From ‘Ave Maria’ to ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ and ‘Ode to Joy,” a Santa Monica concert raising funds to help fire victims offers a sacred collaboration of celebrated musicians and singers
By Linda Chase
If 19th-century Austrian composer Franz Schubert got into a time machine that took him to June 13 and deposited him on California Avenue in Santa Monica, he might hear a familiar tune.
As he walked by the St. Monica Catholic Church, he’d notice soprano Golda Zahra singing music from a song cycle he wrote based on Sir Walter Scott’s poem “Lady of the Lake,” which was inspired by the legends of King Arthur.
But Schubert would scratch his head because instead of the original German words, he’d be hearing Latin. That’s because his song was appropriated by the Catholic Church.
Schubert’s song begins with the lines, in English translation,
Ave Maria, gentle maiden
Listen to a plea of a maiden
The Catholic prayer “Hail Mary, Full of Grace” begins, in Latin,
Ave Maria
Gratia plena
Someone noticed that the Latin prayer worked great with the Schubert music, and this pairing is probably sung more often than any prayer in history, both in church and in concert.
Along with Zahra, “The Angelic Voice Concert” in St. Monica Church features the 55-member Dream Orchestra conducted by Daniel Suk and the 40-member Opera Chorus of Los Angeles. They will be performing other famous inspirational chartbusters, including Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus”; “You Raise Me Up,” popularized by Josh Groban, and the “Ode to Joy” from the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Proceeds from the concert go to the Ministry of St. Monica’s programs to help victims of the Los Angeles basin fires.
Conductor Daniel Suk and singer Golda Zahra have been working together since she was a teenager studying at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. “It is a joy to work with someone like that,” he said.
Suk was impressed by more than Zahra’s extensive vocal range and intonation. He noticed that she seemed to have a deep understanding of the music they worked on. “You can feel it in her singing,” Suk said in a phone interview.
“The Prayer,” one of the songs in the concert, has a special place in her heart, Zahra said in an interview. It became famous in a duet one her favorite singers, Celine Dion, did with Andrea Bocelli for the soundtrack of the 1998 animated film “Quest for Camelot.”
The song went on to win a Golden Globe and Grammy, and Dion and Bocelli performed it in front of the late Pope Francis at a concert in New York’s Central Park in 2010. Zahra and tenor J.J. Lopez’s version of the duet will be a fresh interpretation.
“When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high, and don’t be afraid of the dark” has been sung by everyone from Elvis Presley to soccer fans around the world since “You’ll Never Walk Alone” became the most famous song of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “Carousel.”
When Zahra does her version in front of an audience seated in the pews of St. Monica Church, she might be thinking of her mother, Jilla, who fled the Iranian Revolution to find refuge in the United States. The song’s lyrics say, “At the end of the storm there’s a golden sky,” and for Zahra, her mother is “the sun in my solar system.”
In a break from the spiritual compositions, 22-year-old violinist Ray Ushikubo will be featured in “Zigeunerweisen,” written by Spanish violinist and composer Pablo Srasate. While visiting Budapest in 1877, Srasate became enthralled by the gypsy songs he heard there, and he used Hungarian folk songs as the basis of his technically challenging work, whose German title in English is “gypsy ways.”
The big orchestra and choir of the “The Angelic Voice Concert” are showcased in Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” and Beethoven’s stirring setting of Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy,” a musical miracle that almost didn’t happen.
When Beethoven lost his hearing, he wrote a despondent letter to his brothers in which he told them he had contemplated committing suicide. Instead, the deaf composer went on to write the inspiring symphony although he was never able to hear a note of it.
Golda Zahra and Conductor Daniel Suk and the Dream Orchestra will collaborate in two more Southern California performances after the St. Monica event: an eclectic solo concert in Santa Monica’s BroadStage on July 12 and a concert version of Puccini’s “Turandot” at Disney Hall in Los Angeles on Aug. 16.
Linda Chase is a freelance writer based in Santa Barbara specializing in the arts, travel and lifestyle. This feature is produced by the Journalism Arts Initiative, which is underwritten by donations from arts organizations and others interested in supporting excellence in arts journalism.
The Angelic Voice Concert, an evening of inspirational and sacred music with soprano Golda Zahra, the Los Angeles Dream Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Suk, and the Opera Chorus of Los Angeles. June 13 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Monica Catholic Church, 725 California Ave., Santa Monica. Open seating in the pews is $33.85, including all fees. Tickets are available at www.angelicvoice.com
