Berkeley Community Chorus with Musici Europae Orchestra: Paris | Place de la Madeleine
Arts
Orchestra
RepertoireFaure, Requiem Camille Saint-Saens, Requiem About the Berkeley Community ChorusThe Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra (BCCO) is a non-auditioned, symphonic chorus that inspires audiences and challenges singers at all levels of ability to sing major choral works and pieces of artistic distinction. By presenting free concerts, offering creative opportunities for young and emerging singers, conductors and composers, and collaborating with other artistic groups, BCCO enriches the life of the greater community. Now in its 59th season, BCCO is the largest standing symphonic chorus in the San Francisco Bay Area. BCCO relies on members’ dedication, love of music and of the organization, and hard work to produce its precision, its resonant timbre, and the excitement of its performances. Recent performances include Benjamin Britten’s A War Requiem, Antonin Dvorak’s exquisite Stabat Mater, the entire cycle of Felix Mendelssohn oratorios, the Mozart Requiem, and many other works both modern and from our collective tradition. Ming Luke, Music DirectorWith “energy, creativity and charisma not seen since Leonard Bernstein,” and “vibrant,” “mind-blowing,” and “spectacular” conducting, BCCO Music Director Ming Luke is a versatile conductorwho has excited audiences around the world. Highlights include conducting the Bolshoi Orchestra inMoscow andRomeo and Juliet and Cinderella at the Kennedy Center, making his English debut at Sadler’s Wells with Birmingham Royal, conducting Dvořák’s Requiem in Dvořák Hall in Prague, recording the score for a Coppola film, and conducting over a hundred performances at the San Francisco War Memorial with the San Francisco Ballet. He has been recognized nationally for his work with music education and has designed and conducted education concerts and programs with Berkeley Symphony, Houston Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, and San Francisco Ballet, and he currently serves as music director of the Merced Symphony, principal conductor of the Nashville Ballet, associate conductor of the Berkeley Symphony, and principal guest conductor of the San Francisco Ballet. Allan Ulrich of the San Francisco Chroniclesaid, “Ming Luke delivered the bestlive theater performance I’ve ever heard of ,” and BCCO’s War Requiem was named the best choral performance of 2016 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Passionate about collaboration with dance companies and deepening the impact of movement to live music, Ming has guested with Boston Ballet, New York City Ballet Orchestra, Nashville Symphony/Ballet, San Diego Ballet, and others, and conducted l’Orchestre Prométhée in Paris as part of San Francisco’s residency with Les Étés de la Danse. Famed dancer Natalia Makarova stated,“Ming has a mixture of pure musicality and a sensitivity to needs of the dancers, which are such rare qualities.” Ming has written, arranged, and performed over 150 education concerts with the Berkeley Symphony and has served on grant panels for the National Endowment of the Arts and the Grants and Cultural Committee of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. An exciting pops conductor, he hascreated and conducted pops concerts in many venues, from baseball stadiums to picnics with over 4,000 people in attendance, traditional concert halls, and recordings for Major League Baseball. Ming holds a master of fine arts degree in conducting from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor of music degree in music education and piano pedagogy from Westminster Choir College of Rider University.
Information Source: Classical Movements | eventbrite