Colorful Choral

Santa Barbara Choral Society showed its true colors when it staged a Red, White, and Blues concert under veteran conductor JoAnne Wasserman at Trinity Episcopal Church.

In a nod to America’s rich multi-cultured heritage of musical traditions featuring works by Leonard Bernstein, Randall Thompson, Shawn Kirchner, and Eric Whitacre, the entertaining show was a musical journey across times and genres from classics to pop, folk, jazz and blues to gospel and spirituals.

More than 60 singers were accompanied by collaborative pianist Mi-Young Kim with tenor Will Breman, who was a semi-finalist on the NBC TV show The Voice, performing on the guitar, adding the blues element to the show, and Pasadena-based bass baritone Michal Dawson Connor, who was Paul Robeson reincarnate.

An evening of note…