The Sacramento Choral Calendar

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What Is the Sacramento Choral Calendar?

First, an introduction.  My name is Dick Frantzreb, and I am the past president of the Sierra Community Chorus (now the Pops Chorale and Orchestra) and a lifelong singer in choruses.  I am also a co-founder and past president of the Sacramento Valley Choral Coalition.  In September of 2009, I initiated a website called The Placer Performance Calendar to cover all the performing arts events in South Placer County and Folsom.  I was concerned that quality performances of all kinds were under-patronized, and I wanted to do something about it.

As a lover of choral music, I had become increasingly aware in the summer of 2011 of the abundance and diversity of choral organizations in the greater Sacramento area.  Often I learned of an interesting concert only after it had been given.  The sad fact is that most choral concerts are severely under-publicized.  That's no surprise:  paid advertising is beyond the means of most groups, and coverage in local media is spotty.  Many groups have simply given up on publicity and only announce concerts to their list of past patrons.  In September 2011, I saw this as a problem for which I could provide a solution.

Considering my experience with the Placer Performance Calendar, I felt I could provide a useful service both to those, like myself, who love choral music and to the many singers who have to perform to half-filled houses.  The answer was the Sacramento Choral Calendar.  It organized information from independent and college-affiliated choruses, plus many other organizations that sponsor choral events.  Most of the Calendar's information was collected from systematic monitoring of these organizations' websites (instead of relying on them to volunteer information).  This information was updated at least weekly.

After the Sacramento Choral Calendar was launched in September of 2011, I added extensive information about auditions and reviews of selected performances.  The Audition page was last updated in the summer of 2022.  I wrote and published reviews of concerts from 2012 to 2018, and all the reviews are still accessible in this site.  Starting in 2018, I have published reviews of selected choral concerts, as well as the events or many other performing arts organizations in the Capital Region Performance Gallery.

All my projects were conceived as a community service, but due to lack of interest, I stopped updating all of them at the end of 2022.