The guest ensemble will present a program of contemporary American composers. Jeffrey Van’s A Procession Winding Around Me is an intense setting of four Walt Whitman Civil War poems. Eric Whitacre composed Five Hebrew Love Songs using short love poems from his wife, soprano Hila Plittman. The diverse program will also feature works by Morten Lauridsen, Samuel Barber, and a set of jazz and gospel arrangements.

The Cuesta Chamber Singers, Cuesta College’s premier choral ensemble, performs a wide variety of choral works to excellent critical acclaim. Since its inception in 1997, the ensemble has extensively toured the Western U.S. In the summer of 2005, the Chamber Singers performed in the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, singing to packed houses and standing ovations. In June 2009 the Chamber Singers received second place in every category at the California International Choir Competition. In July 2011 the Chamber Singers competed at the Vokal Total Festival in Graz, Austria and received second place against professional groups from Europe and Asia.

What Christian Grube has to say about the Cuesta Chamber Singers

“While serving as an Adjudicator for the 2009 California International Choral Festival and Competition in San Luis Obispo, I had the opportunity to hear and see the Cuesta Chamber Singers. From the first moment I was fascinated by their freshness and by the joy they obviously felt while singing. Although their program had great variety, it was at the same time well balanced, and the conductor John Knudson directed his group with both passion and precision. The audience rewarded the performance of the Cuesta Chamber Singers with enthusiastic and well-earned applause. I am very much looking forward to their concert, and to the fact that the Santa Cruz Chorale will join them performing two pieces of their program.”