Chorale Starts Season on Firm Footing--at 2 Venues

Nineteen years into it, the Los Robles Master Chorale, formerly the Moorpark Master Chorale, has its survival instincts finely honed.

When the ensemble kicks off its new season this weekend with performances of Haydn’s “Lord Nelson Mass” and Handel’s “Utrecht Te Deum,” it will be the beginning of what looks like a banner season, from Moorpark to Prague with music from Giovanni Gabrieli to Arvo Part.

Founding director James Stemen has watched the ensemble grow and evolve, adapting to changing venues. Two years ago, the group was welcomed into the then-new Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. Beginning last spring, the group settled into another paint-still-wet theater, the Moorpark College Performing Arts Center.

This season, the chorale will bounce back and forth between these two venues, enjoying a bounty after many years of suffering with less-than-ideal locales.

The opening of the newest hall could be considered a homecoming, in that Moorpark College has been an “important support system” for the group since its inception, Stemen said.

Stemen praised the hall’s “wonderful acoustics, anywhere in the house. There’s a nice orchestra pit and a full fly for theater.”

The chorale is also moving into a new medium. On Dec. 7, an otherwise fairly routine holiday concert, a sing-along version of Handel’s “Messiah,” will arrive at a small screen near you.

Local cable company, TCI, will broadcast the performance, and the national arts-oriented Bravo channel has plans to produce a 10-minute news piece on the event. As Stemen commented, “TCI’s dream is to have 30,000 people watch it and sing along in their living rooms.”

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This unusual approach to spreading the gospel of choral music in general, and the Los Robles in particular, is fine by Stemen, even though his emphasis is on live music experienced firsthand. “We need good houses and support in order to do this stuff,” he said, “which we think is a pretty positive contribution to the welfare of the people in the community.”

The season is suitably varied, though leaning toward the baroque and Renaissance repertoire. In spring, the ensemble will tackle music by two of the most respected living composers at the moment--the Polish Henryk-Mikolaj Gorecki and Estonian Arvo Part. Both composers deal with age-old traditions and medieval musical elements in uniquely modern ways.

Part, especially, has captured the ear of the music world with his deceptively simple, haunting variations on liturgical music. The chorale will perform Part’s “Te Deum”’ at Civic Arts Plaza on April 12.

Wrapping up the season on a patriotic note, the program “From America With Love” will feature music by Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber as well as lesser-known American composers.

“I love to program,” Stemen said effusively. “It’s one of the fun parts of my job, programming and listening. I went out and bought plenty of CDs and scores in preparation. Of course, conducting and performing concerts are the other enjoyable parts, assuming that most of the things are under control.”

Putting on concerts, under limited budgets and rehearsal time, can test a music director’s mettle. “We’re down to the wire on this upcoming concert,” he said last week. “I’m a little bit nervous about our preparation at this point. The bottom line is money.”

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For the concert, the chorale had two rehearsals with the orchestra, which has become something of a norm. “You hope for the best and pray a little. You really need three. The orchestra players would be happy to rehearse another time, but it’s all a matter of money.”

Modest budgets haven’t seemed to slow the group down, however. Next summer, the chorale heads off for its fourth tour of Europe. The itinerary includes concerts in Prague, at St. Nicolai Church in Leipzig--where Bach was an organist--and at Notre Dame in Paris, where the group will perform for Sunday Mass.

As the group’s operations expand and take on new goals, Stemen recognizes the necessity of keeping the faith on both sides of the stage. “You’ve got to keep people inspired and happy,” he said. “It’s not a chore, it’s a challenge.”

* Los Robles Master Chorale, at Moorpark College Performing Arts Center, 7075 Campus Road, Moorpark; 8 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15, general, and $12, seniors and children under 12; 482-2866.