After 18 months of silence we're ready to make music again, with a new name! The choral ensemble formerly known as the Pasadena Master Chorale is now called the Pasadena Chorale.
“We're proud of the name change,” says founding artistic director Jeffrey Bernstein. “The Chorale is committed to being an inclusive organization, and the word ‘master’ has significant negative connotations, both historical and hierarchical. That’s just not who we want to be.”
The renamed Pasadena Chorale will give our first public performance in nearly two years on Saturday, December 11, 2021 at the First United Methodist Church. The holiday program, entitled “GIVEN”, will feature The Ballad of the Brown King, composed by Margaret Bonds in 1951 with a libretto by Langston Hughes.
Bonds was a prominent a Black American composer. Born in 1913 in Chicago, she studied composition at Northwestern University and at The Juilliard School and died in Los Angeles in 1972. Her close friendship with Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes led to several musical collaborations between the two.
The Ballad of the Brown King is a joyous contemplation of the journey and significance of the three wise men in the nativity story. Tickets will be available in October, offered on a “Listen First, Then Give” basis.
www.pasadenachorale.org