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Glee Clubs to Sing with Symphony
The Occidental Glee Clubs and Chorale will join the Pasadena Symphony in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 E. Green St.
The orchestra also will perform Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony under the direction of Maestro Jorge Mester.
Tickets range in price from $15 to $69. Occidental alumni may purchase half-price loge seating by calling the alumni office by Friday, Nov. 19. The discounted prices are: Adults, $28.50; senior citizens 65 and older, $12; children, $10. To order tickets through the alumni office, call Heather Henderson at (323) 344-4175. Regular-priced tickets may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets or by calling (213) 480-3232.
Under the direction of Jeffrey Bernstein, adjunct assistant professor of music at Occidental, the Glee Clubs and Chorale have made professional appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Pasadena Pops. Their Dec. 11 performance is the first with the Pasadena Symphony.
Occidental’s Glee Clubs have a national reputation for choral music-making that dates back more than 40 years. In 1959, when there were separate men’s and women’s ensembles, Maestro Bruno Walter invited Oxy singers to record with him. In 1969, the Glee Clubs were chosen to represent the United States at the Second International Collegiate Music Festival, which was sponsored by the Lincoln Center. After many years, the Women’s Glee Club merged into the mixed choir and the two groups carried on as the Occidental Glee Club.
The Occidental Chorale continues a rich tradition of choral singing that dates back to 1935. In that year Dr. Richard Lert, director of the Pasadena Symphony, founded the Pasadena Music Festival Association, a community chorale dedicated to collaborations with the symphony. The choir later became the Bach Festival Chorus, and subsequently it was renamed the Pasadena Chorale and the Foothill Master Chorale. In 1999, Bernstein became artistic director and in 2000 the Chorale moved to Occidental College and became the Occidental-Foothill Master Chorale. Since moving to Occidental, the Chorale has grown to 100 singers and draws vocal talents from Occidental College and the surrounding Glendale, Burbank, and Pasadena communities.