Articles & Reviews

BY ANDREW GILBERT MAY 20, 2026
Composer Michael Schachter has been thinking about Terezín for the past
15 years. Growing up as a music-minded black sheep in a sports-obsessed Reform
family where the guiding patriarchs were Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax,
he knew little about the showcase Nazi concentration camp known as
Theresienstadt in German. But when he was backpacking across Europe
with his college girlfriend — now wife — they traveled about 30 miles north of
Prague to visit Terezín. One of his relatives had died there, and her great-
grandfather was interned there before he was shipped to his death at
Auschwitz. Now, the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra will premiere Schachter’s
Terezín Requiem as a commission to mark the ensemble’s 60th season.

For over half a century, Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra excelled with enthusiastic, loyal members, great concerts, and acclaimed tours, and not even the pandemic could finish BCCO off.

What audiences see of a conductor’s work up on the podium is a small — however demanding — part of the job. There is program selection and mastering whole scores (rather than just a singer’s or instrumentalist’s individual parts) for each selection; and for music directors, the job includes hiring and firing, administration, helping with fundraising and publicity, and much more. For Ming Luke, these duties are multiplied by the number of organizations he works with…

Most community choruses without auditions don’t publicize that fact, which may be considered a potential handicap to excellence. Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra — nothing like most such organizations in many ways — makes a virtue of necessity: “The philosophy of the BCCO is that there is no person who cannot express himself or herself to the highest musical standards in a chorus. “Accordingly, auditions are not required for membership in the chorus. The membership is marked by hard work and collegiality which lead to the chorus’ unified resonant timbre and brightness.

As it always does, the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra is putting together an ambitious and inviting program, to be presented in free concerts to the community. The year’s first musical adventure from BCCO will be heard in UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall at 8 p.m. Jan. 5, then at 3 p.m. matinees on Jan. 6 and 7.

Antonín Dvořák’s Stabat Mater is “One of the Most Powerful Declarations of Faith in Musical History.” It is on the next program of the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra (BCCO), June 2–4 in UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall. As is usual for BCCO, admission is free, donations are accepted.