CBA Record

CBA SYMPHONY AND CHORUS PRESENT “SOMETHINGWONDERFUL” ON APRIL 26 How Do You Get to Orchestra Hall? By Ruth J. Kaufman Editorial Board Member H ow do you get to Orchestra Hall? Practice, practice, practice! On April 26, the Chicago Bar Asso-

ciation Symphony Orchestra and Chorus combined with the Elgin Master Chorale, national winners of the American Prize in Voice and narrator Harry Porterfield to present Something Wonderful: The Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein. The nearly 300 performers earned a standing ovation for their rousing rendi- tions of 23 songs from Rodgers & Ham- merstein musicals including Oklahoma!, South Pacific, the Sound of Music, Cinderella, Carousel , and more. One highlight was the audience joining in by enthusiastically participating in an encore of “Do Re Mi” after the soloists taught them hand gestures. For the CBASO and chorus’s second orchestra hall appearance, Maestro David Katz, who has led the CBASO since its inception nearly 30 years ago, says, “We needed a program that would be musi- cally worthwhile, very different from Carmina [Burana , the work performed at Orchestra Hall in 2011], likely to attract a large audience, and able to generate enough advertising and sponsor- ship dollars to make it financially viable. Once I discovered that the entire Rodgers & Hammerstein library was online, and then received permission to create our own con- cert hand-selected from their complete cat- alog, “Something Wonderful” was born.” Rebecca Patterson has directed the CBA Chorus since its first performance of Beethoven’s 9 th at Navy Pier in 2006. “I loved prepping this material because the process and the product bring so much pleasure to both singers and audience. The singers’ enthusiasm has made our prepara- tion a real delight. There was a lot of energy and focus during rehearsals, and we all found a lot of enjoyment in preparing for this concert.”

Symphony members, led by Maestro David Katz, and soloists delighted attendees at the April 26 Concert. Photos by Bill Richert.

“Being able to advertise nationally for soloists for CBA Symphony & Chorus concerts through the American Prize, as we have for the last several years, has brought to our performances artists of stature who we otherwise would have never known.The process has raised the quality of our per- formances and the visibility of our unique organization to a national level,” says Katz. Patterson adds, “The music is so well written for the voice that it’s a pleasure to sing. For a lot of the chorus members, this music evokes memories of their first experience as singers, often as kids in school. A number of choristers recounted fond memories of a special teacher, who

For more information and to learn how to join the CBASO or Chorus, visit www.chicagobar.org In season, the chorus rehearses weekly at the CBA, while the orchestra rehearses in chambers at the Daley Center. introduced them to music and fostered a love of singing. For so many choristers, the music goes beyond the stories in the song. It carries their own personal stories about this music.”

16 APRIL/MAY 2015