Caritas Chorale
Contact: 208.578.9648
This non-profit organization encourages and promotes musical education and appreciation in the Wood River Valley through an active, non-denominational community chorus. Caritas presents performances of classical and traditional choral music with and without instrumental accompaniment. Caritas Chorale also strives to promote choral music appreciation and education in community schools. Caritas does not charge an admission for performances, sustaining itself in part through audience donations. In September, Caritas holds its annual major fundraising event-–a benefit dinner in several local homes. Caritas members and friends handle all aspects of the event from catering to cleanup. Musical entertainment at each home features Broadway and pops selections performed by the Caritas ensemble. The approximately 90-member chorus, under the direction of Dick Brown, performs two to three concerts annually. In May 2006, Caritas presented an original commissioned work by David Alan Earnest, Immence Ranges of High Mountains, in Ketchum and in Boise as part of the Lewis and Clark “A Circle of Cultures” festival. In December, as a prelude to the holiday season, Caritas will perform an audience sing-along with the Sun Valley Children’s Choir and Big Wood Preschool Chorus. Two additional performances will feature Caritas singing traditional carols. Caritas’ major 2007 concert will be Mozart’s Great c minor Mass, with chorus, orchestra, and soloists, on February 24 and 25. Also scheduled for 2007 is a spring pops concert, followed by a European Tour in Ireland and Scotland, with Caritas members paying their own expenses.