Photos and highlights from Pacific Chorale’s season opener: the world premiere of Starr Parodi's I Am America, North American premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s Critical Mass and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

On Saturday, October 17, 2026, Pacific Chorale opened its 59th season at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The program put two new works beside one of the most-loved pieces in the choral repertoire. Artistic Director Robert Istad led Pacific Chorale, Pacific Symphony and the Southern California Children’s Chorus, with soprano Anna Schubert, tenor JJ Lopez and baritone Michael Kelly as soloists.

The evening opened with Before the Downbeat, our pre-concert conversation series. PBS SoCal’s Maria Hall-Brown sat down with composers Starr Parodi and Tarik O’Regan and poet Marcus Omari to talk about the two premieres on the program. It was a rare chance to hear about new work from the people who created it, just before both pieces were heard for the first time.

The performance began with the world premiere of I Am America by GRAMMY® Award–winning composer Starr Parodi. With music and text both her own, Parodi imagines America speaking for itself. The piece moves from open land and the journeys of those who came seeking freedom to a first-person voice that calls for justice and promises to “stand up for the weak and the meek and the wronged.” Pacific Chorale commissioned it for the nation’s 250th anniversary. When it ended, Parodi joined the musicians on stage to share the applause.

Next came the North American premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s Critical Mass, a co-commission with Wimbledon Choral in the U.K. O’Regan built the mass around his Agnus Dei, first sung at the 2023 coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. For the other movements, he asked four writers to each write a new text without seeing the others’ work: John Caird, Colm Tóibín, Marcus Omari and Alice Goodman. O’Regan and Omari were in the hall and took the stage together after the performance. For Pacific Chorale, it was a new chapter in a long relationship with O’Regan’s music, which the Chorale recorded on All Things Common in 2020.

The night ended with Orff’s Carmina Burana in a new chamber orchestration by Paul Leonard Schäffer, which puts the percussion and rhythmic drive front and center. Our three soloists gave the work its color. Lopez, in feathered wings, sang the roasting swan’s lament. Schubert and Kelly carried the score’s love songs and tavern scenes. The young singers of the Southern California Children’s Chorus joined from the choir loft. The full company closed the night with a curtain call as the audience rose to its feet.

Here's some of what the audience has shared:

“We’ve seen Carmina Burana at least 20 times… this year’s performance was especially great. It was more animated and engaging than we’ve ever experienced it.”

“I loved the energy and vitality that the performers brought to Carmina Burana — it was like being assaulted by joyfulness. In an entirely good way!”

“I wanted to hear Carmina Burana live my whole life! It was spectacular!”

Relive the night in photos below, and join us for the holidays! Book early for the best seats as these shows are selling fast.

All photos © Pacific Chorale/Doug Gifford

Highlights: 59th Season Opening