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Anne Marie Ketchum, founding Artistic Director of The Verdi Chorus, is not about to let something like a pandemic stop her from moving forward with the organization’s 38th season, even with the unimaginable dilemma faced by choral groups the world over still looming: how do you move forward when the very act of group singing has become one of the most dangerous activities due to COVID-19?
Her solution? A musical soirée entitled “Amore della Vita, Love of Life Italian Style”, featuring 6 of the most exciting, talented, and promising professional area singers, to premiere online Sunday, April 11. This musical soirée is the second offering of the new online series VERDI CHORUS PRESENTS, after last fall’s highly successful Amor y Odio.
The Verdi Chorus, the only choral group in SoCal focused primarily on the diverse music for opera chorus, boasts a young professionals program — The Fox Singers – and Ketchum has again called upon them – and devised a special program to highlight their talents, 6 singers at a time – to bring the lush world of Italian art songs, as well as Neapolitan favorites, to both the loyal audiences of The Verdi Chorus and to anyone with access to the internet.
This is not your average Zoom offering, but instead, the second in a series of professionally filmed musical events that showcase and highlight the amazing opera talent that lives here in Southern California, singers who are still building and navigating their careers in the midst of a performing arts hiatus. The concerts, which are offered free to the public, feature the appropriate production values for optimum listening and viewing enjoyment.
The Fox Singers featured in Amore della Vita are: sopranos Tiffany Ho, Megan Lindsey McDonald and Sarah Salazar; mezzo-soprano Ariana Stultz; and tenors Elias Berezin and Joseph Gárate.
“I am so excited for this upcoming concert, which will showcase even more of our exceptional Fox Singers to our ever growing audience,” says Ketchum. “Love of life seems to fit our time right now as we go through the continual challenges rising up to meet us day after day. I am hoping this latest offering from the Fox Singers will offer a way for all of us to look back to what is truly important. Once again, we are not charging a viewing fee for this online concert, but are asking instead that our audiences consider a personal donation to our recently established ‘Artist Relief Fund.’ Details are on the Verdi Chorus website, and funds received will be sent exclusively to our wonderful and highly talented musicians.” How to watch: Go to https://www.verdichorus.org
