Dear editor,

The Napa Valley Chorale presented its annual Spring Concert on May 5 at Chardonnay Hall. The event was an ideal example of the high standards that a community-based arts organization can achieve when led by talented and committed individuals such as the Chorale's Artistic Director and Conductor Jan Lanterman and Conductor Mark Teeters.

The opening work, "Crying for a Dream" by Rene Clausen, is a blessedly unhackneyed composition, based on native-American texts, scored for four choirs, flute, two pianos, and narrator. In addition to the double choir parts sung by the Chorale members, the Vintage High School Chamber Singers and the Vintage High School Women's Ensemble participated, along with narrator Tom Illgen.

Led by Teeters (also the director of choral activities at Vintage), the performance proved the work to be a pleasant and often moving reflection on the relationship between mankind and the environment. The precise and clearly articulated work from the singers, under Teeters' direction, made an excellent case for Mr. Clausen's composition.

Carl Orff's popular "Carmina Burana" was the major work of the afternoon, presented in the composer's arrangement for two pianos and five percussionists. Artistic Director Jan Lanterman obviously knows this score well. Her tempi and dynamics are well judged and appropriate, scoring all available points with Orff's humor, satire, and romance.

Again, the Chorale proved themselves responsive and supportive of their conductor, providing a nice variety of vocal colors and a wide range of telling responses to the text. Only due to their lack of numbers (and not quality) did the tenor section occasionally fail to hold the stage in their exposed passages.

Soloists in the Orff, soprano Carol Kessler, tenor Bill Leigon, and baritone Theodore Weis, were a distinguished lot, handling the composer's cruel and intentionally bizarre tessitura with style and (where the composer allowed it) grace. The musicians (percussionists Don Baker, Susan Jette, and Amy Stubbs recognizable from the Napa Valley Symphony), along with percussionist Melvina Chew, timpanist Walter Hunt, and duo pianists Ellen Patterson and Kathryn Quain responded to Lanterman's leadership, producing a glorious racket when needed or a delicate accompaniment when appropriate.

What was perhaps the best part of the Napa Valley Chorale's concert was that it was a true community event, first the Chorale itself, with professional leadership and a volunteer membership, all giving their time, energy, and spirit to the noble task of making music.

Then add to the Chorale the young musicians from Vintage High, percussionists from the Napa Valley Symphony (and elsewhere), soloists both local and not, and put all these folks together in the performance space created by the Symphony in Chardonnay Hall. We have an event that unites several of the Napa Valley's constituencies, the sort of event that builds communities.

Aside from an afternoon of quality music making, we must thank Jan Lanterman and the Napa Valley Chorale for demonstrating that cooperation between various groups isn't so difficult and the results can be wonderful.

Rick Otto

Napa