Concert Information

2023-24 SEASON

Time to Turn the Page

Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 4pm

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church

2650 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park

Collage Vocal Ensemble presents its Spring concert at 4 pm on Sunday, April 21, at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park. The theme of our concert, "Time to Turn the Page" explores how the passage of time rules our lives and leads us to ask what comes next?  With composers and styles as varied as Haydn, Joni Mitchell and Benjamin Britten, we look at various inflection points in life.  We’ll tap into nostalgia for our youth in a song by Brahms and we will mourn a lost son in Tomkin’s “When David Heard,” composed four centuries ago. We’ll move on from a relationship that might have been in Lennon & McCartney’s “I’ll Follow the Sun” and marvel at a blissful marriage in Ben Fold’s ballad “The Luckiest.”  So come and join us to allow us to share this rich and diverse palette of music with you.

We ask for $20. All proceeds will go to LifeMoves, a local charity addressing the problem of homelessness.

A Musical Journey

Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 4pm

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church

2650 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park

Join us as we embark on a journey - letting music transport us. With compositions from Leonard Bernstein, Gerald Finzi, Edward Elgar and Pentatonix, we’ll visit Speyer in Germany to hear the bells. We’ll visit Finland with Finlandia by Jean Sibelius. We’ll travel by train and invite you to “Come Fly with Me”. We’ll sit by a clear and gentle stream in England and travel in the Sloop John B. in the Bahamas.

We ask for $20. All proceeds will go to LifeMoves, a local charity addressing the problem of homelessness.

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Concert History:

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Eat, Sleep, Breathe

Sunday April 30, 2023 at 4 pm

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church

2650 Sand Hill Rd.  Menlo Park

Choristers often seem like they love singing so much that they might say they eat, sleep and breathe music. We in Collage Vocal Ensemble are no different. We love singing and will present a concert on Sunday, April 30th at 4 PM at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church. entitled “Eat, Sleep and Breathe Music”. The concert will include “classical” music about eating, sleeping and breathing from Eric Whitacre and five other living composers as well as compositions by Randall Thompson, Vaughan Williams, Brahms, and 16th-century composer Orlando di Lasso. The concert also includes jazzy music coming from ’40s swing, ’60s Broadway, ’70s rock, and Latin genres.

The entrance fee is $20 with all proceeds going to LifeMoves, an organization on the Peninsula which is providing vital support for those who are homeless or at risk.

We will be performing this concert without masks.  We will be testing before rehearsals and the concert.  For the audience, masks are optional, yet encouraged.

Spring Will Come

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church

2650 Sand Hill Rd.  Menlo Park

Jan 29, 2023, 4pm

We continue our tradition of presenting a wonderful mix of styles from a diverse set of composers. The program opens with an adaptation of “Spring will come again” by Leonard Bernstein; later in the concert we sing jazz standards such as “Skylark” by Hoagy Carmichael and “They say it's Spring” by Bob Haynes. Add a little Vivaldi, a dash of Carl Orff, a Dolly Parton song and a piece by Ērik Ešenvalds and you’ll leave with a “spring” in your step.

We request a $20 donation per person. Proceeds will be donated to “Life Moves”, a Bay Area organization doing vital work in finding solutions to homelessness.

In accordance with the policy at St. Bede’s, the chorus will sing masked; masking is optional for audience members.

Come help us usher in Spring!

2022 SEASON

All Together Now

Valley Presbyterian Church, 945 Portola Rd. in Portola Valley

May 15, 2022, 4pm

We’re back singing with each other and we love it! We’d love to share our joy with you as well. Let us treat you to a wonderful array of choral music.

On the program is our usual mix of classical and pop choral music. At the center of the program is the Bach motet “Lobet den Herrn” sung in English translation. Pop numbers include “Eleanor Rigby”, “Stand by me”, “Let’s do it” and “Stormy weather”. We’ll sing a George Shearing setting of the Shakespeare text “It was a lover and his lass” as well as Renaissance pieces by Sweelinck, Bennet and Victoria.

For your and our safety, you will be required to wear a mask and show full vaccination status.

We look forward to performing for you.

Admission free; suggested donation $20; all donations will benefit LifeMoves – Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness in the Bay Area.

2019-2020 SEASON

Music of the Spheres

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park

November 24, 2019, 4pm

For our ninth season, Collage Vocal Ensemble takes inspiration from that most wonderful shape, the sphere, with music by Kirke Mechem, Charles Wood, Ross Lee Finney, and Harry Belafonte among others. We continue our tradition of mixing classical and popular music styles in programs of kaleidoscopic variety and mixing music for the whole ensemble with songs for women, for men, and for trios and quartets. Our audiences always have a great time, and so do we!  Admission free; suggested donation $15; all donations will benefit LifeMoves – Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness in San Mateo County; contributions taken at the door or online at http://stbedesmenlopark.org/arts-series/

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Spring Awakening

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park

April 26, 2019, 4pm

Spring Awakening — Poets and composers alike love to celebrate the coming of spring with its flowers and showers, young love, and new life. So, too, does Collage Vocal Ensemble. We offer a rich garden of musical delights in our spring program, emphasizing folk music from around the world. As always, artistic director Rafael Ornes has chosen choral music by living composers, famous composers from the past, and arrangements of popular songs of yesteryear and our own time. Join Collage Vocal Ensemble in opening hearts and ears to all that spring has to offer. Admission free; suggested donation $15; all donations will benefit the Music in the Schools Foundation; contributions taken at the door or online at http://stbedesmenlopark.org/arts-series/

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2018-2019 SEASON

Close Encounters

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park

Free Admission - $15 suggested donation, proceeds benefit LifeMoves -- breaking the cycle of homelessness.

November 18, 2018, 4:00pm

For our 8th season, Collage Vocal Ensemble continues the tradition of mixing many classical and popular music styles in programs of kaleidoscopic variety. We also mix music for the whole ensemble with songs for women, for men, and for trios and quartets. Our audiences always have a great time, and so do we. The program “Close Encounters” explores collisions between cultures, crossovers between musical genres, and more personal encounters. This time artistic director Rafael Ornes will have some fun with what can happen when genres mix within a song or one culture collides with another, for example, when a jazz composer borrows a theme from a Romantic composer, when a composer arranges a folk tune or a medieval chant, when Latin rhythms transform a Tin Pan Alley tune, and who knows what else. 

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The Four Elements

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park

Free Admission - $15 suggested donation, proceeds benefit Music In The Schools Foundation.

April 7, 2019, 4:00pm

Collage Vocal Ensemble with artistic director Rafael Ornes looks at the natural world with songs about the four classical elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Another foursome of elements found on every Collage program are choral music by living composers, works by well-known composers from the past, popular music of yesteryear, and arrangements of popular music from our own time. Combining within the musical collage, as well, are four types of choral sound: the whole ch

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2017-2018 SEASON

Light and Shadow

November 19, 2017, 4:00pm

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park

Free Admission - $15 suggested donation, proceeds benefit LifeMoves -- breaking the cycle of homelessness.

With its characteristic mix of musical styles, Collage Vocal Ensemble presents pieces that rejoice in the light and examine what may lurk in the shadows. Composers range from old masters (Victoria, Rheinberger, Barber) to contemporary ones (Eric Whitacre, Ola Gjeilo, Duke Ellington and James Taylor). Please come and join us! 

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Love Makes the World Go ‘Round

Sunday, May 6, 2018 4:00pm

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park

Free Admission - $15 suggested donation, proceeds benefit Music In The Schools Foundation.

Where in the world might you like to travel? Collage Vocal Ensemble will take you on a journey rejoicing in this wonderful emotion common to peoples everywhere.  Proceeds from the concert will be donated to Music in the Schools Foundation.

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2016-2017 SEASON

The Many Modes of May

Sunday, May 21, 2016 - 4:00 PM

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park

Free Admission - $15 suggested donation, proceeds benefit Music in the Schools Foundation.

In our spring concert under the leadership of Rafael Ornes, singers of the Collage Vocal Ensemble will present pieces that explore the month of May with its wondrous fair skies as well as its days of rain. We sing music that touches on events in May such as Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. We close the concert with a fun look at another aspect of the word May, namely mayday, mayday!

Join us for an afternoon of music spanning a wonderful variety of styles. And, meet us at a reception following the concert.

The Music in the Schools Foundation, through music literacy and achievement, is dedicated to promoting the intellectual, social, and cultural development of underserved students of the Ravenswood City School District. The organization provides classroom and after-school music instruction in East Palo Alto for almost 1,500 students in pre-school through fifth grade.  To learn more, visit the website at:http://www.musicintheschools.org.

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Seasons of the Heart

Sunday, November 20th, 2016 - 4:00 PM

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church , 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park 

Free admission - $15 suggested donation, proceeds benefit Life Moves (formerly InnVision) 

Reception to follow 

The twenty singers of Collage Vocal Ensemble will evoke emotions of the heart associated with the four seasons of nature: the resolve of Winter, the nostalgia of Fall, the ardor of Summer, and the joy of Spring.  As the heart knows no bounds, we draw songs from classical composers of the present and past, and from arrangers of vocal jazz and tunes from the ‘60s.

Rafel Ornes, director

Yi Wang, accompanist

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2015-2016 SEASON

Heavenly Bodies

Sunday, November 8th, 2015 - 4:00 PM

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park 

Free admission - $15 suggested donation 

Reception to follow 

The fall program, Heavenly Bodies, celebrates the beauty and power of bodies both celestial and physical, and features works by Monteverdi, Mozart, Urmas Sisask, Jonathan Dove, and the Beatles.

Heavenly Virtues, Deadly Sins

Sunday, May 1st, 2015 - 4:00 PM

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church , 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park 

Free admission - $15 suggested donation 

Reception to follow 

Did you know that there are Seven Heavenly Virtues, one for each of the Seven Deadly Sins? Practice Caritas (Charity), and you will be protected from the sin of Avaritia (Greed). Observe Temperantia(Temperance), and you can avoid the sin of Gula (Gluttony). Act with Humilitas (Humility) to evade the trap of Superbia (Pride). The Collage Vocal Ensemble will explore the complete list of Virtues in a concert performance at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Menlo Park on Sunday, May 1st at 4pm. You will be inspired and uplifted! But, in order to avoid the cardinal sin of Taedium (Boredom), we’re throwing in the Seven Deadly Sins, too. Please join us for an exciting program on Virtues and Sins, featuring music by Handel, Haydn, Bruckner, Elgar, Gorecki, Spencer, and more. All net proceeds from the concert will be donated to the Music in the Schools Foundation.

The Music in the Schools Foundation, through music literacy and achievement, is dedicated to promoting the intellectual, social, and cultural development of underserved students of the Ravenswood City School District. The organization provides classroom and after-school music instruction in East Palo Alto for almost 1,500 students in pre-school through fifth grade.  To learn more, visit the website at:http://www.musicintheschools.org.

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2014-2015 SEASON

There Was a Tree: Songs of Flowers, Trees, Birds and Bees

Sunday, May 3rd, 2015 - 3:00 PM 

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church , 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park 

Free admission - $15 suggested donation 

Reception to follow 

Another dry winter has come and gone, but miraculously nature prevails – heralding the arrival of spring with bursts of pink cherry blossoms and the vivid green of new, budding leaves. While drought is a time to conserve water, it is also a time to appreciate – perhaps more deeply than ever – the richness and beauty of the natural world around us.  

The Collage Vocal Ensemble invites you to join us in a celebration of all things botanical on Sunday, May 3rd, 3pm at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Menlo Park. The chorus will present a varied and entertaining program of choral and small ensemble works: romantic English part songs by Holst, Bridge, and Vaughan Williams; Eric Whitacre’s lush and thrilling Three Flower Songs; close-harmony jazz standards by Cole Porter and Joseph Kosma; Broadway hits from Lucy Simon’s The Secret Garden and Bernstein’s Candide; plus, songs by Jean Ritchie, the Andrews Sisters, Paul Rudoi, Wade Hemsworth, Michael Hennagin, Stephen Chatman, and Chauncey Olcott. CVE is particularly proud to present one of the first public performances of “Water Lilies,” an ethereal setting of the Sara Teasdale poem by Bay Area composer, Raymond Chen.  All net proceeds from the concert will be donated to the Music in the Schools Foundation.

The Music in the Schools Foundation, through music literacy and achievement, is dedicated to promoting the intellectual, social, and cultural development of underserved students of the Ravenswood City School District. The organization provides classroom and after-school music instruction in East Palo Alto for almost 1,500 students in pre-school through fifth grade.  To learn more, visit the website at: http://www.musicintheschools.org.

A condensed version of this concert program will also be presented on Friday, May 8th.

Friday, May 8th, 2015 – 7:00 PM

The Sequoias Retirement Community Hanson Hall , 501 Portola Road, Portola Valley 

Free Admission

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"The New Year: Pondering Eternity with a Nice Stiff Drink"

Sunday November 16, 2014 at 3:00 pm 

St. Bede's Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Rd., Menlo Park, CA

Free admission - $15 suggested donation to benefit the InnVision Shelter Network.

Reception to follow

“…it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

Do you remember that great scene at the end of When Harry Met Sally? True, Harry’s love for Sally was years in the making – it didn’t happen just because of New Year’s Eve – but it’s also no coincidence that he experienced his life-changing epiphany on that most outwardly frivolous of holidays.  The end of the old year, and the arrival of the new, is celebrated in virtually every culture and continent around the world.  While in the West it is today most closely associated with late-night debauchery, in all cultures, the New Year is a time for both celebration and introspection. It is a time to take stock of one’s life, and make resolutions to live better in the coming year.  It is a time to honestly consider one’s sins, and ask for forgiveness.  It is a time to remember what really matters in life – family, friends, faith, love – and to honor these things. It is a time to be mindful, and to be grateful.

On Sunday, November 16th at 3pm, the Collage Vocal Ensemble honors the rich and diverse celebrations surrounding the New Year in Jewish, Christian and secular traditions with a concert performance at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Menlo Park.  The program features beloved chestnuts from the Yom Kippur service, including Janowski’s “Avinu Malkeinu” and Russotto’s “Kol Nidre,” as well as festive works by Maurice Goldman and Pulitzer Prize-winner, Shulamit Ran.  Parry’s “Welcome, Yule!” rings in the New Year with cheerful abandon; Barber’s “Twelfth Night” broods ominously on the darkest night of winter, but finds hope in the birth of the Christ, and early signs of spring. We are urged to make haste and toast the passing year in wonderful small-ensemble works by Rossini and Stanford, while Schumann’s setting of “Auld Lang Syne” recalls old friends and years past with sentimental longing.  And of course, this concert wouldn’t be complete without Frank Loesser’s “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”.  The program also features works by Warlock, Vaughan Williams, Nicky Mehta, and the Wailin’ Jennys.  All net proceeds from the concert will be donated to the InnVision Shelter Network.

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 2013-2014 SEASON

Angels and Monsters

Saturday, November 9th

8:00 PM

Christ Episcopal Church, 1040 Border Rd, Los Altos, CA

Free Admission - $15 suggested donation to benefit the Community Services Agency of Mountain View

Reception to follow

Friday, November 15th – 7:00 PM

Hanson Hall, The Sequoias, 501 Portola Road, Portola Valley

Free admission

Halloween’s ghosts and ghouls come face to face with the celestial heralds of the Christmas season in the Collage Vocal Ensemble’s fall 2013 concert titled, “Angels and Monsters.”  Ranks of six-winged seraphim and cherubim inspire awe and wonder in Kurt Erickson’s “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” and Jonathan Quick’s fantastic double-chorus work, “Angels From Heaven Came.”  A different sort of angel – an alluring lover – inspired Landin’s 13th-century balata, “Angelica beltá,” as well as Gershwin’s lush ballad, “Someone To Watch Over Me.”  In contrast, a ravenous horde of genies, vampires and dragons descends upon a peaceful town in Gabriel Fauré’s virtuosic setting of Victor Hugo’s “Les Djinns” (“The Genies”).  A unicorn, a serpent, a pelican, a phoenix, a hydra, a crocodile and a lion all inhabit Ola Gjeilo’s allegorical “Unicornis captivatur.”  A brave church Deacon encounters four giant ghost cats in Jester Hairston’s “That Old House is Ha’nted,” while an old cowpoke is warned to stay on the straight and narrow in the classic “Ghost Riders in the Sky.”  The program also includes works by Handl, Byrd, Verdi, Callcott, Cardoso, and Orbán.

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Five Scientifically Proven Signs You're In Love

Amy Stuart Hunn, Artistic Director

Yi Wang, Collaborative Pianist 

Sunday, March 30th, 2014 - 2:00 PM

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, 2650 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park

Free admission - $15 suggested donation to benefit There With Care

Reception to follow

You’ve just met someone special.  You think this might even be LOVE – but how can you be sure?  Naturally, your first thought will be to turn to your trusted local chamber choir to help you figure it out.  But, proceed with caution!  Do you really need to hear yet another sentimental concert program extolling the glories of romantic love, complete with roses, rainbows, and the usual allusions to spring?  No!  This is the 21st century, and what you need are some cold, hard, scientific facts. 

The Collage Vocal Ensemble is here to help.  Join us on Sunday, March 30th at 2:00 p.m. at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Menlo Park for a concert performance both entertaining and edifying!  Drawing upon our extensive research into more than 500 years’ worth of choral repertoire, we will highlight five “scientifically” proven signs you’re in love.  Composers such as Gerald Finzi, Stephen Foster, Thomas Morley, and Claude Debussy knew a thing or two about amour.  P.D.Q. Bach, Gustav Holst, and John Clements have insights to add, as well.  But, that’s not all.  Once you know you’re in love, what then?  Find out what our research – based upon authoritative choral settings on the subject by experts including Lionel Daunais, Paul Sjolund, Benjamin Britten, Gwyneth Walker and Nathan Christensen – indicates are the three most likely outcomes of True Love.  (Hint: you don’t want to be on the business end of a Murder Ballad.)  You really can’t afford to miss this once-in-a-lifetime performance.  Your love life may never be the same again!

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2012-2013

The Journey Home

Songs of Travel and Homecoming

Friday, May 3rd, 2013, 8:00 PM

Trinity United Methodist Church, 581 East Fremont Avenue, Sunnyvale

The Los Altos-based Collage Vocal Ensemble and director Amy Stuart Hunn will present a varied and engaging spring concert at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Sunnyvale, CA on Friday, May 3rd at 8:00 pm.  The program explores the themes of travel and homecoming through the music of American and British composers.  Whether exalting the joy of Christ’s ascension to heaven in Stanford’s double choir motet, “Coelos Ascendit Hodie,” or giving a swinging rendition of the cradle’s fall from the tree in Michelle Weir’s vocal jazz arrangement of “Rock-a-Bye Baby,” the program itself is a journey through numerous musical styles and traditions – from classical church motets, to popular Beatles arrangements, to early American shape-note tunes, to African-American spirituals.  We hope you will join us for an evening of great music and great fun!  Admission is free.

The Collage Vocal Ensemble is a select chamber choir dedicated to performing compelling, challenging repertoire from a wide range of time periods and musical traditions.  Founded in May, 2011, the Los Altos-based group presents a mix of full-ensemble and small-ensemble works in its concerts, and donates all net proceeds to local charitable organizations.  For more information, please visit our website at: www.collagevocalensemble.org.

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2011-2012

Déjà Vu

An Evening of Unexpected Expectation

Thursday, November 8th, 2012, 8:00 PM

Ladera Community Church, 3300 Alpine Road, Portola Valley

This fall the sixteen members of the Collage Vocal Ensemble, joined by Artistic Director Amy Stuart Hunn and pianist Yi Wang, will present two concerts in one!  The first half features Johannes Brahms’s exquisite Vier Quartette, Op.92 for chorus and piano, as well as full- and small-ensemble works by Gian Carlo Menotti, John Rutter, J. S. Bach, Percy Grainger, and Stephen Foster.  With the opening of the second half, the audience may begin to notice that sensation of unexpected familiarity known as déjà vu: each successive piece is connected by text or theme to its corollary in the first half.  The latter half of the program includes excerpts from Ralph Vaughan Williams’s rousing cantata, In Windsor Forest, as well as Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music; plus, works by Benjamin Britten, Gustav Holst, Zoltán Kodály, Franz Josef Haydn and Toivo Kuula.

Please join the CVE for an evening of great music with an unexpected (and yet somehow strangely familiar…) twist!

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On With the Dance!