Mission and History
The UC Alumni Chorus shall be a high quality performance chorus
representing the Cal community, well-known in the Bay Area, which
promotes its members' musical growth and enjoyment.
- Mission statement adopted at the June, 1991, annual
membership meeting
UCAC has an additional purpose distinguishing it from other singing
groups in the Bay Area. It is committed to providing both musical and
financial support to the University of
California Choral Ensembles. (UCCE is a student-run umbrella
organization for several vocal groups on the Berkeley campus, including
UCAC.) Musical support is provided through one or two joint concerts
annually with the students. In addition, UCAC and its members provide
financial support by spearheading fund-raising activities to offset
shrinking campus resources, contributing towards much needed equipment
replacement and capital improvements
In the Spring of 1985 two former members of Treble Clef, Alma Toroian
Raymond and Ronni Kordell Gravitz, united with Music Director Carol
Young
to organize a chorus of alumni of Cal student singing groups. They
inspired
like-minded others who also wanted to rekindle the musical and social
associations they had enjoyed as students. Many of those original
thirty
members are still singing with the UCAC these many years later.
Present Music Director Mark Sumner joined us in the Fall of 1997, and
we
began taking a more active role in our support of the student singing
groups of the UC Choral Ensembles. The combined talents of our Director
and
Accompanist William Garcia Ganz have improved the quality of our chorus
and
the breadth of our repertoire. Recent highlights include Mozart's Mass in C Minor (the Levin edition), Durufle's Requiem, Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, performed with
the UC Wind Ensemble and UC Men's and Women's Chorales, Lauridsen's Midwinter Songs, and Britten's Cantata Misericordium.
UCAC diversified into theater with a 1994 semi-staged production of
Gilbert
& Sullivan's Trial by Jury, and in 1995 performed in a concert
production
of Berlioz' Beatrice and Benedict with the acclaimed Berkeley Opera
Company. We continue this relationship with Berkeley Opera, most
recently performing in their May 2005 concert production of Verdi's
Macbeth. In recent spring concerts, we have presented staged radio
shows
using popular music of the 1930's and 1940's. Our Spring 2001 concert,
“Raised on Radio”, based on Gerald Nachman's book, played to a sell-out
crowd in Zellerbach Playhouse and a reprise to an enthusiastic audience
at
Rossmoor.
We also enjoy taking our music on the road. A highlight of our first
decade was an appearance at EXPO 88 in Brisbane as
part of a concert tour of Australia and New Zealand. In July of 1997,
with acting music director
William Garcia Ganz, we performed Brahms' German Requiem with other
choirs
in Lichfield Cathedral as part of the Lichfield Festivals. This was the
musical highlight of a tour of England, which also included stops in
London, York, and Oxford, and a master class with the King's Singers.
We toured the Czech Republic and Hungary in July 2000, performing
Mozart's
Requiem in the ballroom of the Grand Pupp Hotel of Karlovy Vary
(Karlsbad)
and the Dvorak Hall of the Rudolphinium in Prague. We also sang a
repertoire of songs by California composers to appreciative audiences
in
several Hungarian churches. Visiting former Eastern Block countries was
a
memorable experience.
In May/June 2002, we toured of the Peoples Republic of China. We
performed well-received concerts based on “Music of the Americas” in
Beijing, Dalian (Oakland's Sister City), Xian (of the famed terra cotta
warriors) and Shanghai, and were feted in Shanghai by the Shanghai
chapter of the UC Alumni Club and Haas School of Business Alumni group.
A photographic diary of our tour can be found at www.sternerson.com/images/new/china.
Our most recent tour, in 2004, took us to the Baltics, with
performances in Helsinki (Finland), Tallinn (Estonia), Riga (Latvia)
and St. Petersburg.