SD Master Chorale at St. Paul's Cathedral & Balboa Park at Night

Apology for a really late post. What an annoying coughy bug that last flu was (it's been over two weeks and I'm still in the process of shaking it off), though it wasn't quite nasty enough to prevent me from going off to St. Paul's Cathedral a couple of Saturdays ago to catch the San Diego Master Chorale in a concert of church music.

The program was packed mostly with music by Vaughan Williams and other composers I'm not very familiar with (the exception being the text-setting of Barber's famous Adagio for strings, of course). They were taping the show and I did my best (if not all that successfully) not to cough too much. There was a consolation in that the gentleman in the row in front of me was having an even harder time at it. That Mr. Flu sure has been wreaking havoc around town!

The SDMC was joined by St. Paul's Cathedral Chorus, St. Cecilia Choir, and the Cathedral Choristers who thrilled the capacity audience with their exuberant singing in surround-sound (literally, since the choruses split and sang from opposite ends of the hall in many numbers. The brass players were also having a good time... It had been a long time since I last got to hear trumpets and trombones in a cathedral setting. They really sounded wonderful and made me half expect St. Paul and the archangels to burst through the high ceiling during the proceeding during the voluntaries!

Anyhow, the concert went very well and was dedicated to Harriet Peckenpaugh, a Master Chorale alto who passed away recently.

By the way, the SDMC is planning an ambitious and very Latino-friendly season ending concert called 'Amigos en Concierto' at Copley Hall in Downtown San Diego on June 19th. It is a collaboration between the SDMC, The Romero Duo, Mariachi Garibaldi, The San Diego Children's Choir and Tijuana Children's Choir, and will feature Enrique Toral (tenor) and Monica Abrego (soprano) as vocal soloists.

It was only 9:30PM when I walked out of the cathedral, so I decided to take a stroll through Balboa Park to get a night look at it before catching bus 7 home on the other side (won't have to take any connecting bus, then as I would have to from 5th Avenue). The place really is amazingly romantic and peaceful at night... There were a few migrants sleeping here and there, mind you, but they are probably more afraid of being harassed by the passerby than the other way around.



If you ever stop by to visit San Diego for a few days, you really have to jot Balboa Park down as one of the places to visit at night.