Pacific Chorale Adds 5th Concert to ‘97-98 Season

The Pacific Chorale will offer five concerts in its 1997-98 season, up one from the traditional four.

“One of our long-term mission goals has been to increase the activity of our small professional choir,” music director John Alexander said Thursday. “The March 21 concert will see repertory designed for a chamber choir. We plan to include one concert a year of this nature.”

The projected budget of almost $1 million will “only need to go up slightly” over this year’s, Alexander said. “So we’re not going to increase our fund-raising efforts. Our earned income will take care of it. We feel that the audience is there for this.”

All but the April 26 concert will take place at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. The April concert will be at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. Alexander will conduct all programs.

Three subscription series packages, including different numbers of programs, will range from $36 to $194 and go on sale April 21. Information: (714) 662-2345.

The 1997-98 season:

* Nov. 2: Choruses from Bach’s B-minor Mass, Mendelssohn’s “Elijah,” Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” Mahler’s Second Symphony and the Requiems of Mozart, Brahms and Berlioz.

* Dec. 16: “Tis the Season.”

* March 21: Mozart’s Missa Brevis in D and “Ave Verum Corpus”; Part’s Te Deum; Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Flos Campi.”

* April 26, 1998: Music for choir and organ and a cappella works to be announced, including a premiere by the Pacific Chorale’s composer in residence, James F. Hopkins.

* May 16, 1998: Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.