The Choral Society of Pensacola’s 2024-2025 season features four major concerts, a Foo Foo Festival event, and a special holiday performance by its treble ensemble. The 100-voice volunteer chorus will be conducted by artistic director Peter Steenblik.
The season opens with Wine and Song, presented by the Choral Society and Aragon Wine Market + Wine Bar on Saturday, October 12, at 5:30 pm in the Sanders Beach-Corrine Jones Community Center. Timed so that patrons can enjoy the sunset over Pensacola Bay through the Center’s wall of windows, the tasting event pairs wines from six countries with choral selections by such composers as Haydn, Brahms, Offenbach, Kodály, and Piazzolla. This event is for adults 21 and older.
The season continues with a performance of Bach’s joyous Magnificat, set for Friday, December 6, at 7:30 pm in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. The program will also feature arrangements of two familiar carols and three selections from Handel’s Messiah, including the Hallelujah chorus. Pensacola Opera’s Jan Miller Studio Artists will serve as soloists.
The Society will mark Women’s History Month with two performances of Still Rising, one on Friday, March 28, 2025, at 7:30 pm, one on Saturday, March 29, 2025, at 2:00 pm in the University of West Florida Center for Fine and Performing Arts. The centerpiece of this inspiring program will be a multimedia presentation of Andrea Ramsey’s Suffrage Cantata.
The season concludes with Amazing Grace on Saturday, May 17, 2025, at 7:30 pm in First United Methodist Church. A program of sacred music in a sacred space, the concert includes I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes, Augustus Hailstork’s cantata based on texts from the psalms, and excerpts from Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah.
In addition to its four concerts, the Society will host the a cappella ensemble Voctave for a Foo Foo Festival performance of The Corner of Broadway & Main Street. The concert, one of the festivals’ featured, funded events, will take place on Friday, November 8, 2024, at 7:30 pm in First Baptist Church of Pensacola.
Throughout the season, the Society’s treble ensemble, under the direction of Isabelle Peterson, will present short programs at a variety of venues, and they will be featured in a special holiday performance of Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols with harpist Katie Ott on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, at 7:30 pm in the University of West Florida Center for Fine and Performing Arts. Their other performances will be announced on the Choral Society’s website and Facebook page.
Subscriptions to the Society’s four major concerts are now available, and patrons may choose between a quartet (a four-concert package including Wine and Song) or a trio (a three-concert package featuring the final three concerts). Both packages may be purchased at Purplepass.com, through the Society’s website (www.choralsocietyofpensacola.org), or through the Pensacola State College Department of Performing Arts ticket office (850-484-1847). For further information, email support@choralsocietyofpensacola.org.
