'Fun, engaging, and maybe surprising': Stockton Chorale prepares for final concert of season

For 72 years Stockton Chorale has brought music to the ears of many Stocktonians.

To close out its 72nd season, the Stockton Chorale is presenting the final concert of the season, "The Piano People: Music of Elton John, Carole King, and Billy Joel."

Two concerts will be held over the weekend: 7 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at the Vineyard Chapel at 14165 N. Beckman Rd. in Lodi and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 19, at the Atherton Auditorium at 5151 Pacific Ave. in Stockton.

"This coming concert is our closing concert of the season and it is what we think of as a pop concert because it is the music of Billy Joel, Elton John, and Carole King," said Linda Luna, president and CEO of the Stockton Chorale.

The Stockton Chorale season begins in October and goes through May with four concerts held throughout the season during October, December, March and May, Luna said.

"This is the concert to attend because it's going to be music that, in general, people are familiar with because they've heard it on the radio, or maybe attended concerts live," Luna said.

Post-pandemic the organization committed to being "more present in the Stockton community," by offering more diverse concerts, she said.

'We are multigenerational'

The final concert will feature all of their five singing groups from their youth to adults ensembles something that is not done for every concert, Luna said.

In addition to the five ensembles there will also be "a band," "a rhythm section" and "a horn section," she said.

The concert will last about an hour and a half.

"Our artistic director, (Bruce) Southard has chosen really great arrangements, where the melody is there, the familiarity is there, but also in a very well done arrangement," Luna said. "There will be some surprise too."

Luna described the final concert of the season as "fun, engaging, and maybe surprising."

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Each conductor will be conducting their own ensembles. The conductors include Joan Calonico for the Stockton Youth Chorale and Valley Youth A Cappella and Ricardo "Ric" Campero for Stockton Singers.

"We are multigenerational, which I think is the beauty of the Stockton Chorale. We start from a student that is age 8 and we have singers that are over 90 years old," Luna said. "The beauty of that is that it creates a family. It creates that our young adults and our youth can still continue their music as young adults and as older adults into all the different phases of adulthood."

'Accessible for everybody'

The Stockton Chorale has been around since 1952, becoming a non-profit organization in 1977. It is "the second oldest arts organization in Stockton," Luna said.

"Our whole mission is that singing should be accessible for everybody and so we have five groups that anybody can join," Luna said. "In those five groups, we have two youth groups for grades third grade through eighth grade, and then a high school group and then we have three different adult groups that any adults can join."

It started with just eight singers in 1952, now the Stockton Chorale has "over 130 singers," Luna said.

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"That's our true mission to ensure that the Stockton Chorale is here for many more generations to come," she added.

Tickets are $25. To purchase tickets visit stocktonchorale.org.

For more information visit the Stockton Chorale at stocktonchorale.org.

Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. To support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Stockton Chorale 72nd season