Santa Barbara Master Chorale Presents Dvořák’s Stabat Mater

Performances will be at the First United Methodist Church (Garden and Anapamu streets) at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday and 3:00 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $22 general admission, $20 senior, $12 college students with ID, and free for K-12.

Stabat Mater, (Sorrowing Mother) a cantata composed after the tragic deaths of three of Dvořák’s children, is a masterwork that has not been performed in Santa Barbara for at least the past 15 years. It reflects the composer’s deep personal loss and moves through a succession of movements from lamentation to hopefulness and, finally, to peace. This program will give the Central Coast community a rare opportunity to experience this deeply moving choral masterpiece.

The Chorale’s artistic director and conductor, Steven R. Hodson, is a native of Portland, Oregon, and holds a bachelor’s degree from Lewis and Clark College, a master’s degree from the University of Oregon, and a doctor of musical arts degree in the literature and performance of choral music from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Hodson is a professor of music at Westmont College, where his duties have included directing the New Sounds Singers, the Chamber Singers, and the Westmont College Choir, as well as teaching piano, organ, music survey, conducting, and church music. He is past president and this year, once again, is president-elect of the Western Division of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), a national organization of 18,000 choral directors. In this role, he is responsible for a national conference in the spring of 2014 that will be held in Santa Barbara.

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Media Relations Director, Robin Montz, montzter@gmail.com, 898-9848. Also see, sbmasterchorale.org.