San Francisco Girls Chorus presents gala holiday concert

The Sonoma Classical Music Society presents the internationally acclaimed San Francisco Girls Chorus Alumnae Chorus in the gala holiday concert, “Welcome Yule,” on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 3 p.m. at Andrews Hall in the Sonoma Community Center, 276 E. Napa St. The concert will feature excerpts from Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols,” Gustav Holst’s “Ave Maria” and “In the Bleak Midwinter,” Frank LaRocca’s “Magnificat,” as well as works by Russian composer Pavel Chesnokov and Stephen Chapman,  traditional English, Canadian, and American carols, the Hebrew Rounds for Peace, Mel Torme’s “Christmas Song,” and an audience sing-along of several well known carols.
Celebrating 30 years of extraordinary music with the 2008-2009 international season, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, founded in 1978, is recognized as one of the world’s most respected vocal ensembles. It has won many honors and has sung at many prestigious national and international venues, including appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Philharmonia Baroque at the World Choral Symposium in Kyoto, Japan, the World Vision Children’s Choir Festival in Seoul, Korea and the Gateway to Music Festival in Beijing, China. The Alumnae Chorus is an auditioned ensemble, founded in 2007 to provide Bay Area audiences with the highest caliber of women’s vocal music and afford performance opportunities for graduates of the San Francisco Girls Chorus. The San Francisco Girls Chorus has an extensive discography including “Voices of Hope,” a 2006 release that includes many original commissions, “Christmas,” “Crossroads,” a collection of world folk music and “Venetian Ospedali,” a disc of Italian Baroque music.
Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for members of the Sonoma Classical Music Society, $10 for students 12 years old and above and $5 for children under 12. Tickets are available at the Sonoma Classical Music Society’s website, www.sonomaclassical.com, and will be available from Readers’ Books and Pharmaca approximately three weeks prior to the concert.