San Diego Spotlight : It Pays to Perform in This Choral Director’s Ensemble

Like most successful choral directors, Ron Gillis is a geyser of enthusiasm. Exuding energetic conviction for his latest musical project, San Diego Choral Artists, Gillis’ spiel makes the typical Amway salesman’s pitch seem understated.

Though the newly formed chorus has not yet performed a note--it debuts at 8 p.m Oct. 5 at San Diego’s Temple Beth Israel--Gillis has engaged the services of a public relations firm and has marketed a canvas tote bag with the S.D.C.A. logo emblazoned on the side.

But the 35-year-old director is as pragmatic as he is idealistic. Eight months ago, before he started imagining grandiose choral programs or auditioned a single singer, he organized a board of directors and started raising money for his chorus to be.

“I know that there have been a couple of other (chamber choir) groups in this town that have tried to make it. They all collapsed because of inadequate finances.”

Gillis said the board has raised $25,000 of the ensemble’s $32,000 annual budget. He was also brave enough to break the local taboo and demand that his singers receive a wage for their work. “In late January, one of the first things my board asked me was, ‘What do we need to make this work?’ I told them we had to pay the singers.”

With the exception of the San Diego Opera Chorus, Gillis’ 32-voice group is the only paid concert choir in the area.

“I know it’s not much, but over the year each singer will earn $760. I felt we needed that consideration for the singers.”

Trained as a singer and a composer, Gillis started directing in his hometown of El Paso. He served a term as director of the El Paso Gilbert and Sullivan Company, and he assisted the director of the El Paso Pro Musica, a professional chamber choir. Gillis has held music director posts at United Methodist churches in El Paso and, more recently, La Mesa, until resigning three weeks ago.

At San Diego State University, Gillis completed a master’s degree in composition, and he plans to program some of his pieces in upcoming concerts. He noted that the repertoire in his first concert will define the choir’s musical profile.

“Some Baroque, some classical and a lot of 20th-Century American music. We also have some Alice Parker arrangements and works by British composer John Rutter.”

Competition with the San Diego Master Chorale, the area’s one enduring choral organization, is not likely, according to Gillis.

“Because of our size, we’re entirely different from the Master Chorale. More than anything, we are stressing the intimacy of the performing venue. Their 100-plus voices are ideal for singing with the symphony, but we are not doing those larger masterworks. We’re performing in halls no larger than 500. At times, the choir will come down close to the audience, even surround them in certain Baroque pieces. We want the audience to feel that they are part of the performance.”

San Diego Choral Artists’ Oct. 5 inaugural program will be repeated at 3 p.m. Oct. 6 at Temple Beth Israel. A program of Christmas and Hanukkah music will be sung at North County’s Mission San Luis Rey Dec. 7 and 8. In February, 1992, the ensemble will perform William Byrd’s “Mass for Four Voices” at the University of San Diego’s Founders Hall Chapel, and in April will close its season at the La Mesa First United Methodist Church.

Quintet wins NEA grant. Promising to keep its clothes on while performing, San Diego’s Arioso Wind Quintet was awarded a $3,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to help underwrite its 1991-92 season. In residence at San Diego State University since 1986, Arioso won the National Flute Assn’s 1990 Chamber Music Competition. Arioso’s next local engagement is a performance Sunday at 7 p.m. in SDSU’s Montezuma Hall. The quintet also will play a concert of North and South American music Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. at San Diego’s Educational Cultural Complex.

Soprano wins kudos. Local coloratura soprano Virginia Sublett has been heralded for her vocal feats, performing one of the lead roles in Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Le Temple de la Gloire.” The Sept. 20 performance, a North American debut, was given at the Florence Gould Hall in New York City’s French Institute. New York Times reviewer James R. Oestreich had some reservations about this 1745 opera-ballet, claiming it was not one of the composer’s best. But, he stated, “Virginia Sublett’s clear, bright soprano was particularly attractive, a few moments of strain aside.”

Annual Met auditions. San Diego district auditions for the Metropolitan Opera will be held at the University of San Diego’s Camino Theatre from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 5. Singers from 19 to 33 will compete all day. The winners, who will be presented in a concert Oct. 20 at 3 p.m. in Camino Theatre, will progress in the annual competition Nov. 1 and 2 at the Western Regional level held at USC. Roger Pines, education director of the San Diego Opera, will be one of the judges at the Los Angeles district auditions, scheduled for Oct. 11-13.