Have you ever thought about joining a choir and wondered about the kind of people you might meet? Auditions are now open. It turns out that the members of our local Sierra Master Chorale (SMC) come from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests and may even be your neighbors, acquaintances and folks you meet shopping in town.
We invite you to meet the Basses, the men who sing the lowest part of the four vocal ranges: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. The SMC basses include Reed Hamilton, Brad Miller, Bob Parker, Keith Porter, Barry Howard, Rod Fivelstad, Stephen Tassone, and Steve Nicholson. Their current and former professional lives represent the fields of education, medicine, customer service, engineering and media system design. And when they are not singing, the basses can be found hiking, gardening, acting in local productions, studying astronomy and caring for fruit orchards, as well as playing keyboards, tenor sax, guitar and standup and electric bass.
As one bass described choral singing, “The voice is the most personal instrument; a choir is one large instrument comprised of the integration of many small personal instruments.” Reed commented, “Blending and tuning with other voices is probably the sweetest kind of communication,” while Brad said, “Having to learn the music and practice helps keep my brain active!”
Morton Lauridsen and Johannes Brahms are among their favorite composers, and many have enjoyed singing major works with the SMC, such as the Mozart and Faure Requiems as well as an audience favorite, “The Armed Man,” by Karl Jenkins.
Keith Porter has even taken his passion for music to the airwaves on KVMR 89.5 where he co-hosts “Classics Declassified” on Sundays, 6-8 p.m. He described the SMC as “a great group of friends who produce a quality concert experience.”
Auditions are now being scheduled for the upcoming spring concerts, and the community is invited to join SMC Choral Director and Conductor Allison Skinner and the Chorale as they enter a new level of performance opportunities. For further information on auditions and concerts, please visit https://www.inconcertsierra.org/pages/chorale/chorale.php or email membership@sierramasterchorale.org.
Andrea Fox sings soprano in the Sierra Master Chorale.