In light of recent tragic events, including in their community, a group of five different choirs joined together with the hope of bringing light into darkness.
"You know how foggy it's been for the last month, almost, and so part of that is to bring that light into darkness and, on a heavier note, we look at what happened in Australia, look at what happened at Brown University, what happened in our own community," Mark Calonico, the Stockton Chorale's former president, said. "The violence, it makes you think that there is no hope, there is no light. And that's what we're trying to do."
It's been 15 days since the tragic shooting in Stockton and the community rallied together this weekend at the Stockton Chorale's 74th annual Christmas & Holiday concert.
"It's been, clearly, a very difficult time for this community and, so, I think a program like this is more important than ever," Widelitz said. "The theme is obviously very close to home for a lot of people, that it is a time of tragedy and people need to find hope amidst that. We all do. And especially because what we do, what Stockton Chorale does, all of our choirs do, we sing together. We make music. We sing from our souls. We express ourselves creatively and the most important part of that is that we all do it together."
More than 100 singers, ranging from elementary school-aged kids to grandparents, joined together in harmony for this year's theme of the concert: Light in the Darkness.
"Always seek light and good because it's out there," Erin Parra, Stockton Chorale president, said. "Everywhere you look, even in dark times, cold times, tragedy, there's always hope and, hopefully, that's the message that we bring today."
The set-list consists of a diverse array of pieces from the 16th century to the 21st century. It features an arrangement from Christmas classics to fast songs to slow to softer to loud, to contemporary to sacred songs.
"To me, 'Silent Night', being one of my favorites, of course, and it just kind of culminates that evening before the birth of our Savior, our Jesus, and so, it brings everything together," Rick Campero, Stockton Singers director, said. "I would say for our community, and especially with this concert, it is so diverse. We're singing in Spanish,we're singing in Hebrew,we're singing English and so we put this together in the light of the world and we hope that that continues throughout the world."
The choir consists of inter-generational talent with families participating together.
"It's a great way to bring families together," Colonico said. "My wife is the director of the youth groups and our assistant director, his wife is a soprano. We have lots of family members, intergenerational, from kids to adults, they're all singing together. So, for us, it's a family thing."
Colonico is hoping that the sense of family translates into harmony with the audience.
"The family feeling that we have among the singers, too,is by working together,singing together,"Colonico said."You get this great sense of this community,a sense that we have on the stage when we perform and it's reflected in a situation like this to hopefully transfer it to all of our audience,t hat sense of,l et's come together as a community and raise our voices."
Mark's wife, Joan Colonico, directs the Stockton Youth Chorale and Valley Youth Acapela. She said there were almost 50 singers from grades 3 through 12 and that "music brings joy to everybody".
"I think the kids definitely bring light into darkness,"Joan Colonico said."People are joyful when they see kids singing because they are our future and they are our hope.And so,hearing their voices on any of the pieces that we do,the kids also get to sing with the adults at one point in the concert.And that's joyful-it looks beautiful,it sounds beautiful and it really helps give people hope."
The Stockton Chorale is also a non-profit organization. They are also hosting various events in the spring including their annual fundraiser on February 21,a concert in March,and a movies & films-themed concert in May which usually consists of a pops concert.
These directors—three of them collaborating—are encouraging community members to join them together in song.Whether vocally-trained or singing for fun in cars,new singers are welcome.