Upcoming Performances
March 28, 2009 11:00Am
Maiko’s 8th Annual Girlfriend Appreciation Day at Mexican Heritage Plaza, Glass Pavilion, tickets $25 at door
June 6th, 2009 at 7:pm
Annual concert at the Chai House suggested $10 Donation
Invite us to sing at your event!
Performance History
We’ve sung at the San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum, the WILPF International Peace Faire, the San Jose Peace Center to name a few places. We’ve sung alone, with other choirs and even with Pete Seeger. See some of our gig history below.
Here is a link to a video from our 2008 annual concert click here
Here is a link to a video from our 2009 annual concert click here
Note: these are roughly in chronological order, not in order of importance!
| 11/18/1988 | Sang 3 songs at Le Baron Hotel in San Jose, for the Santa Clara Valley Community Leadership Prayer Breakfast honoring Dorothy and Robert De Bolt. This was before about 1,000 people, including the Mayor of San Jose. |
| 12/8/1991 | Performed with Lisa Atkinson at the De Anza Hotel in San Jose, in an evening Fundraiser for Hospice. Chorale member and hospice nurse Julie Dutton was the liaison person. The ceremony was very moving, by a Christmas tree with cards and photos of hospice patients and in front of their family members. |
| 12/14/1991 | And for every year thereafter the PC performed at the Holiday Peace Fair in San Jose. |
| 2/2/1992 | Joined Pete and Peggy Seeger, and the San Jose Young Adult Gospel Choir, at Foothill College in an evening benefit concert for the San Jose Peace Center and The Collins Foundation. Pete sent the chorale several songs to learn ahead of time, including a four-part version of Somos El Barco that he said no audience had ever mastered! |
| Here are some anecdotes and bits of wisdom, several of which Pete used later in the evening concert, that he shared with us during our afternoon rehearsal: | |
| * His suggestion of a motto for the world was “Plan, but plan for improvisation.” He said this saying came from jazz, but it also fit our concert, since partly due to our lengthy rehearsal our chorale never got a sound check. This motto also reminded me of my favorite Woody Guthrie quotation, also used by Pete, “Take it easy, but take it.” | |
| * Pete passed on humorist Russell Baker’s speculation that if Walt Whitman came back today, he would not write, “I hear America singing”. Rather, he would write that he saw America listening to expert music on marvelous Japanese equipment. David Dunaway wrote in his biography How Can I Keep From Singing: Pete Seeger, “In Sing Out!, Pete introduced songs he hoped would catch on, including one from the Georgia Sea Islands, ‘Michael Row Your Boat Ashore.’ He suggested people set up singing groups in each other’s houses: Hold pot-lucks and sing! If Pete had run the land, these clubs might have been a unit of government.” | |
| * In encouraging us chorale members to interrupt him with questions or comments, Pete told of Winston Churchill’s response when he was asked if he minded hecklers. Churchill said that he didn’t mind them as long as he had the microphone. | |
| * Pete shared some of his musical knowledge, such as the philosophical observation that all of the seeds in a pair of maracas make up the sound even though only one is exactly on the beat. Another observation was more bittersweet. Pete said that when he started having trouble with his voice he sought help from a voice teacher. She told him, too late, that all the years singing with his head thrown back probably permanently hurt his voice due to the strain on his vocal chords and neck muscles. | |
| * Pete’s egalitarian spirit showed up in several ways. For example, he requested that our chorale wear street clothes instead of our more formal attire, so as to narrow the gap between audience and performers. In addition, he told us during the rehearsal that he had unsuccessfully tried to get co-performer Bob Reid to have equal billing for the concert with him and Pete’s sister Peggy Seeger. | |
| 12/17/1992 | Sang holiday songs in the evening in a dormitory in the men’s homeless shelter in San Jose. Our Director Marty Peterson changed repertoire midstream, as the men were very quiet and reflective, thinking of past, more joyful Christmases. A big hit afterwards was the box of chocolates a niece gave me that I brought as an afterthought. Many men clearly hadn’t had such a treat in a long time. |
| 9/26/1993 | Performed at the Friends (Quakers) Harvest Festival at Hidden Villa Ranch in Los Altos. The chorale sang at several other such festivals, that were benefits for the Friends Committee on Legislation. |
| 10/3/1993 | Performed at the Sunday morning service of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Jose. The chorale performed many other times at this church, an also at the Los Gatos Unitarian Universalist Church. In the mid-90s the PC performed in the United Nations Association Spring Benefit Concert at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Carmel. This included accompanying Joel Andrews in his song Unitas Eanokee, an anthem sung in the Eanokeean language, which the composer “channeled from the angels”. |
| 1/16/1995 | Martin Luther King holiday, the PC sang at the San Jose Caltrain station, before some members boarded the Freedom Train for San Francisco. The following year chorale member Janet Joyce joined other members by going on the Freedom Train in her wheelchair. |
| 6/25/1995 | Performed on the main stage at the San Francisco Free Folk Festival, at Roosevelt Middle School. The chorale performed at this festival several other years too. |
| 3/16/1996 | Joined Vukani Mawethu and First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Jose members in a Memorial for chorale member Janet Joyce at Le Petit Trianon. |
| 3/8/1997 | Sang in a Celebration of Janet Joyce’s Life at the De Rose Gardens in San Jose. Vukani Mawethu from Oakland also sang, as Janet had joined their chorus after they were the PC co-performers in 1995. Janet did this even though they rehearsed in Berkeley and she had terminal breast cancer. Janet’s will bequeathed a substantial amount of money to the Peace Chorale, to be used as it saw fit. |
| 11/16/2002 | Sang at the 20th Anniversary benefit event for the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, founded by one of our members at the time, Ted Smith. |
| 2/28/2001 | Performed in the Music@Noon series of free concerts at Santa Clara University. |
| 2/26/2006 | Performed at the church of one of our former members, Marilyn |
| 3/11/2006 | Performed at Blake’s Restaurant as part of a volunteer recognition event for the League of Women Voters |
| 6/8/2006 | Free concert for Chai House residents to thank them for lending us their dining room for our weekly rehearsals. |
| 3/11/2007 | Great joint concert with another community choir directed by Diane James. Held at Campbell 1st United Methodist Church |
| 3/28/2007 | Memorial for Gertrude Welch, a well-known local peace activist at 1st United Methodist Church of Campbell |
| 5/6/2007 | Performed as part of the center’s Volunteer Recognition event at Georgia Travis Center for homeless women/families |
| 5/26/2007 | We performed as part of a celebration of Richy Aspinwal’s life. Richy was a founding member of the Peace Chorale. |
| 5/31/2007 | Annual free concert to Chai House residents. |
| Annual concerts up to 2002 (when & where, title, director, unusual co-performers) | |
| 11/6/1988 | At Congregation Beth David in Saratoga, A Choral Concert, Ilan Glasman, Congregation Beth David Choir |
| 11/18/1989 | At Mother Olsen’s Inn in San Jose, Music for Peace, Ilan Glasman |
| 12/9/1990 | At Mother Olsen’s/Le Petite Trianon, Songs of Peace & Songs of Joy, Phoebe Pinney-Fazio |
| 5/18/1991 | at Mother Olsen’s Inn, For the Beauty of the Earth, Phoebe Pinney-Fazio, Los Mestizos |
| 1/25/1992 | At Mother Olsen’s Inn, With One Strong Voice, Bob Wells, Lisa Atkinson |
| 6/13/1992 | At Mother Olsen’s Inn, Musical Potpourri for Peace, Bob Wells |
| Note that this year there were two “annual” concerts | |
| 4/24/1993 | At Mother Olsen’s Inn, Music Across Borders, Marty Peterson, Peace Child Santa Cruz |
| 4/30/1994 | At Mother Olsen’s Inn, An Evening of Music with Our Friends, Marty Peterson, Kanay and Lisa Atkinson & George Kincheloe |
| 4/30/1995 | At Cambrian Park United Methodist Church, Songs of Struggle & Songs of Hope, Marty Peterson, Vukani Mawethu and the Bay Area Bahá’i Worship |
| 4/27/1996 | At Cambrian Park United Methodist Church, Weaving the Fabric of Peace, Corliss Greene, the Samoan Fellowship Youth Choir |
| 4/26/1997 | At Cambrian Park United Methodist Church, Within Our Reach, Corliss Greene, Lisa Atkinson & George Kincheloe |
| 4/25/1998 | At Cambrian Park United Methodist Church, A Decade of Songs about Peace & Justice, Corliss Greene, slide presentation of Paul Robeson’s “Ballad for Americans” |
| 4/24/1999 | At Cambrian Park United Methodist Church, We Can Build a Bridge, Corliss Greene |
| 4/28/2001 | At Cambrian Park United Methodist Church, We Will Not Be Silent, Paul Prochaska |
| 4/20/2002 | At Cambrian Park United Methodist Church, Music is Peace for the World, Paul Prochaska |
| 6/11/2006 | At Chai House |
| 6/3/20076/08/2008
8/09/2008 10/11/2008 12/02/2008 12/06/2008 |
At Chai HouseAt Chai House
Children’s Discovery Museum Day in the Park at Lake Cuningham World Aids Day December 2nd 2008 Peace Fair December 6th, 2008 |
