Pasadena Chorale Presents Brahms and Beyond Concert For One Night Only This May

The Pasadena Chorale will present Brahms and Beyond on Saturday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m., for night only at the First United Methodist Church in Pasadena. Brahms and Beyond will feature some of Brahms' most beloved choral works and explores the music of living composers influenced and inspired by Brahms. The new pieces by five Los Angeles composers connect with Brahms by a through-line of expressivity and harmonic richness.

"Johannes Brahms worked with choirs throughout his life and composed a lot of popular and enduring choral music," noted Pasadena Chorale Executive and Artistic Director Jeffrey Bernstein. "The Pasadena Chorale enjoys exploring the cornerstones of the standard choral repertoire as inspirations for the work of modern composers."

Brahms and Beyond will present recent music by Los Angeles-based female composers Dr. Zanaida Robles, Juhi Bansal, and Amy Gordon. Their music has never been performed before by the Pasadena Chorale.

Dr. Zanaida Stewart Robles is an award-winning Black American female composer, vocalist, and teacher in Los Angeles, Calif. who is a fierce advocate for diversity and inclusion in music education and performance. Dr. Robles' original music has been performed by professional ensembles, community choirs, educational institutions, churches, and individuals worldwide. Her compositional style can be described as energized, soulful, contrapuntal, harmonically colorful, rhythmically driven, heavily modal, occasionally with African elements and touches of progressive rock. Dr. Robles' compositions have been published by Stewart Robles Music, Music Spoke, E.B. Marks Music, Pavane Publishing, and Stainer and Bell.

In her music, Los Angeles composer Juhi Bansal weaves together themes celebrating musical and cultural diversity, nature and the environment, and strong female role models. Bansal enjoys bringing new audiences into contemporary music and helping musicians of all ages take ownership of music creation. Through her New Lens Concert series, Bansal engaged audiences into contemporary music by highlighting thematic connections between repertoire new and old, and using redacted programs to create a sense of surprise around expectations of "new music." Bansal's music draws upon elements as disparate as Hindustani music, the spectralists, progressive metal, musical theater and choral traditions to create deeply expressive, evocative sound-worlds.

Amy Gordon is a composer, arranger, songwriter, and vocalist living in Los Angeles who has been commissioned to write and arrange pieces for the Choral Arts Initiative, Loyola Marymount University Concert Choir, Nova Vocal Ensemble, The Los Angeles Belles, The South Bay Chamber Singers, Ramona Convent Secondary School Chamber Choir, Graham Middle School Vocal Ensemble, and more. Gordon's music has been described as melodic and accessible, yet with surprising harmonic twists. She is influenced by the musical styles of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Steve Reich. For the second year, Gordon is also a mentoring composer to high school students who are composing new music for a June concert performed by the Pasadena Chorale as a part of the Chorale's Listening to the Future program.

The Chorale will also perform new music composed by Pasadena Chorale Executive and Artistic Director Jeffrey Bernstein and Pasadena Chorale performing member Kevin Hartnett.

Tickets for Brahms and Beyond are free and now available at PasadenaChorale.org on a "Listen First, Then Give" basis. While tickets are available at no cost to the public, ticket reservations are required to attend the concert and donations are appreciated

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