice, auditioned chorus based in Palo
Alto with singers from around the Bay Area. It has built a
reputation over the years for high-quality performances and
innovative programming of demanding repertoire from all
periods. The Guild produces a formal concert season of three
program sets performed in Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Campbell.
The Guild performs classical vocal repertoire, from
Renaissance and Baroque works to contemporary. Programs
feature local composers and new works on a regular basis. In June
2005, the Guild presented Mass by William Ludtke, Bay
Area composer and one of the winners in the
Guild’s 1986 new works competition. In June 2004, the Guild
collaborated with the California Symphony in the premiere of
Songs of Discovery, a new composition by Kevin Beavers,
composer in residence for California Symphony. And in June 2003,
the Guild premiered original compositions by Bay Area composers
Kurt Erickson, Kirke Mechem, Sanford Dole, Paul Crabtree and David
Conte.
Repeatedly sought after for collaborative performances and guest
appearances, the Guild performed for three seasons with Philharmonia
Baroque Orchestra. Most recently, the Guild has been the guest chorus for
the Midsummer Mozart Festival, under the direction of Maestro George Cleve,
performing the Mozart Mass in C minor in 2005 and the Coronation
Mass in 2007. In May 2004, the Guild collaborated with California
Symphony in three performances of the Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and a
commission by Kevin Beavers. And in November 2002, the Guild, along with
Ragazzi Boys Chorus and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, conducted by
Sanford Dole, joined the Lawrence Pech Dance Company for the premiere of a
new ballet, Angels: Fallen and Otherwise, by Bay Area composer Kurt
Erickson.
The Guild tours locally and abroad. In summer 2003, the Guild
traveled to Italy and performed formal and informal concerts in
addition to singing a mass service at St. Mark’s Basilica in
Venice. In fall 2005, the Guild released their first professional
recording, The Seasons of Christmas, made possible by a
generous grant from the Applied Materials Excellence in the Arts program through Arts Council Silicon Valley.
Some History: The Guild was originally founded in 1979 as
the Baroque Choral Guild, under the leadership of Ken Hannaford, and soon thereafter, Robert Geary. In 1994, the
Cantabile Youth Singers was founded, and BCG became an umbrella for both an
adult chorus and a youth chorus. In 2005, finding the “Baroque” in
our name to be insufficiently suggestive of the diversity of our programming,
the organization decided to drop it, and took on the Cantabile name for the
whole organization, with the adult chorus becoming “Cantabile
Chorale”. In 2008, the adult and youth choruses parted ways, and the adult
chorus took on its present name, “Bay Choral Guild”, a name we hope
is evocative of our roots.
Join us! Rehearsals take place in Palo Alto in the fall,
winter and spring terms, ten to twelve weeks in length. For
additional educational growth, activities include quarterly
training workshops as well as musicales for singers to showcase
their individual talents. Workshops include repertoire development,
vocal training, diction and language coaching, and history led by
artistic staff and guest artists. Click on the Audition link to learn more.
Bay Choral Guild is part of the Foothill College
Performing Arts Alliance whereby singers receive 1 unit of college
credit per quarter from Foothill College.
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