The Bellingham Chamber Chorale is pleased to announce the appointment of Frederick Bayani Mabalot as Artistic Director, beginning its 2018-2019 Season.
Mabalot is a composer and choral conductor from Southern California who relocated to the Pacific Northwest two years ago. He is a classically trained pianist and vocalist with the addition of several years training as a conductor. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from California State University, Northridge, and a Bachelor of Music in Composition from The Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia where he graduated with First Class Honours. Mabalot completed graduate studies in composition at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting at University of Washington School of Music in Seattle.
Mabalot has been a member of numerous collegiate and professional choral ensembles and has worked and performed as a choral conductor in the United States, Australia, and Europe. He is currently the Director of Liturgy and Music at Church of the Assumption in Bellingham. He has held choral conducting, organist, and accompanist positions for various churches within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He is the conductor and co-founder of DKDM Voices (The Royal Danish Academy of Music Voices). Mabalot has a keen interest in writing vocal and choral music. His Stabat Mater and other choral works exemplify the emotional intensity and energy he intends to convey in his compositions. His compositions have been performed all over Europe, United States, South Africa, and Asia. Additional information can be found at: frederickbmabalot.com.
The Bellingham Chamber Chorale will open their 2018-2019 season with a concert entitled Radiance with two performances at the historic Church of the Assumption in Bellingham. Radiance will feature luminous music by William Byrd in his simple yet sublime Mass for Four Voices, which was the first of his three great unaccompanied polyphonic settings from the 1590s.
The highlight of the concert will be Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna, accompanied by a chamber orchestra in both Saturday (November 10) and Sunday (November 11) performances. Lauridsen composed Lux Aeterna in 1997 as a requiem for his beloved mother. The five movements center around the theme of light from liturgical Latin texts: perpetual light, light risen in the darkness, Redeemer-born light from light, light of the Holy Spirit, light of hearts, most blessed light, and eternal light. The evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest where Lauridsen experienced endless variations of light was also a great source of inspiration for the composer. The rich texture of Lux Aeterna integrates musical elements of ancient modes, Renaissance polyphony, Romanticism, and modern dissonance. Rutter’s Candlelight Carol, Sheppard’s In pace in idipsum: In pace, Taverner’s Song for Athene, Victoria’s O Magnum Mysterium, Rheinberger’s Abendlied, and a setting of the spiritual This Little Light of Mine will round out this stirring program, emanating Radiance!
Winter 2019 concerts will include Miserere by Gregorio Allegri, Agnus Dei by Krysztof Pendrecki, and a work by the Bellingham Chamber Chorale’s very own conductor, Mabalot, in a program entitled Soul Migrations. The season will close in Spring 2019, with an electrifying program entitled Euphoria! which will include a performance of Mozart’s Coronation Mass in C with orchestra and soloists.
Founded in 2003 by WWU Professor Timothy Fitzpatrick, the Bellingham Chamber Chorale continues to strive to fulfill its mission: touching lives through memorable, life-changing experiences by presenting diverse, challenging and eclectic choral concerts to entertain and inspire our audiences and members and bring world-class musical experiences to our Pacific Northwest community.