Chromatica Performs World Premiere Piece Written by Danville Native

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By Chris Kenber, Resident Since 2011

Chromatica, the popular Danville chorus, will perform the world premiere of Stacy Garrop’s “O Time” at the end of April. Commissioned by Chromatica, “O Time” is a glorious reflection on time, setting poetry by William Butler Yeats, John Milton and Henry Van Dyke to music.

Stacy Garrop graduated from Monte Vista High School in Danville and now lives in Chicago. A prolific and prizewinning composer of choral and instrumental music, she has been commissioned by Chanticleer, the Kronos Quartet, the St. Louis Symphony, the San Francisco Choral Society and many others. She received the 2019 American Academy of Arts and Letters award and the 2018 Barlow prize as well as a 2016 Meier Foundation Achievement Award.

An inside look at a Chromatica rehearsal

Her music is a combination of dramatic and lyrical story telling. She takes her audience on journeys that are at once accessible and compelling. As an example, Stacy composed a particularly lovely piece based upon the husband of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s last letter to his wife, titled “My Dearest Ruth”. It was broadcast on National Public Radio.

She got into composing as a result of her interaction with her music theory teacher at Monte Vista High School. Stacy Garrop, composer of “O Time” “In my junior year of high school, my music theory teacher was a jazz trumpet player, and he said one night to go home and write a piece of music. It was like this door opened that had always been shut,” says Stacy. “So after that I just started writing more and more pieces.” She subsequently earned her Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Music Composition.

In 2017, Chromatica performed her Sorel Medallion-winning composition “Love’s Philosophy” based on poetry by Shelley, Coleridge, Keats and Byron. It liked the piece so much it decided to commission Stacy to write a work it could perform as a world premiere, an unusual and exciting move for a community chorus.

Chromatica was founded in 2011 and has been directed by David Huff ever since. It has performed two three-concert series a year since then, focused on a challenging mix of classical and contemporary works and attracting an enthusiastic audience. Currently comprising 30 singers, male and female, Chromatica has performed with the Diablo Symphony in addition to its regular concerts. It was recently invited to perform a suite of Russian compositions as a part of a concert in Lafayette.

The world premiere of Stacy Garrop’s “O Time” will be performed at concerts on April 27 at Peace Lutheran in Danville, on April 28 at St. Perpetua’s in Lafayette and on May 4 at Grace Presbyterian in Walnut Creek. The concerts will include other pieces based on the theme of time. Composers include Brahms, Barber and Copeland. Details and tickets are available at www. chromaticachorale.org. More information about Stacy Garrop is available at www.garrop.com.