ON the Beat | Well-Voiced Choirs, Christmas-Timed

Quire of Voyces | Photo: Courtesy

Countdown to Christmas department: With 12 waking days left until the Big Day, the most profound seasonal moment for this columnist came while sitting in the choir loft above the “stage” in St. Anthony’s Chapel. It was a Saturday afternoon in sunny Santa Barbara, but the time-space continuum felt otherworldly, as the sublime Quire of Voyces (QV) spun their choral web in the semi-hidden, old worldly sanctuary.

Radically and magically revised, deconstructionist variations on the Christmas musical themes of a “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (from British composer Becky McGlade), “I Saw Three Ships” (by Santa Barbara’s own Stephen Dombek), and “The Wexford Carol” (rethought by fine British composer Matthew Culloton) worked a transportive charm, and achieved an especially resonant sound from my overhead perch in the loft.

The experience was anything but business as usual, and yet the ensemble, faithfully led by director/founder Nathan Kreitzer for 32 years, attends to the annual business of his Christmas program year after year. The event remains an anchor of the group’s agenda, and also an anchor of Santa Barbara’s busy Christmas concert landscape.

Past QV concerts have included Renaissance fare (sorry) in the mix, but this year’s program leaned heavily on composers still among us, with the exception of Rachmaninoff (the Russian Orthodox–inspired “Bogoroditse”) and the traditional finale of Malcolm Sargent’s take on “Silent Night.” Of the living bunch, I was especially taken with Lithuanian-American composer Kestutis Daugirdas’s “In Dulci Jubilo,” an inventive and rhythmically tricky reshaping of the familiar English carol “Good Christian Men, Rejoice.”

Two variations of “O Magnum Mysterium” served as almost-bookends, between gifted composer-in-residence Dombek’s inviting and resonant concert-opening version and master choral composer Morten Lauridsen’s take, with its hypnotically tranquil heft-and-glow and token close harmonies in the margins.

As expected, with this skilled gathering of committed singers, Kreitzer continues to corral and summon up a glorious and warmly enmeshed ensemble sound. QV projects an “all for one and one for all” purpose and collective voice, with the ambient magic of the chapel space as a silent but important partner in the annual equation.

More Choral Matters of the Season

On another day, in another church, the venerable Santa Barbara Choral Society brought its seasonal concert to an SRO “house” at the Trinity Lutheran Church, after a long stint with its “Hallelujah Project” held sway at the Lobero Theatre. Reminiscent of the “Project” playlist, the JoAnne Wasserman–led group, abetted by a small orchestral component, covered a similarly broad swatch of repertoire, from light and serious Christmas classics — and a pinch of “Hallelujah” — to a token Hanukkah and songs in Spanish.

Composer Julia Marie Newmann receiving a bouquet following the premiere of her “Winter’s Windows” music written for the Choral Society | Photo: Maxx Hennard

Daniel Pinkham’s “Christmas Cantata” basked in an intelligent tapestry of light and dark elements, and the ever-lovable youth choir SING! (led by Erin McKibben) took on the relative “straight person” melodic role in Ola Gjeilo’s arrangement of “Away in a Manger,” with the adult choral forces softly intoning minor mode swirls around that sweet core. The subtle tension might convey the ambivalent emotional chemistry of the season.

But a sure centerpiece of this program was the world premiere of “Winter’s Windows,” by established film composer and locally based Julia Marie Newmann (also a soprano and new member of the group). Based on a poetic text by Elizabeth Spies, who read an abridged version of the text before the premiere, Newmann’s evocative piece opens with an impressionistic, wandering melodic line, punctuated by pauses.

In the score, dynamic contouring moves in not-always-predictable, wind-like gusts to suit the poem’s allusive references to winter’s persona. Chill and warmth, tension and release wend through Newmann’s deftly written and text-sensitive score, with a female voice–enabling choral palette. An a cappella section leads and leans into the resolving finale. Newmann’s alluring piece deserves a continuing life in choral repertoire. We heard it here first.

Meanwhile, back at the Lobero, Santa Barbara’s “other” choral group of long-standing, the Santa Barbara Master Chorale, had its first Lobero landing in years, with a potpourri program dubbed “The Light So Shines.” A “Christmas theater” element — echoes of Hallmark-ish sentimentality, forgivable this time of year — was woven into the show, with singers doubling as a “family around the Christmas tree” gathering onstage. Joined by a small orchestra, the David Lorenzo Torres–directed group offered up a range of carols and such more substantial fare like Gerald Finzi’s “In Terra Pax.”

Upfront spotlights were duly commanded by the fine soprano Ashlee Elizabeth and baritone Sérgio Mendes. No Santa Claus this time in the Lobero, as was custom with the “Hallelujah Project,” but we did catch sight of Mr. and Mrs. Claus at Tina Schlieske’s holiday barn burner Lobero show last Thursday.

Further Adventures on the Small but Mighty Front

Maybe it was the perennial holiday mindset of wistful nostalgia at work. When positivity-fueled ukulele phenom Jake Shimabukuro opened last week’s Arlington concert with Schubert’s Ave Maria, my memory association quickly shot back to the remarkable version by Chris (Soundgarden) Cornell at his 2015 Granada show (see Independent story here). The late, great singer brought fire and grace through this legendary piece, done up in a fluid stylization by the thinking person’s rock star. As it turned out, Shimabukuro’s version was one of the few Christmas-related choices in a show dubbed “Holiday in Hawai’i,” (a Christmas confection presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures). He later touched down with Donny Hathaway’s brilliant “This Christmas,” “O Holy Night” (dedicated to Hawaiian legend Willie K) and an encore of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas (is You).”

The Schubert-ian opener was also one of the few unadorned encounters with his small but mighty instrument. Later in the show, he wielded a slide on his ukulele, in dedication to the profound Hawaiian legacy of the lap steel guitar — ancestral precursor to the electric guitar. Somebody had to eventually do a slide ukulele version of Santo and Johnny’s dreamy “Sleepwalk,” and he’s the guy to do it.

But too much of the show, for the perhaps overly purest taste of some of us, relied on the gimmickry of looping, over which he played fairly generic rock guitar–style solos with a distorted tone. But judging from the rapturous response from a full house, the audience was of a different opinion. Also gracing the stage was his bassist friend Jackson Waldhoff and the impressive singer/songwriter Justin Kawika Young, whose song “Gratitude” was a pinnacle — and de facto anthem? — of the evening.

Beyond the clear technical mastery of Shimabukuro’s approach to the ukulele, his aura is infectiously feelgood, a fine Rx for this time of year — and this turbulent time in American and global history. His admirable internal good vibe machinery is so strong that anyone who doesn’t fully buy into the spirit can feel a bit Grinch-ish.

Tacos We Have Eaten on High

Don Paco taco truck 2025 | Photo: Josef Woodard

Driving home from downtown goings-on, I happened upon another celebration, the annual celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the cherished Don Paco food truck across the street from the Westside’s iconic Foodland. Now celebrating its 20th year, Don Paco is a go-to stop for tacos-and-much-more, with choices of both the traditional and exotic sort. Each year, they offer free food and music in a festive tent, and the mariachi band — not to mention the flowing options of tacos and broth for all — made for a mandatory evening stop.

For “research,” of course, and the sake of the season. Grinches have to eat, too.

SEASONAL TO-DOINGS, CONTINUED

Although regularly scheduled Christmas concert action has peaked as of last weekend — which also boasted The Nutcracker at the Arlington Theatre — the party is not over. Enter The Christmas Revels: The Celestial Fools — A Magical Winter’s Tale, at the Lobero on Saturday and Sunday, December 20 and 21. Launched by Susan Keller (also a singer in SBCS) in 2007, the Christmas Revels tradition, linked to a larger mothership operation of nine such events, celebrates Winter Solstice more than Christmas proper, with archival pageantry of song, dance, and merriment of an Olden Kind. Good fun for the proverbial whole family.

More seasonal sensation can be found at SOhO on Sunday night, with the return of the fine local singer Shawn Thies’s “Christmas Tradition” show. She has gathered a strong group of local musical heroes for the occasion: Bill Flores, George Friedenthal, Randy Tico, Lorenzo Martinez, David Hunt, John Goux, and violinist Benedikt Bryden.