Arizona Repertory Singers is closing out its historic 40th anniversary season with “All the Beauty: 40th Anniversary Concert & Gala” on Sunday, April 28.
The fundraising event celebrates where the choral group has been and where it could go thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Julian Ackerley, who directs the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus, and Marcela Molina, who leads the Tucson Girls Chorus.
These two leaders of Tucson’s preeminent youth choral ensembles are cultivating a love of music in the next generation of Arizona Repertory Singers, organizers said.
But the concert also pays tribute to the ensemble’s rich legacy, starting with founder Dennis Bonner, who launched the group as the Arizona Recital Choir in 1984 and ran it for six years before turning over the baton to Jeffry A. Jahn in 1990. Jahn ran it for 25 years until his unexpected death in 2015.
The current director, Ryan Phillips, ushered in a new age of innovation and vision for the group when he came on board in 2019, months before the COVID-19 pandemic put the brakes on live entertainment and Phillips had to think outside the box to keep the ensemble visible and energized. He launched a series of virtual concerts that gave the group a very different voice, one that could be heard during the silent darkness of the pandemic’s isolation.
Ryan Phillips has led Arizona Repertory Singers since 2019.
Sunday’s gala includes 17 selections culled from the Arizona Repertory Singers’ archives, including the dynamic “How Can I Keep from Singing?” by Z. Randall Stroope and the joyful “If Music Be the Food of Love” by David Dickau. The audience also will hear Stacy V. Gibbs’s rousing spiritual “Great Day” from an ARS virtual concert and “Cantate Domino,” a newer piece by Josu Elberdin sung in English, Basque and Latin.
A highlight of the concert could come when the chorus performs Seattle-based composer Melinda Bargreen’s “For All the Beauty,” commissioned by the singers to express the reasons why they sing.
Sunday’s concert begins at 3 p.m. at Catalina Foothills High School Auditorium, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive. Tickets are $75 for general seating, which includes a raffle ticket; $100 for preferred seating, which includes three raffle tickets. Additional raffle tickets are $10. Tickets are available online at arsingers.org.
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