Ambitious choir chooses Mozart for coming-out party

By Brian P. Nanos, ExpNews@ExplorerNews.com

November 1, 2006 - In many ways, the Tucson Chamber Artists' next two concerts will be on a grander scale than anything the choir has performed before.

Though the group already is into its third season, the chamber artists' upcoming performances of Mozart's C-minor Mass will serve as their coming-out party.

The music is difficult and complex. Even Music Director Eric Holtan admits, "I myself have never conducted a choral orchestra piece of this significance."

The group has expanded from 24 singers to 30 in preparation for the performances, and even the audience, it hopes, will be larger. Holtan expects that the two shows could draw 800 people between them. The Tucson Chamber Artists have never before had more than 400 people attend a two-show concert series.

"This is a kind of make-or-break performance for the chamber artists," tenor Adam Boyles says. "It's (our) most ambitious project so far."

To top it off, the group will only have six rehearsals to pull it all together.

Despite limited practice time, and the pressure and difficulty of the performance, at the choir's third rehearsal, held Oct. 15, the singers appear confident that they can rise to the challenge.

They're confident in their abilities as singers. And besides, they say, failing just isn't an option.

"Eric wouldn't let that happen," bass Nathan Krueger says.

Holtan is equally optimistic, if not more so. At one point in the rehearsal he shouts: "Yes, that's it. Folks, this is really good work."

"You're singing very well tonight," he tells the singers before they take their first break of the evening.

Holtan got his doctorate in choral and orchestral conduction from the University of Arizona. He formed the Tucson Chamber Artists three years ago because he wanted the region to have a professional choral ensemble that is like those that exist in Phoenix.

"There are a lot of choirs in Tucson," he says. "This is the only one I know of that is composed almost completely of professional-level singers."

This season's Mozart in C-minor Mass concert is the choir's celebration of the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Last winter, when many of the other classical music performers in Tucson were honoring Mozart's birth, the Chamber Artists performed an "un-Mozart concert." Holtan says the group held off on their Mozart performance until this season so it would stand out from the others.

Mozart's C-minor Mass, according to Holtan, is one of the composer's best works. It's also very tricky to perform.

"Mozart is probably one of the most difficult composers to sing," alto Robyn Rocklein says.

Mozart's "Grand Mass," as it is sometimes called, was first performed at the composer's 1782 marriage to Constanze Weber. It's thought that the composer's bride performed as a soloist - a roll that in the chamber artists' performances will be shared by Rocklein, Kimberly Chaffin and Kathryn Mueller. Molly Holleran and Maureen Popovich also will be featured in the performance.

"I spread those parts around because I have so many talented singers," Holtan says.

A 26-piece orchestra led by Tucson Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Steven Moekel will accompany the singers.

The very thing that makes the music difficult, its complexity, is what makes it so good, Holtan insists. "It's brilliantly composed and reflective of so many styles."

"It's also ..." Holtan pauses. "It's just beautiful music."

And if the Tucson Chamber Artists do their job right, he adds, the audience shouldn't notice how much work it took them to get there.

"Mozart has a way of making it just dance, and if we do it well, it should sound very easy."