“Everyone knows that a ‘quartet’ means four people in a group. So what do you call a cozy ensemble of 10,000?” writes Anthony Barcellos in Friday’s (7/13) Sacramento Bee (Calif.). On July 21, “Big Sing California will feature approximately that many singers in a simulcast performance connecting six major venues: Sacramento, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Fresno, Riverside and San Diego. The largest site will be at the Sacramento Community Center Theater, where 2,400 people are expected to participate. The free event is projected to set a statewide record for the number of singers involved in a performance. The major venues will be linked to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and large screens will enable the singers in each location to form one huge ensemble [led by] Don Kendrick, director emeritus of the Sacramento Chamber Music Society…. Among the composers represented on the program are Bill Withers, Lead Belly, Trent Reznor, Woody Guthrie, Shawn Kirchner, and Lennon and McCartney [plus a version of] Pentatonix’s ‘Sing,’ commissioned especially for the Big Sing. Other arrangements, as well as original compositions, will be provided by … Eric Whitacre … artist-in-residence at the Los Angeles Master Chorale,” which is livestreaming the event on its website.
Posted July 18, 2018
