While the LA Master Chorale is focusing on opera and film choruses for their program this weekend, the Verdi Chorus in Santa Monica is presenting the Walter Fox Singers in a program of arias and songs from opera and musical theatre. The concert, called Love Is Timeless, takes place on May 4th at the First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica.
So who are the Walter Fox Singers? We’re glad you asked. This is a chorus of section leaders and rehearsal coaches from the Verdi Chorus. The ensemble is comprised of sopranos Tiffany Ho, Megan McDonald, Sarah Salazar and Emily Peterson; mezzo-sopranos Charlotte Bash, Judy Tran Gallego, and Ariana Stultz; tenors Manfred Anaya, Elias Berezin, Thomas Hollow, Joseph Gárate and Brennan Meier; baritone Andrew Walker; and basses Esteban Rivas, DeJuan Carlos and Raed Saade.
Leading the program will be Verdi Chorus founder Anne Marie Ketchum. Accompanying the Walter Fox Singers is Laraine Ann Madden who has been with the Verdi Chorus for 21 years.
It will be interesting to see what, if any, overlap there is with the LA Master Chorale’s concert on Saturday and Sunday at Walt Disney Concert Hall. But the overlap will strictly be on the opera side of the things.
What musicals have songs that could be best served by the 16-person Walter Fox Singers? No doubt the work of Andrew Lloyd Weber would fit in nicely. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s work obviously works here. As does the work of Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and Frank Loesser. I wouldn’t count on hearing anything from American Idiot or The Who’s Tommy.
For tickets go here.
Photo by Tim Berreth