Innocence, Love and Heartbreak - November 2016

Chromatica, a regional chorus recently dubbed “the undiscovered musical jewel of the East Bay”, will perform its “Innocence, Love and Heartbreak” concerts on Saturday, October 29 at Peace Lutheran Church, 3201 Camino Tassajara in Danville; Sunday, October 30 at St. Perpetua Church, 3454 Hamlin Road, Lafayette; and Saturday, November 5 at Clayton Valley Presbyterian Church, 1578 Kirker Pass Road, Clayton. All concerts begin at 7pm.

David Huff, Chromatica's founding musical director has assembled a remarkable program of songs that use texts written by or about children. The program reminds us of the joys, sadness and wonder of childhood at a time when so many of the world's children are faced with war, famine and abuse. The pieces range from the humorous to the profound, the elegiac to the tragic — and the musical quality is exceptional.

The very popular and accomplished Eric Whitacre gives us the lovely A Boy and a Girl. One of America's foremost choral composers, John Rutter gives us Five Childhood Lyrics. Several charming (and actual) Children's Letters to God ask questions like: What is it Like in Heaven? and What is it Like when you Die? Billy Joel's Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel) is justly famous as a bedtime song to his daughter. Sir John Tavener's The Lamb celebrates this remarkable English composer's choral writing genius.

And the program includes much more — Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven, written for his young son, killed in a tragic accident in an arrangement by one of Chromatica's chorus members, and Prayer for the Children, an anthem that comes from war torn Bosnia and says everything about the terrible impact of conflict on children.