ANNAS BAY CHAMBER CHOIR
The Annas Bay Chamber Choir is the
Pacific Northwest’s
most versatile professional choral ensemble. As the resident choir of
the Annas Bay Music Festival, the ABCC aims to present immediate, passionate
concerts of virtuosic choral music from all historical eras. The ensemble
is dedicated to performing both standard repertoire and more rarely heard
choral fare, including world and regional premieres and revivals of long
forgotten historical works. ABCC was founded in 2006 by one of Seattle’s most
dynamic choral personalities, Gary
D. Cannon.
The choir consists of sixteen of the Northwest’s most accomplished professional singers, with a uniquely diverse group of talents: in the ABCC you’ll find concert soloists, opera singers, conductors, recording artists, singing actors, early music specialists, a theater director, and even a professional rapper! Hand-picked by Maestro Cannon, these voices blend together to create a striking choral atmosphere, in which each singer’s voice and musical personality are encouraged to contribute individualistically to the overall texture.
The Annas Bay Chamber Choir will offer its inaugural concerts in September 2006 at the Annas Bay Music Festival, with presentations of twentieth-century American music, including premieres by Northwest composers Roupen Shakarian, David Hahn, and Linda Gingrich. December 2006 will see Britten’s A Boy Was Born and an intimate, historically informed performance of Handel’s Messiah. The 2007 season repertoire will include favorites by Haydn and Brahms, plus works as diverse as medieval chant by Peter Abélard, Renaissance madrigals by Thomas Weelkes, and music by Arvo Pärt and Osvaldo Golijov, two of today’s leading stars.
SOUTH SHORE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
The Annas Bay Music Festival is pleased to introduce the Pacific Northwest’s
most exciting new ensemble: the South Shore Chamber Orchestra. This tight-knit
group of eighteen players has the skills to tackle even the toughest repertoire,
yet is flexible enough to take on a wide variety of musical styles and
genres, from Baroque to Modern and from Mozart to Mahler.
Composed of two string quartets, a wind quintet, contrabass, harp, piano and percussion, the SSCO can work together as a single unit, or may separate into smaller ensembles. Our players come from all walks of life, but are all professionals, united by their common dedication to making great music. Our commitment to excellence is strengthened through our partnership with Quake, Seattle’s premier new music ensemble.
Under the dynamic leadership of Jerrod Wendland, the SSCO will explore American repertoire this summer, including the exciting original version of Copland’s Appalachian Spring. In the fall, they will take listeners on a whirlwind tour of Vienna during Oktoberfest, and through masterpieces of the French Baroque during our Festival of Enlightenment in December. The 2007 season will bring another cornucopia of exciting music, from Mozart concerti to Piazzola’s tangos, and including Wagner’s luscious Siegfried Idyll.
