The Valley Concert Chorale is a choir composed of about 40 auditioned singers from Livermore, California , USA, and the surrounding Tri-Valley area, which is located in the San Francisco Bay Area . It usually performs three concerts each year, starting with a holiday concert in November, followed by a concert of serious music in March and a lighter concert in May. These concerts are often given in collaboration with other choruses in the area, including the San Francisco Concert Chorale, the Las Positas College Chamber Choir and the Cantabella Children's Chorus. Recently, the chorus has also organized an annual "sing-it-yourself" Messiah , which is held at Livermore's First Presbyterian Church.
10-784: The chorus was established in 1963 by Ellen Cunningham. Recent directors have included David Babbit and Philip Manwell. Since 1998, the chorus has been led by John Emory Bush , who is also the director of the San Francisco Concert Chorale, and has been director for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music , the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California , and the Cathedral Church of Saint Matthew, Dallas, Texas . The chorus' accompanist
20-439: A final audition to get to know the faculty, and perform for their chosen major's instructor. Once that is clear, the student is either accepted or denied admission into the conservatory. Some areas of the conservatory are more competitive than others, such as composition [which only admits 8-10 students a year out of hundreds of applicants], and the strings department. The faculty values the applicant's personality and musicianship in
30-739: A touch that adds a milky visual depth ..." As of 2021, the Bowes Center was envisaged to fully open to the public in February 2022. In 2020, SFCM announced a partnership with the talent management company Opus 3 Artists , and in May 2022 it acquired the Dutch classical music label, Pentatone , funded by a private donor. The music website "Classical Voice" described this "combination of a music-education organization with two professional music businesses" as "unusual." In SFCM's audition process, Many of
40-503: Is Daniel Glover, a concert pianist who has performed in 42 American states and 42 countries. The chorus has a community outreach program, the most important part of which is a Music in the Schools program. This program was started in 1990. About ten members of the chorus present a short musical play to elementary schools in the area. These plays have included Hansel and Gretel , Tom Sawyer and several plays that were written by one of
50-458: The areas needed to enroll feature a "prescreening" round (which consists of essays, video recordings of them playing, transcripts, and for composition majors - portfolio of works), including composition, voice studies, strings, conducting, TAC (technology and applied composition)...etc. A student can be denied or accepted based of the pre-screening results. Once the student is accepted beyond the prescreening round, they are called to San Francisco for
60-441: The new Bowes Center at 200 Van Ness Avenue (across from Davies Symphony Hall ), a 12-story building that includes dorms (eight floors) with acoustic insulation for 400 of its students, 27 rent-controlled apartments for residents of the older building that was replaced by the construction, and some public performing spaces, including a penthouse concert room with views towards the north and west. The Bowes Center's $ 200 million cost
70-620: The troupe's members, Bobby Jensen. The scenery is painted by a local artist, Carolyn Ramsey, and the costumes and props are made by the members of the cast. Some students are selected to participate in the play and when it is over, all the students are given a chance to ask questions. The chorus has made two CDs. The first, which consists of Christmas music, was recorded the Trinity Episcopal Church in San Francisco in 2003. The second CD, Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana ,
80-671: Was founded in 1917 by Ada Clement and Lillian Hodghead as the Ada Clement Piano School. In 1923, the name was changed to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 1956 the Conservatory moved from Sacramento Street to 1201 Ortega Street, the home of a former infant shelter. It resided there for fifty years, before moving to its next location at 50 Oak Street in 2006. In 2020, the SFCM added
90-462: Was largely funded by donors, including $ 46.4 million from the William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation. The San Francisco Chronicle's architecture critic John King characterized the building's design as "[pushing] against the strict rules of the historic district but [respecting] the air of gravitas. For starters, the building is skinned in translucent glass that conceals insulation and the structural frame —
100-591: Was recorded at the Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco in 2006. This article on a United States singing group is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . San Francisco Conservatory of Music The San Francisco Conservatory of Music ( SFCM ) is a private music conservatory in San Francisco , California , United States. As of 2024, it had more than 440 students. The San Francisco Conservatory of Music
#841158