Berkeley chorus, orchestra to start their 60th year with Verdi’s ‘Requiem’

When Eugene Jones founded the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra in 1966, he may never have imagined the chorus continuing for 60 years. Jones, who died in 2003, was the first African American conductor of a large Bay Area chorus and orchestra drawn from its local community. Devoted to presenting great works from the choral canon, Jones was a charismatic leader and often lent his glorious bass voice to the choir.

Similarly, when Giuseppe Verdi commemorated Italian novelist and poet Alessandro Manzoni by composing his “Requiem,” a masterpiece that combined text drawn from the Roman Catholic Mass for the dead with mighty, operatic-style music, he likely focused primarily on the task at hand.

Surely, Verdi could not have predicted that his piece would one day be performed by Jewish prisoners for their Nazi captors at the Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War II or presented by the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra (BCCO) in 2026 to open its 60th anniversary season and ring in a new year.

The BCCO will perform Verdi’s “Requiem” Jan. 2 through 4 at UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall. Led by conductor Ming Luke, the BCCO’s third music director, some 200 volunteer singers and 60 orchestra members will be joined by soloists and soprano Erin Ridge, mezzo soprano Mariya Kaganskaya, tenor Kevin Gino and bass Andrew Pardini.

Like all of BCCO’s concerts, admission is free. The independent nonprofit organization is funded by chorus member tuition (about $230 per semester) and donations.

In an interview, Luke speaks about the special features of “Requiem” and emphasizes the work’s connection to the BCCO’s concerts in June. The spring concert will center on “Terezín Requiem,” a BCCO commission by Michael Schächter, whose ancestor, Rafael Schächter, organized performances of the Verdi while interned at Theresienstadt in the Czech town of Terezín.

“Michael Schacter is a wonderful composer we’ve worked with in the past,” Luke said. “He went to Terezín as a tourist and realized his ancestor was the conductor of those performances at the camp.

“He wanted to create this work that represents the arts and humanity (standing up to) adversity within terrible circumstances. It’s a special message and one we want to say over and over. The arts and we are all here for each other.”

One poignant note: the new work’s libretto is written in seven different languages, many of which were spoken in the Theresienstadt camp.

About the Verdi piece, Luke says, “We chose this work specifically to represent art in times of turmoil. Verdi’s ‘Requiem’ became known not only to the Nazis but around the world as a symbol of hope. For us, it’s not just a grandiose work, but one with significance for Terezín and for today.

“The more people dig into it, the more meaning that can be found. It shows we can all come together and there’s strength in community. Supporting each other and connecting with deeper emotions humanizes all of us.”

To aid the “digging in” process that Luke encourages, he offers insights into the work’s special attributes and what it demands of the soloists, choir and orchestra. Verdi’s libretto and score are known for being operatic, which requires soloist singers able to express a broad range of emotions and bring dramatic energy to their roles.

“Most important for the soprano is a singer that has weight and heft to her voice,” said Luke, citing one example. “In opera, sometimes you need lighter soprano voices, like for Mozart. Sometimes, like for Wagner, you need someone with stamina, power and heft.”

Luke says the other solo parts are similar in that commanding and expressing oversized emotions with strong intentionality is essential. For the symphony, understanding and fulfilling how the text chosen by Verdi impacts the contrasting textures of “Requiem” requires nuance.

While another composer’s version of it may cut out the bombast of the “Dies Irae” or shape the choral “Introit” and “Kyrie” with an emphasis on warm, comforting tones, Verdi creates drama with huge swings of color and energy.

“There are transcendent moments and moments as if the chorus is demanding something of God. Verdi goes from tragic to transcendent to terrifying to the very familiar bombast of the bass drum and brass in the “Dies Irae” that is set to signal the end of the world. At the Hertz (Hall), the brass are positioned in the organ loft and onstage, so it’s as if the audience is in the middle of all the destruction.”

The choir’s preparation includes weekly 2.5-hour rehearsals during which Luke and the singers investigate how to create the scene.

“The colors and emotional content: How do we create the music? How do we join with the orchestra? It’s more than notes and rhythms, it’s about how we can impart the idea behind the music.”

Chorus members do not listen in rehearsals to other recordings because Luke says he believes that could give them preconceived ideas about approaching the work. Instead, looking deeply into the harmonies and orchestration provides origin clues to the composer’s intent.

“We bring our own interpretation of all of that to the performances,” he said.

Rehearsals started in September and are recorded and stored on the BCCO’s Story Chorus channel. Singers unable to join a rehearsal in person can follow it on Zoom, and all members were provided with printouts of the pronunciation of the text. The orchestra follows a professional schedule, showing up a week before the performances to rehearse with the chorus.

Luke, whose background includes extensive positions directing music, residencies and appearances as a guest conductor with major orchestras and symphonies along with performing as a solo pianist, holds a master of fine arts degree in conducting from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor of music in music education and piano pedagogy from Westminster Choir College of Rider University.

Known as a consummate music educator, Luke circles back to the power he finds demonstrated by the nonauditioned, all-volunteer chorus, suggesting that everyone has a role in making music.

“It’s been wonderful working with the chorus,” he said. “They all understand the ‘Requiem’s’ history and its connections to today.”

For more information online, visit bcco.org/concerts-events/upcoming-concerts.

Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.