The demanding role of Elijah will be sung by bass-baritone Bradley Ellingboe, acclaimed soloist, conductor, composer, and music educator.  This is the first time Mr. Ellingboe, who is based in New Mexico, has performed with Bay Choral Guild, and we sought him out specifically for his experience in this role and for the vocal qualities it demands.   Also joining us will be Bay Area soloists Jennifer Ashworth, soprano, who performed with us in Brahms’ Requiem, Heidi Waterman, alto, who performed with us in Bach’s B Minor Mass, and James Hogan, tenor, whom you heard in our 2018-2019 Handel-Haydn Festival concert.  We are excited to be able to share this music, and this orchestra and soloists, with you! 

​And don’t miss Sanford Dole’s pre-concert lecture 30 minutes before each performance.   This ever-popular feature will give you new insights into Elijah and make the concert an even more enjoyable experience.

See you there!
—​Sandra Wilson, President

​Many members of our audience are familiar with the programming skills of our Artistic Director, Sanford Dole, and know that they will find our concerts beautiful and satisfying even when the works are unfamiliar.  Others are eager to attend a classical music concert to hear a masterwork that they know and love, and less likely to be attracted to a concert consisting of works they’ve never heard by composers they don’t know.  In this case, we are very confident that you will be very happy you attended this concert and that you will discover, as we have in preparing it, that the music is stunningly beautiful—melodic, diverse in style, mood, and subject, and often rhythmically upbeat, humorous, and surprising.

Please don’t miss a chance to hear this exceptional repertoire!  We hope to see you at one of our concerts this weekend.

—Sandra Wilson, President

Tickets for Discovery and Rediscovery are available online, from your favorite chorister, or at the door of each concert. Come 30 minutes before the start of each performance and join Artistic Director Sanford Dole for a pre-concert conversation.

We’ve been rehearsing for the last several weeks without relying on our much-loved accompanist. This will, after all, be a concert of unaccompanied works, and we need to be ready and comfortable charting our own course without the help of the piano. Artistic Director Sanford Dole has again put together a thoroughly enjoyable set of pieces for us to sing, and for you to hear. A collection of choral music that spans centuries, it presents the choir with the pleasure—​and challenge!—​of singing in a variety of different styles. To give you just a brief example: from a 16th century motet by Giovanni Gabrieli sung in Latin, we move on to 18th century Bach with his motet Jesu, meine Freude in German, visit the 19th century with Brahms’ Schaffe in mir, Gott, make a brief stopover in early 20th-century Russia for Rachmaninoff’s Bogoroditse Devo from his All-Night Vigil (in Church Slavonic), and end in the 21st century with Sanford’s own Invitation to a Voyage and works by several other contemporary composers, including jazz and gospel compositions.

Phew! What a fantastic whirlwind. For choir singers and the conductor alike, that means we do a mental “exhale” during the short break between each of the individual pieces—letting go of the character of the previous piece that we just presented with so much musical empathy, and looking ahead to what different style, voice, color will be required from us to make the next piece shine and sparkle in just the right way. 
 
The joy of making music together is just as fresh today as it was when the choir was founded 40 years ago, and the choices have become even more varied and delightful. Come share the joy with us in at least one of the performances. Choose the venue nearest you, or one you’ve never been to, or the date and time that fits your schedule. But don’t miss it! This is going to be a wonderful concert. And sometime, when you are able, don’t just come to our concerts once. Attend more than one performance of the same concert. You’ll hear differences in each location due to different acoustical and visual environments. You’ll hear and see why we love singing and sharing our music with you!
 
— Petra Hofer, BCG board member and chorister

To prepare us to perform at a half-step lower pitch—the practice in the Baroque period—accompaniment for our weekly rehearsals has been on a modern electronic keyboard with variable pitch. Pianos don’t take well to such retuning! And, in further pursuit of an historically informed performance (i.e., to be really “HIP”), we are shaving 1/8 and even 1/16 notes off the ends of phrases so that we and the instruments end notes at precisely the same time.  Period instruments have a shorter sound decay time than their modern counterparts. Small details, perhaps, but listeners will hear the clarity of sound and the sparkle this care produces—even if they aren’t aware of the cause.

We’re eagerly anticipating the first dress rehearsal when we'll hear the Lord Nelson Mass and the Te Deum with the accompaniment of eighteen of the nation's best period instrument players from Jubilate Baroque Orchestra and hear the wonderful soloists who will be joining us. The chorus works hard to sing well and maintain our focus, but we, like our audiences, get to enjoy every moment of each piece—the choral movements and solos, the trumpets, strings, winds, and harpsichord. That’s the inherent joy of music—that while we perform it, we also hear it and feel it. And, while it might seem strange to want to hear any concert five times in one week, we will do that in the course of two dress rehearsals and three performances. We feel very, very fortunate. Thirty-some years ago, when I joined BCG, at the end of our two performances I would be left wishing that we could do it one more time! Now we perform each concert three times.

Come share the joy with us in at least one of the Händel and Haydn Festival performances. Choose the venue nearest you, or one you’ve never been to, or the date and time that fits your schedule. But don’t miss it! This is going to be a wonderful concert. And sometime, when you are able, don’t just come to our concerts once. Attend more than one performance of the same concert. You’ll hear differences in each location due to different acoustical and visual environments. You’ll hear and see why we love singing and sharing our music with you!

—Sandra Wilson

So, why bother? I asked that question of a number of my Philharmonia colleagues, and here are some of the answers I got:

Lisa Grodin — Baroque instruments are “native speakers” of the musical rhetoric of their time. In original “dialects,” they enable musicians to delve into and to genuinely articulate the elegance, emotional power, and humor in baroque music.

Maria Caswell — I am able to do much more nuanced playing with the baroque bow, and the lower tension on the strings allows me to draw out a singing tone without effort. My baroque instruments, geared for chamber music and small orchestras, are more personable, intimate, individually expressive…and the best thing is you don’t have to constantly shake the note to make it sing!

Katherine Kyme — It is the subtle, sensuous responsiveness that always draws me to the baroque violin. While playing on gut and especially while using a baroque bow, I feel I have a greater range of musical color, a more fleet, capricious ability to show the ever-changing character and mood of the music.

Elizabeth Blumenstock — Every culture has created its own particular sound world; and none of them are the same, all are unique. I suspect that many of us who love Baroque instruments have some desire to visit the people of that lost world, a curiosity and love which is somewhat satisfied in the playing of “their” instruments in a way “they” might have recognized.

David’s answer: The first time I ever heard baroque music on period instruments, I literally had chills running down my spine and tears running down my face—I was profoundly moved by the sound of the instruments and the way that sound showed the power of the music. For me it was like having heard poetry read by a voice synthesizer, and then hearing it read by a poet. I knew I wanted to learn how to make music in that way.

And . . . Link to the American Bach Soloists website for great additional information about Baroque instruments and Baroque performance. Well worth reading. 

​Claire Kelm Claire Kelm has enjoyed a varied and wide-ranging career, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been heard as a soloist with San Francisco Symphony Chorus, San Francisco Bach Choir, Baroque Choral Guild/Cantabile, Coro Hispano de San Francisco, Schola Cantorum, Magnificat, and the Latin American Chamber Music Society, among others. She has been fortunate to perform with some of the premiere ensembles in a variety of genres, including American Bach Soloists Choir, Philharmonia Baroque Chorale, Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices, and Artists’ Vocal Ensemble (AVE). She just completed her ninth season as a full-time member of the San Francisco Opera Chorus. She has performed Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus) with Berkeley Opera, and Anna, the Widow (The Merry Widow) and a variety of Gilbert & Sullivan heroines with Lamplighters Music Theatre. For elementary school children, she sang Pamina (The Magic Flute) for West Bay Opera-in-the-Schools and Viva Opera for the Museo Italiano. Recent highlights include recitals at the American Embassy in Paris and in Los Angeles, a tour of China and Japan with the San Francisco Boys Chorus, and performing at the Grand Teton Music Festival, Jackson, Wyoming. She holds degrees from Stanford University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Danielle Sampson is an avid performer of baroque, classical, and contemporary music. Highlights of this season have included a gala performance with Pacific MusicWorks, Praetorius’ Christmas Vespers with Early Music Vancouver, and collaborations with Amaranth String Quartet to perform new and existing works for voice and strings. Over the summer Danielle performed with the Boston Early Music Festival in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (Melanto) and L’incoronazione di Poppea (La Virtù, Pallade), and with Early Music Vancouver in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (the Sorceress) and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. Danielle has appeared with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, American Bach Soloists, California Bach Society, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and San Francisco Bach Choir, among others. She is a founding member of the guitar/voice duo Jarring Sounds, and the baroque chamber ensemble Liaison. She earned her BM at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, and her MM at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Danielle currently resides in San Francisco.

Elliott James Encarnación is a self-trained cathedral tenor. He enjoys regular performances with The Artists’ Vocal Ensemble (AVE) under Jonathan Dimmock as well as the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and the newly founded Cappella SF under Ragnar Bohlin. He is a member of AGMA and can be found singing nearly every weekend at Christ the Light Cathedral in Oakland. Elliott is also a composer and conductor. He has a Bachelor of Musical Arts in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Master of Musical Arts in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He studied orchestral conducting privately with one of Bernstein’s former protégés, David Gilbert, while in New York as well as choral conducting with Robert Isaacs and Kristina Börger. Elliott has premièred various choral works, concerti and operas, and has recently co-founded Prodigal Opera Productions where he serves as Artistic Director.

Most recently heard in the title role of West Edge Opera’s critically acclaimed “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria”, Nikolas Nackley’s other recent credits include the role of Joe Pitt in Peter Eötvös’s “Angels in America” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Adonis in Blow’s “Venus and Adonis” with Marin Baroque, baritone soloist in Cantata BWV 140 and Handel’s “Ode for the Birth of Queen Anne” with the SF Bach Choir, and West Coast premier of Kaija Saariaho’s “The Tempest Songbook” with Cal Performances. He has worked under such conductors as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Roger Norrington, Joana Carneiro, Bruno Weil, Craig Smith, Harry Christophers, John Harbison, and Pablo Heras Casado. Upcoming engagements include the world premier of Stacy Garrop’s “Terra Nostra” with the SF Choral Society, Vaughan William’s “Fantasia On Christmas Carols” with the U.C. Davis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Bach’s “Weihnachts-Oratorium” with Marin Oratorio, “Carmina Burana” with the Merced Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s “Requiem” and Jocelyn Hagen’s “Ashes of Roses” with the Santa Clara Chorale. Nikolas is on the faculty of the School of Music at San Francisco State University and Santa Clara University.

Most recently heard in the title role of West Edge Opera’s critically acclaimed “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria”, Nikolas Nackley’s other recent credits include the role of Joe Pitt in Peter Eötvös’s “Angels in America” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Adonis in Blow’s “Venus and Adonis” with Marin Baroque, baritone soloist in Cantata BWV 140 and Handel’s “Ode for the Birth of Queen Anne” with the SF Bach Choir, and West Coast premier of Kaija Saariaho’s “The Tempest Songbook” with Cal Performances. He has worked under such conductors as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Roger Norrington, Joana Carneiro, Bruno Weil, Craig Smith, Harry Christophers, John Harbison, and Pablo Heras Casado. Upcoming engagements include the world premier of Stacy Garrop’s “Terra Nostra” with the SF Choral Society, Vaughan William’s “Fantasia On Christmas Carols” with the U.C. Davis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Bach’s “Weihnachts-Oratorium” with Marin Oratorio, “Carmina Burana” with the Merced Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s “Requiem” and Jocelyn Hagen’s “Ashes of Roses” with the Santa Clara Chorale. Nikolas is on the faculty of the School of Music at San Francisco State University and Santa Clara University.

Vai Rangarajan has been an avid choral singer and pianist since a young age. During her undergraduate and medical education she enjoyed singing with several groups including the Pomona College Glee Club and the La Jolla Symphony Chorus. She has also studied South Indian classical vocal music. She has been a member of BCG since 2011.

Stephen Kispersky has been singing since before his voice changed. Starting in church choir as an alto and then at university as a low bass, he re-discovered his high notes during the revival of the male alto voice. Since then he has kept on singing as a treasured avocation, in many places and groupings, finally joining BCG some 10 years ago, where he has served as an occasional tenor soloist.

Amy Worden has performed with several local opera companies, including Opera San Jose, West Bay Opera, Lyric Theater of San Jose, Verismo Opera and the San Francisco Festival Chorus. She has soloed with Bay Choral Guild and the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorus, where she is assistant to the Chorale Director. She has nearly completed a Master’s Certificate from Berklee School of Music.

Allie Leeper grew up playing flute and singing in church choirs. In college and graduate school at Stanford, she sang with several student ensembles, including Testimony and the Law School Acappellants, before graduating and joining BCG a year ago. She also sings regularly at Grace Presbyterian Church.

Timothy Getz is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, where he majored in organ performance and choral music education. He also holds the Master of Sacred Music degree from Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota, and has studied organ with Dean Billmeyer, Paul Manz, and John Ferguson and conducting with Robert Scholz and Anton Armstrong. Tim serves as rehearsal accompanist for BCG and is currently the Director of Music Ministry at Grace Lutheran Church in Palo Alto. He is Dean of the Palo Alto/Peninsula Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and a strong supporter of the Guild’s Pipe Organ Encounter program for young organists, participating as an adult leader in 2010 in Orange County and 2013 in Palo Alto.

Duane Soubirous grew up in Redwood City, and began studying piano and organ at an early age. He attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with James David Christie and Marie-Louise Langlais. Currently he is a substitute organist, playing a variety of church services all over the Bay Area, and is studying Journalism at De Anza College.

Kent Reed is a member of the San José Symphony/Symphony Silicon Valley, and has performed with all the major San Francisco Orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, and Ballet orchestras. As a timpanist, he has also performed, recorded, and toured with many of the San Francisco Bay Area period instrument ensembles including, Philharmonia Baroque and American Bach Soloists. His work in this arena has been nominated for the prestigious GRAMMY Award. He is also an active freelance percussionist whose performing credits include recording for movies, video games and commercials.

Henry Reed, a senior at San Jose State University, is majoring in Music Education with an emphasis on percussion. He has played for almost 14 years, both locally and internationally, in groups ranging from orchestras to jazz combos. At SJSU he plays with the Wind, Percussion and Brass ensembles, as well as the Symphony Orchestra and is a freelance percussionist for various South Bay venues. In 2014 he won first place in solo college timpani at the California Percussive Arts Society Festival, and in 2015, first place in the snare drum category.

Connor Carroll, a student in music education at San Jose State, studies with Galen Lemmon. Connor has toured the US as a member of The Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps, playing in venues from Tanglewood (sharing the stage with the Boston Pops), to the Indianapolis Colts Stadium. Currently he is the caption head for both the Foothill and Monte Vista High School percussion ensembles and is director in training for the Young Musician’s Project, a non-profit group based at San Jose State which provides reduced or no fee lessons to at-risk youth in the South Bay.

Patrick McCaffrey is a student in Percussion Performance at San Jose State University, studying with Galen Lemmon. He has performed as principal percussionist for the SJSU Wind, Brass and Saxophone Ensemble as well as the Symphony Orchestra, Symphonic Band, and Opera, He has placed first in multiple college level competitions and has collaborated on works for percussion solo and duet with various instruments.

Regulars in our BCG audience have heard the chorus perform works written by local composers, including Sanford Dole, our Artistic Director, as well as pieces written by members of the BCG chorus. In our Music for Holy Week concert, we are very pleased to be singing The Sun Rose, composed by Caroline Hinshaw, one of our sopranos. This relatively short, highly dramatic piece captures the essence of the experience and emotion of the period between the Last Supper and Easter. Caroline wrote the following description of the inspiration and development of the work: