Arts & Events
Press Release: Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra will present Bach’s St. John Passion next weekend at Berkeley Community Theater
The Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra (BCCO) will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion in its January 2015 concert series.
Under the direction of BCCO Music Director Ming Luke, the 220-singer chorus will present two performances of Bach’s towering masterpiece, on next Saturday, Jan. 10, and Sunday, Jan. 11, at 4:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Community Theater, 1930 Allston Way, Berkeley. BCCO concerts are free and open to the public.
The concerts feature five professional soloists: Jennifer Paulino, soprano; Danielle Reutter-Harrah, mezzo soprano; Brian Thorsett, tenor; Jeffrey Fields, baritone; and Paul Thompson, bass. “We are delighted to give Bay Area audiences the opportunity to hear these wonderful performers, “said Luke. “Each is a gifted interpreter of Bach and other baroque masterworks. The soloists have performed with the American Bach Soloists, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the San Francisco Choral Society and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among many others.”
Bach was deeply religious and was said to have composed five passions, settings of the life of Christ, primarily the events leading up to and surrounding his crucifixion. Only two of them survive, the St. Matthew Passion and the St. John Passion, which was first performed on Good Friday in 1724 in Leipzig, Germany. An intensely dramatic work of cinematic proportions, St. John Passion combines opera, oratorio and liturgy, and stunned its debut audience.
“Opening with a grand orchestral introduction, the chorus bursts forth with yearning cries over pulsating winds and strings. St. John Passion is a rich tapestry with many beautiful and poignant chorales, grand choruses with brilliant and energetic fugues, and dramatic arias telling the passion story,” Luke said.
The chorales will be sung in English so they can be more easily understood by the audiences. Bach’s mastery at setting the German language, however, prompted Luke to have the choruses and arias performed in the original German, so the full genius of Bach can be appreciated.
The Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra is a non-auditioned community chorus dedicated to performing major classical works with orchestral accompaniment, free to the public. Ming Luke joined BCCO in 2011, becoming only the third music director to lead BCCO since its founding nearly 50 years ago. In the past season he has worked with ensembles across the United States, UK, Russia, France, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary and Austria. He is a frequent guest conductor of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and as Education Director and Conductor of the Berkeley Symphony’s Education Programs, he has performed more than 120 educational concerts.
The Berkeley Community Theater, jointly owned by the city of Berkeley and the Berkeley Unified School District, has only recently been re-opened for non-school events. The large stage will accommodate all 220 chorus members, and at least a dozen volunteer chorus members have been spending their days and weekends all season in a garage, custom-building a new set of risers for them.
