The sound of original choral compositions will fill First Baptist Church of Pasadena on May 20 as local teenagers showcase music that reflects their unique perspectives and experiences. The ninth annual “Listening to the Future” concert represents the culmination of months of creative work between student composers and professional mentors.
“Young people have important things to say, and we live in a world that doesn’t always listen to what they have to say,” said Jeffrey Bernstein, founding artistic and executive director of Pasadena Chorale. “And the pieces that they write really reflect what’s going on in our community right now.”
Since launching in 2016, the program has premiered over 80 original pieces written by more than 30 high school composers, primarily from Blair High School and California School of Arts – San Gabriel Valley. This year’s concert will feature works by four student composers, three of whom are new to the program.
The initiative addresses a fundamental challenge for young composers. “I’m a composer myself, and when I was in high school and even beyond that, it was very, very hard to get people to perform your music,” Bernstein explained. “Generally, people want to perform your music if you’re an established composer.”
What makes choral music particularly valuable as a learning experience, Bernstein noted, is that “there’s no sampling or synthesizer that can reproduce the sound of a human voice in any way that’s comparable to the real thing. And also, choirs are social organizations, so writing music for a choir is communicating with a whole group of people.”
The compositions often provide a window into the concerns and experiences of younger generations. During the pandemic, students continued meeting with mentors via Zoom. “A year and a half later when we were able to come back together and sing those pieces, every one of them had some element in it. It was about loneliness or fear or separation or anxiety,” Bernstein said.
Professional composer mentors, including Pasadena-based Jen Wang and internationally awarded composer Nilo Alcala, guide students through the composition process from October to May. Many program alumni have gone on to study composition at prestigious institutions including Yale, University of Michigan, Columbia, Berkeley, UCLA and USC.
The Pasadena Chorale, legally registered as the Pasadena Master Chorale Association and operating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit since June 2009, keeps all its programming free for participants and audiences. This accessibility model is supported by donations and grants, which constitute 87.3% of the organization’s annual revenue.
“We’re committed actually to all of our concert programming and educational programming being offered to the public for free,” said Bernstein. “Instead of asking a patron to invest money in a ticket and coming to hear the performance, we say, all you have to invest is your time.”
According to fiscal 2024 financials, the Pasadena Chorale reported revenue of $181,885, expenses of $147,124, and net assets of $100,680. Key funding partners include the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, LA County Department of Arts and Culture, and Pasadena Community Foundation.
This year marks the first time the event will be held at First Baptist Church. “It’s a beautiful space there and so centrally located in the heart of Old Town,” Bernstein said.
The organization has developed a partnership with Pasadena Unified School District, bringing choral music education into classrooms. Looking ahead, Bernstein said they are exploring “a way to offer a version of this for college-age students, the next level, so that they can also have a chance to hear their music sung live by a choir.”
In an era of budgetary constraints for arts programs, the concert highlights the importance of supporting young artists and fostering artistic development within communities.
“Just to reiterate how important it is that we give young people a voice,” Bernstein concluded. “We like to think that these young composers, some of them are going to end up writing choral music more extensively and professionally as they move into their careers. And it’s exciting that we’ve been a place that’s given them a first chance to try that out.”
The ninth annual Listening to the Future concert will take place Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Pasadena, 75 N. Marengo Ave., Pasadena. The concert is free to attend. More information: pasadenachorale.org or (626) 208-0009.
