Spring 2022 Concert

Concert videos
Part I: Brahms & Mendelssohn
Part II: Concert arias & Zemlinksy
opening piece by Robin Eschner was not captured, sorry!

Concert Program

June 19, 3pm
Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley campus

Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra
Ming Luke, Music Director

Gabriela Estephanie Solis, mezzo-soprano
Brian Thorsett, tenor
Nikolas Nackley, baritone


Because We Sang, Robin Eschner (2011)

Schicksalslied, Op. 54, Johannes Brahms (1871)

Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1843)

– intermission –

 Ich atmet’ einen Linden Duft (1901)
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (1901)
#1, #3 as collected by publishers in Rückert Lieder, Gustav Mahler

Durch die Wälder, Max’s Aria from Der Freischütz, Carl Maria von Weber (1821)

Psalm 13, Op. 24,  Alexander Zemlinsky (1935) 

Text of the Libretti & Translations pamphlet distributed at the concert

BCCO has had three music directors across its 54-year history. Our second director, Arlene Sagan, led the chorus for almost half that time. BCCO premiered Robin Eschner’s “Because We Sang” in 2011; it was composed in honor of Arlene’s retirement. In April 2020, when BCCO like many choruses moved to online rehearsals as an awkward substitute for our usual singing together, Robin joined as an online guest from afar, made possible by perhaps the one virtue of online music – the ability to participate unconstrained by geography. Now, eleven years after its premiere, we’re reprising “Because We Sang”. The words of the french poet Guillevic take on a different character after this period of disruption.

Because we sang
at the table,
and while we walked through the fields,

Because we sang
sometimes even in silence,
simply by looking,

we kept for the rest of the year
what sanity we needed.

Since the first interruption of rehearsals in March 2020, BCCO has been sustained by the work and generosity of a large community. We wish to recognize in particular a foundational gift made to the chorus by Herrick and Elaine Jackson. Their foresight in anticipating just how much extraordinary support would be required for organizations like BCCO to weather the pandemic had a tremendous impact on our ability to continue to operate. BCCO also thanks the two anonymous donors who underwrite our access to this terrific performance space, Hertz Hall. Thank you.

BCCO gratefully acknowledges support from the Civic Arts Grant Program of the City of Berkeley, as well as a grant from the Alameda County Arts Commission.

Thank you to BCCO accompanist Paul Caccamo for his assistance in rehearsals. 

Please join us again for the next BCCO season. We hope to return on a stage filled with singers and with you in the audience for the following performances:

January 2023 –  Mozart: Great Mass in c, Schubert: Mass no. 2 in G 

June 2023 –  Mendelssohn: Elijah

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