About Us:
The Santa Cruz Chorale, a non-profit organization founded in 1983, performs a wide-ranging repertory including works from the 16th century through music of our time. It was founded and initially directed by Mary Lynn Place Badarak as a community based volunteer adult chorus, as it continues today. In addition to her work as a Lecturer for the Department of Music at UC Santa Cruz, Ms. Badarak developed the chorus to the point where it was accepted to be part of a nation-wide chorus to sing the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall as part of its Centenary Celebration in 1991. In addition, the Chorale has made two international tours: the first to Northern Italy and Croatia, and the second to Spain, both under the leadership of Paul Vorwerk. Additional conductors during the chorus's evolution have included Murray Walker, the late Gene Lewis, Paul Vorwerk, and, most recently, Eduardo Mendelievich (2004-2006).
The chorus is now led by Christian Grube and performs three full concerts per year from the choral repertoire, using the beautiful acoustics of the Sanctuary of Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz. Over its existence the Chorale has been able to attract three of Santa Cruz' most able accompanists, Yalenda Listmann, Maria Ezerova, and currently Molly Deich, who assisted the Chorale into its 25th year. Singers, who live throughout the greater Monterey Bay area, include graduate students, computer mavens, business people, politicians, pastors, attorneys, investigators, consultants, UCSC faculty and staff, high school and grade school teachers, physicians, engineers, and parents of small children. Although several members of the Chorale are professional musicians and some direct musical groups of their own, all volunteer their time, and most are amateurs in the original sense of that word: people who seriously pursue an art for the love of it.
