How To Go On

Choral Arts Initiative, named one of Orange County’s Best Choirs by CBS News, concludes its fourth season with “How to Go On,” a concert of works by composer Dale Trumbore to be performed in Anaheim and Newport Beach July 16 & 17, 2016 and conducted by Artistic Director Brandon Elliott. The highlight of the program will be the premiere of a 35-minute secular requiem commissioned from Trumbore by Choral Arts Initiative, also titled “How to Go On.” An eight-movement contemporary meditation on mortality for virtuosic a cappella chorus and soloists, this new composition sets to music poems about grief, beauty and solace by contemporary writers Barbara Crooker, Amy Fleury, and Laura Foley.

“Never in my life have I been more excited about a piece of music,” says Elliott. “This commission and project has been in the works for nearly two years. When I received the first draft of this stunning work, I had chills running down my arm. This is a masterwork that you will want to hear and experience.”

This program of Trumbore’s choral works includes the West Coast premieres of her pieces “In the Middle” and “All We Need.” The composer, hailed for her “soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies deployed with finesse” (The New York Times), will accompany several of her works on the piano.

Audiences have two chances to hear this program, with a 7:30 p.m. performance at Anaheim First Presbyterian Church on Saturday, July 16, 2016 and a 4 p.m. performance on Sunday, July 17, 2016 at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. Following the premiere of “How to Go On,” Elliott and the twenty-two singers of Choral Arts Initiative will record this program on their first commercially released album, “How to Go On: the Choral Works of Dale Trumbore,” to be released in January 2017. Albums are available now for pre-order at www.choralartsinitiative.org.