Pacific Edge Voices (formerly The Pacific Mozart Ensemble (PME)) is a volunteer choral organization based in Berkeley, CA. The group was formed to provide a chorus of professional quality for highly skilled and experienced singers who did not wish to make singing a full-time profession. It was to be large enough to perform the major concert literature, but small enough to remain highly selective. PEV presents a wide range of choral musical styles, including, but not limited to, traditional choral literature, new works by contemporary composers and a cappella jazz and pop. PEV performs at least three self-produced concerts sets each year, along with various collaborations, often with prominent artists including

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

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Kent Nagano Kent George Nagano GOQ, MSM (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 20 ...

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. The first and second concerts of the year (typically Nov and March) are classically oriented programs. Over the years these programs have tended toward 20th-century composers. The chorus has become known around the San Francisco Bay Area for its innovative programming. A particular highlight came in 2002 when the chorus performed

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

’s Der Lindberghflug alongside works by

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

and David Lang. The concert was presented in the East Bay on the aircraft carrier Hornet and in San Francisco in the newly constructed Aviation Museum at SFO. The 3rd concert set each year is an all a cappella ‘pops’ concert featuring the group in various formations from 2 up to 50, performing arrangements of jazz, pop, rock, & folk tunes.

Origins

Pacific Edge Voices was formed, as Pacific Mozart Ensemble, in 1980 by members of Berkeley Chorus Pro Musica. The core group of singers had a history of singing together in the SF Bach Choir and the Presidio Protestant Post Chapel Choir. The decision to strike out on their own came when one of the members was informed that since he joined Pro Musica, there was “too much jocularity in the bass section.” Shortly thereafter they reemerged as The Pacific Mozart Ensemble, rehearsing in the then new Julia Morgan Theater (alternate names for the group included the Morgan Tabernacle Choir). First Performance: Sunday, June 28, 1980, 5 P.M.--- Julia Morgan Centre for the Performing Arts, College Avenue, Berkeley, suggested donation $3.50. Bach Cantata #106, "Gottes Zeit ist der allerbeste Zeit"; Songs by John Dowland; Mozart "Vesperae Solennes de Confessore" K.339---

Collaborations

PME had a long history with the

Berkeley Symphony Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer t ...

and

. In 2005 Nagano recruited PME to open the Symphony's season with the Ligeti’s a cappella work ''Lux Aeterna''. Other Berkeley symphony collaborations include Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Oedipus Rex, San Francisco composer David Sheinfeld's The Earth Is a Sounding Board, Busoni's Doktor Faustus, Olivier Messiaen's St. François d'Asisse, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet. In 2006 members of PME performed the world premier of Kurt Rohde’s oratorio, Bitter Harvest. In 2003 PME performed the Bernstein Mass with the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester under the direction of

at the Berlin Philharmonie. In 2005, the

Harmonia Mundi Harmonia Mundi is an independent record label which specializes in classical music, jazz, and world music (on the World Village label). It was founded in France in 1958 and is now a subsidiary of PIAS Entertainment Group. Its Latin name ''ha ...

recording of the concert was nominated for a Grammy. In the 1990s, PME collaborated with

on performances of his oratorios, including “Gates of Justice." In 2006 the relationship was renewed when PME commissioned Brubeck to fill in one of the missing movements of Mozart's Mass in C Minor for their 25th anniversary concert. They collaborated on numerous occasions with

, most recently traveling to New York in 2005 to participate in the 40th Anniversary Concert in

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

as well as a performance at the World Financial Center Winter Garden, broadcast on

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that di ...

. In the fall of 2006, members of PME performed with

at Zellerbach Hall and

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...

Hertz Hall The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

in Berkeley, CA.

Website

Official website
{{Authority control Choirs in the San Francisco Bay Area 1980 establishments in California Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups from Berkeley, California