For release:      May 18, 2020

Contacts:

Andrew Brown, President & CEO, ANDREW@PACIFICCHORALE.ORG

Ryan McSweeney, Director of Marketing & Box Office, RYAN@PACIFICCHORALE.ORG

714/662-2345

Pacific Chorale Announces Release of New Recording
“All Things Common,” Featuring Music by Tarik O’Regan

First recording released under Artistic Director Robert Istad’s leadership features the organization’s 24-member professional chamber choir, joined by Salastina Music Society.

Costa Mesa, CA — Pacific Chorale has announced the release of its newest recording, titled All Things Common, on the Yarlung Records label. This is the first recording released by the Chorale under the artistic leadership of Robert Istad. The album features music by Tarik O’Regan, the Chorale’s composer in residence, and includes the world premiere recording of “Facing West” on text by Walt Whitman, which received its premiere performance by Pacific Chorale in Samueli Theater at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California on May 18, 2019. The recording was made in Samueli Theater on May 20-21, 2019, recorded and mastered by Yarlung Records’ Bob Attiyeh, Arian Jansen, and Steve Hoffman. The performance and recording were sponsored, in part, by executive producer Lenora Meister. The program samples works from throughout O’Regan’s career, ranging from a 2001 setting of the liturgical Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis to the 2019 premiere of “Facing West,” performed by a 24-voice ensemble of singers from Pacific Chorale, with Istad conducting. Also featured on several tracks are instrumentalists from Salastina Music Society.

“This project connects my many years of friendship and artistic collaboration with Tarik O’Regan in a very special way,” says Istad. “I believe this recording does much more than showcase his genius, it reveals the remarkably consistent quality and artistic integrity of his work throughout his career. Tarik infuses every project he engages with his full being and creates impressively unique expressions of his aesthetic at every turn. I am grateful that Pacific Chorale’s incredible singers, staff and board of directors supported this wonderful project. Many thanks to Yarlung’s visionary team for their attention to the delicate equilibrium essential to provide Tarik’s music the right presence on a recording. Their deft handiwork showcases the extraordinary abilities of Pacific Chorale’s singers while affording Tarik’s voice a balanced space for the resonance and precision it requires.”

O’Regan comments, “One of the lovely things about working with Robert and Pacific Chorale over the years is that—in addition to wonderfully-premiered new works—I’ve been given the unique experience of hearing older pieces in a brilliant new light. Combining impeccable precision with an intuitive sense of ‘finding room,’ there is an invigorating and natural freshness in Robert’s and the Chorale’s work, captured brilliantly on this recording by Bob and Arian at Yarlung. I was very lucky to discover these compositions, spanning 20 years of my output, breathing in exciting new ways throughout the recording sessions, and I’m excited now to share the results with the public.”

Yarlung Records producer Bob Attiyeh writes, “Working with conductor and Pacific Chorale music director Robert Istad is always a pleasure. When he asked Yarlung to record his debut album with Pacific Chorale performing music by Tarik O’Regan, I knew we were in for a treat. Even though Pacific Chorale normally performs in the much larger Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, I was delighted that we were able to work in the adjacent and more intimate Samueli Theater. I always enjoy making recordings in Samueli, with its magnificent and adjustable acoustics, silent air conditioning and lights, and a theater staff that always treats our Yarlung crew like returning royalty.”

The CD of “All Things Common” is currently available through Pacific Chorale for $20.00 by visiting https://pacificchorale.formstack.com/forms/allthingscommon. High resolution digital downloads, the full album booklet, and artwork are now available at https://www.yarlungrecords.com/product/all-things-common/. The worldwide release of the CD is scheduled for June 19th, 2020.

ABOUT TARIK O’REGAN

Tarik O’Regan has written music for a wide variety of ensembles and organizations including Pacific Chorale, Dutch National Ballet, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Sydney Dance Company, Chamber Choir Ireland, BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The Phoenix, his opera about the life of Lorenzo Da Ponte, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera with a libretto by John Caird, premiered in April 2019. Tarik’s work, widely recorded and published exclusively by Novello, has been nominated for two GRAMMY® awards and both New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer Best Classical Releases of the Year for Threshold of Night; the National Endowment for the Arts Artistic Excellence Award, and a South Bank Sky Arts Award nomination for Heart of Darkness; a Gramophone Award nomination for Scattered Rhymes; and more.

ABOUT SALASTINA MUSIC SOCIETY

Salastina Music Society performs with smaller or larger chamber orchestra ensembles depending on the music. For this recording, Salastina includes co-directors Maia Jasper White and Kevin Kumar
on violins; Meredith Crawford, viola; Charles Tyler, cello; and Eric Shetzen, bass. Meredith Crawford is also known to Southern California music audiences as the principal viola in the Pacific Symphony, and Maia Jasper White as a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

ABOUT YARLUNG RECORDS

GRAMMY® Award-winning Yarlung Records brings fresh musicians to the classical music world using minimalist audiophile recording techniques to deliver sound as close to living performance as possible. Rather than using recording studios, engineer Bob Attiyeh produces these albums in concert halls famous for their acoustics, including Walt Disney Concert Hall and Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. Yarlung uses both analog tape and high-resolution digital media for CDs made with special alloys, high-resolution digital downloads including NativeDSD, and 180 Gram vinyl, mastered by Steve Hoffman.

ABOUT PACIFIC CHORALE

Pacific Chorale has delighted national and international audiences with concerts of great choral music performed at the highest musical standards since 1968. Under the artistic leadership of Robert Istad, the organization produces a series of concerts each year at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, where it serves as the sole resident choir. The mission of Pacific Chorale is to inspire our community through artistry and innovation in choral music performances and education programs.

Pacific Chorale is recognized for exceptional artistic expression, preserving and performing classical choral music as well as stimulating American-focused programming. Pacific Chorale presents a substantial performance season of its own and is sought regularly to perform with the nation’s leading symphonies. Pacific Chorale has infused an Old World art form with California’s hallmark innovation and cultural independence, developing innovative new concepts in programming, and expanding the traditional concepts of choral repertoire and performance. The organization boasts over 30 world premieres and has released 14 self-produced recordings.

In addition to its long-standing partnership with Pacific Symphony, with whom Pacific Chorale made its Carnegie Hall debut in April 2018, the Chorale has performed with such renowned American ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and Musica Angelica.

Pacific Chorale has also toured extensively to more than 19 countries in Europe, South America and Asia, and has collaborated with the London Symphony, the Munich Symphony, L’Orchestre Lamoureux and L’Orchestre de St-Louis-en-l’Île of Paris, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the China National Symphony, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Estonian National Symphony, and the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Argentina.

Pacific Chorale also places a significant emphasis on choral music education, offering grades 1-6 after-school programs, a high school student summer camp, and a community-wide singing event at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

All Things Common: Music of Tarik O’Regan

Artists: Tarik O’Regan, Pacific Chorale, Salastina Music Society, Robert Istad
Executive Producer: Lenora Meister
Recording Engineers: Bob Attiyeh, Arian Jansen
Mastering Engineers: Steve Hoffman, Arian Jansen, Bob Attiyeh
Label: Yarlung Records
Catalog No.: YAR02592
EAN/UPC: 195079025921
Total Playing Time: 58:57

Track Listing:
1. All Things Common (2017) [5:02]
2. Blessed Are They (2013) [4:47]
3. Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis (2001) [14:58]
4. Turn (2016) [4:57]
5. Facing West (2019) [5:43]
6. The Ecstasies Above (2006) [19:39]
7. I Listen to the Stillness of You, from Mass Observation (2016) [3:51]