A Note from the Artistic Director

Fresh off our successful performance at the regional conference of the American Choral Directors' Association, we're shifting gears for a concert unlike anything we've ever shown you before! Eastern Portraits brings a taste of the East to the West Coast, and it's a program that includes a little bit of everything. Take a look at some of what you'll see and hear:

• Folk songs about love, nature, and bad luck from China, Japan, Thailand, and Korea
• Chen Yi's haunting Chinese Mountain Songs, adapted from the traditional music of her native land
• British composer Gustav Holst's Two Eastern Pictures, using texts by the 4^th-century Sanskrit poet Kalidasa and inspired by Holst's fascination with Middle-Eastern mysticism
• The world premiere of Ethan Sperry's fabulous arrangement of the Bollywood hit "Barso Re" (trust me, you've never heard the OCWC like this before!)
• The return of percussionist Angie Tabor, whom you may remember from our Roots of Rhythm concert in spring 2010, and who will make our music jump off the page and the stage with her array of world instruments
• And a special guest performance by Jodaiko, UC-Irvine's exciting taiko drumming ensemble! If you've never experienced this heart-throbbing traditional Japanese art form, you're in for an enormous treat-and if you have, we probably don't need to persuade you!

Get your tickets now, because this show's so jam-packed that we're only performing it once! We'll see you on Saturday,  

March 31, at 7:00 p.m. at St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church.

The OCWC Takes Reno by Storm! 

We were honored to be one of just 14 choirs from five states chosen to sing at the American Choral Directors' Association Western Region Conference, held this year in Reno, Nevada from February 29 through March 3. Mezzo soprano Deborah Winsor Williams joined us to reprise her performance as Mary in Ralph Vaughan Williams Magnificat. For a peek at all of our repertoire for this memorable performance, click here! What did the members of the OCWC do in Reno when they were not making music ? Follow this link to check out our photo album, "OCWC Goes to Reno!" on Facebook!

Meet an Alto:  Kathryn Baldasari

by Ashley Hamrick 

Chief Financial Officer and second alto Kathy Baldasari joined OCWC in 1998 and has been CFO since 2001. Kathy has always enjoyed music; she played in the orchestra in high school and in college, and sang with the Stanford University Chorus. When she moved to Irvine, she joined the choir at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, where she has been singing for over thirty years.

Kathy holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Stanford University and a Master of Science in Operations Research from the University of California, Berkeley. Currently, she is an engineering manager at Raytheon Network Centric Systems where she is responsible for metrics development and analysis for the California Region's Software Center. She loves working with numbers, so part of the fun of her work is analyzing data. She says, "We use numbers to try to get the fog out of the crystal ball. If we can see what's coming, we can prevent problems from happening from the start." She also enjoys having the opportunity to mentor other employees. As she makes the transition into retirement, she says she looks forward to the new challenges ahead. Outside of work, Kathy enjoys gardening, crocheting, and reading George R.R. Martin novels. She also enjoys spending time with her family, including her husband, Nick; her son, Ryan, and daughter-in-law, Annabelle; and her sister, Janet, who is also a member of OCWC, and brother-in-law, Tom.

As CFO of the choir, Kathy works to ensure that the organization itself is financially sound. It is her aim to help the board understand various financial data by turning it into information that can be communicated and analyzed. She says, "My goal is to help us understand where we are and where we're going." Her favorite part of being on the board is having the opportunity to work with its members. Though it's hard work sometimes, her enthusiasm is evident. She says, "When we get together, things change. Things happen. It's rewarding being a part of an organization that gets things done." She also says that singing in the choir for her is a tremendous joy. She has learned a great deal about music through the years as well as how to analyze and understand a piece of music. Her favorite part is being able share in the creation of beautiful sound with the choir.

In looking to the future of OCWC, she wants the organization to be able to have the infrastructure it needs to regularly fund new compositions, to hire instrumental accompaniment, and to provide more internships for aspiring choral conductors. She also envisions the development of a volunteer auxiliary to support front-of-house operations, stage management and special events so that the choir can focus on what it does best--sing!

If you would like to join our volunteer auxiliary, contact our Board member responsible for volunteer coordination, Laurie Soderberg, or visit the Volunteer page of our website.

OCWC Receives Grants! 

We are extremely grateful to the Robert J. and Doreen D. Marshall Fund for Dramatic Arts and Classical Music for their support of Eastern Portraits. Their grant of $3,000 provided underwriting for our commissioned arrangement of Barso Re by Ethan Sperry; for our percussionists, Angie Tabor and Erik Leckrone; and for our special guests, Jodaiko.  

Our singers make annual contributions to support the ongoing operations of the Orange County Women's Chorus. Since our inception, we have passionately believed that no one. should be denied the opportunity to make extraordinary music with us due to financial constraints, and we offer a scholarship program to singers who need assistance. This year, that program is funded, in part, by a $2,000 grant we received from the Disney VoluntEARS Community Fund, which awarded us an unrestricted grant to support our mission.

On January 23, 2012, we were thrilled to join a dozen other arts organizations in Orange County at Arts Orange County as recipients of grants from the Orange County Arts Initiative of the Orange County Community Foundation. The Orange County Community Foundation and Arts Orange County have been collaborating since 2004 to strengthen the county's arts infrastructure. This year's grants are designated for professional development activities for board members or staff, and we were awarded $1,500. We are delighted to make funds available to incoming board members to attend the Chorus America annual conference in Minneapolis in June or the Chorus Management Institute, an intensive three day course in governance, strategic planning, marketing and fundraising. We know they will return to us refreshed and invigorated with new ideas, as well as new contacts in similar choruses around the country.