CONTRA COSTA CHORALE
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : c*********e@g***l.c*m
Mission Statement
The Contra Costa Chorale is a community-based, non-profit music organization open to all singers in the community, committed to a high level of musical performance, emphasizing developing members’ musical skills and our audience’s musical knowledge and appreciation. We strive to build a sense of community both within our membership and between the Chorale and the community at large.
About This Cause
The Contra Costa Chorale (Chorale) was founded in 1966 as the Richmond Symphony Chorus under the direction of Joseph Liebling, who subsequently became conductor of the Oakland Symphony Chorus. The chorus was initially supported by the Richmond Symphony, the City of Richmond, and donations from the chorus and the general community, but in 1982 was disbanded. Chorus members renamed the organization the Contra Costa Chorale and became an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) performing arts organization. The Chorale was also recognized as a community outreach music program under the auspices of Contra Costa College, which for many years provided the bulk of the funding for the Chorale. In 2013, Contra Costa College and the Chorale parted ways and the Chorale has been fully independent since then. For the past 50-plus years, the Contra Costa Chorale has brought the opportunity to participate in and hear great choral music to Richmond, El Cerrito, and other communities of West and Central Contra Costa County, which include significant areas that are underserved by performance-based choral groups. All singers, without formal audition and without geographic, religious or cultural limitation, are welcome to join the Chorale community, learn about the music, improve their singing, and perform before audiences. While over the years the Chorale has hired many excellent local semi-professional and professional soloists, the focus of the Chorale has always been to produce quality music with non-professional singers. As part of its community outreach, the Chorale has performed at local events in Contra Costa County, such as special events with the National Park Service’s Rosie the Riveter Visitor Education Center. Recently the Chorale created a new program called Community Connection, which is focused on supporting choral music in schools in West and Central Contra Costa County through a number of projects. The first project to be launched is Opening Act, which features music performers from districts in the areas where we have concerts; they open the concerts with their own performances. Additionally, we are hoping to bring student interns in to sing as part of the Chorale in a concert set. Other Community Connection projects include the offer of our professional choral risers to the schools for their concerts, and offering small college scholarships to voice students. While COVID-19 silenced the Contra Costa Chorale for a year plus, many of the singers returned to singing (safely, outside, with special singers' masks) in April 2021, and a concert of favorite songs was presented in December 2021 via livestream and with a small live audience. The Chorale presented an exciting concert on June 4, 2022, titled "Czech, Please," featuring Antonin Dvorak's "Mass in D Major" and other Czech and Dvorak-inspired music. This was livestreamed, with a limited in-person audience. On December 3, 2022, the Chorale, in response to the turmoil and troubles that seem to surround all of us these days, presented a moving program titled "Where Words Fail, Music Speaks," which featured music composed in response to troubles of other times. In three programmatic sections ("War," Natural Disasters," and "Injustice,"), music from Bach to Sting gave our singers and audience members a lot to think about. Most importantly, this concert highlighted how crucial music is in troubled times. Again, we had both a livestream and "live" audiences. In May 2023, the Chorale took a look at the similarities and differences between grand opera and Broadway music in a rousing program that delighted all. And in December 2023, the Chorale presented a long-promised new version of Mozart's "Requiem," honoring and memorializing those who were struck down during the 2020 pandemics (COVID and racism) as well as others taken too soon from our lives. A May 2024 concert, "Make Our Garden Grow," featured music from composers who, through no fault of their own (e.g., gender, gender orientation, ethnicity), have not received the level of appreciation and recognition that they deserve. The future always holds new surprises and music for both Chorale singers and audience members. We look forward to bringing those to all who discover us.