5:00 p.m.
Wyant Morton, conductor
Samuelson Chapel
California Lutheran University

Plan now to join us for our first ever Christmas Concert!

With uncompromising attention to musical detail and a passion for live performance, Areté provides a joyful, moving, educational and soul-nurturing experience. Wyant Morton conducts.

Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 if purchased online in advance. Students with ID are $10. For information and to purchase tickets, visit aretevocalensemble.org.

2:00 p.m.
Wyant Morton, conductor
Samuelson Chapel
California Lutheran University

Areté concludes its 13th season with A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim.

Sondheim, who died in November, was the most influential composer-lyricist of the late 20th century and the driving force behind some of Broadway’s most beloved and celebrated shows. He was praised for reinventing the American musical by tackling unexpected themes ranging far beyond the genre’s traditional subjects, using complex, sophisticated music and lyrics.

The program will celebrate the life of this iconic American musician by featuring songs from many of his most beloved musicals including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods.

Wyant Morton will conduct.

Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 if purchased online in advance; $10 for students with ID; and free for children younger than 12. For the safety of all, audience members of all ages must wear masksand show proof of being fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Fully vaccinated musicians may perform without masks if they have obtained a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of the concert.

For information and to purchase tickets, visit aretevocalensemble.org.

2:00 p.m.
Wyant Morton, conductor
Samuelson Chapel
California Lutheran University

Areté returns to the stage for its 13th season, which promises to be the most interesting and eclectic yet. The innovative professional ensemble of vocal artists will open this concert with a performance of Quarantine Madrigals (2020) by Indian-American composer Reena Esmail. Composed in response to the pandemic, Quarantine Madrigals is intended to trace the break from society, the descent into isolation, and the eventual return to one another experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also on the program is Membra Jesu nostri (1680) by the Baroque master Dieterich Buxtehude. This virtuosic work for voices and strings is a cycle of seven cantatas, each a meditation on a different part of Christ’s crucified body: feet, knees, hands, sides, breast, heart, and face. This work is known as the first Lutheran oratorio.

With uncompromising attention to musical detail and a passion for live performance, Areté provides a joyful, moving, educational and soul-nurturing experience. Wyant Morton conducts. Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 if purchased online in advance. Students with ID are $10. For information and to purchase tickets, visit aretevocalensemble.org.

2:00 p.m.
Wyant Morton, conductor
Samuelson Chapel
California Lutheran University
Special Encore Performance

Following a moving and memorable performance in November, Areté returns to the stage to conclude its 11th season. In response to an outpouring of requests, the innovative professional ensemble of vocal artists gives a repeat performance of Considering Matthew Shepard by Craig Hella-Johnson.

In October 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was kidnapped, severely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die days later in a lonely field under a blanket of stars. Two decades later, Johnson responded with his first concert-length work. This three-part fusion oratorio speaks with a fresh and bold voice, incorporating a variety of musical styles woven into a unified whole. Johnson sets to music a wide range of poetic and soulful texts as well as passages from Shepard’s personal journal and his parents’ interviews and writings. The Washington Post wrote, “Considering Matthew Shepard demonstrates music’s capacity to encompass, transform and transcend tragedy. Powerfully cathartic, it leads us from horror and grief to a higher understanding of the human condition, enabling us to endure.”

With uncompromising attention to musical detail and a passion for live performance, Areté provides a joyful, moving, educational and soul-nurturing experience.

Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 if purchased online in advance. Tickets for students with ID are $10 and free for children under 12. For information and to purchase tickets, visit aretevocalensemble.org.

2:00 p.m.
Wyant Morton, conductor
Samuelson Chapel
California Lutheran University

Areté returns to the stage to conclude its 10th season. The innovative professional ensemble of vocal artists performs music by California composers! Featured composers include John Adams, Jenni Brandon, Ross Care, Gabriel Kahane, Shawn Kirchner, Morten Lauridsen, Dale Trumbore, and Eric Whitacre.

With a passion for live performance, Areté provides a joyful, moving, educational and soul-nurturing experience.

Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 if purchased online in advance. Students with ID are $10, and children under 12 are free. For information and to purchase tickets, visit aretevocalensemble.org.

2:00 p.m.
Wyant Morton, conductor
Samuelson Chapel
California Lutheran University

Areté returns to the stage for its 10th season, which promises to be the most interesting and eclectic yet. The innovative professional ensemble of vocal artists performs music by California composers.

With uncompromising attention to musical detail and a passion for live performance, Areté provides a joyful, moving, educational and soul-nurturing experience.

Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 if purchased online in advance. Student tickets with ID are $10. For information or to purchase tickets, visit aretevocalensemble.org.

2:00 p.m.
Samuelson Chapel
California Lutheran University

The innovative professional ensemble of vocal artists concludes its ninth season with the second concert in a two-part tribute to the great American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth.

With a passion for live performance, Areté provides a joyful, moving, educational and soul-nurturing experience. Wyant Morton conducts.

Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 if purchased online in advance. Students with ID are $10 and children under 12 are free. For information and to purchase tickets, visit aretevocalensemble.org.

2:00 p.m.
Samuelson Chapel
California Lutheran University
Special guests: The Los Robles Children’s Choir

Areté returns to the stage for its ninth season, which promises to be the most interesting and eclectic yet. The program is the first of a two-part tribute to the great American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein at the 100th anniversary of his birth.
With uncompromising attention to musical detail and a passion for live performance, Areté provides a joyful, moving, educational and soul-nurturing experience. Wyant Morton conducts.

Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 if purchased online in advance. Students with ID are $10. For information or to purchase tickets, visit aretevocalensemble.org.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

2:00 pm
Samuelson Chapel
California Lutheran University

For its eighth season, Areté, the innovative professional ensemble of vocal artists, performs new music in tribute to the great poets in a concert called the The Poet Sings.  The program will feature Sonetos de Amor (Sonnets of Love) by Los Angeles composer Shawn Kirchner, based on the poetry of the revered Chilean poet and statesman Pablo Neruda.  Areté will also present the performances of great poetry set to music by composers including Benjamin Britten, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, James MacMillan, Eric Whitacre, Gwyneth Walker and Morten Lauridsen.  Also featured will be the premier performance of 2 songs by Areté member and composer, Michael Bland.

Areté will also present the premier performance of Six Poetic Airs by East Coast composer Kevin Jay Isaacs, which based on the poetry of Shelley, Dickinson, Byron  and Yeats.

With uncompromising attention to musical detail and a passion for live performance Areté provides a joyful, moving, educational and soul-nurturing experience.

Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 if purchased online in advance. Cal Lutheran faculty, staff and students are free with ID.

Purchase tickets

Sunday, April 10, 2016
2:00pm
Samuelson Chapel, California Lutheran University – map