The Sonora Master Chorale is a group of experienced musicians dedicated to the development and presentation of classical and semi-classical music to the Mother Lode communities. It was conceived in 1996 to feature in the Sonora Bach Festival by its founder and director Melina Cherling. The Chorale has performed with the Mother Lode Friends of Music Orchestra in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Handel's Acis and Galatea, and Handel's Messiah. The chorale has also performed Festival of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tribute to Cole Porter and Gilbert and Sullivan H.M.S. Pinafore, for the Sonora Bach Festival and Requiem and Mass of the Children by John Rutter. In May 2008 the SMC performed the Faure Requiem and an original work, Isaiah 12 by Adrian Wise.
Melina Cherling (conductor and soloist) studied voice and conducting
under Elaine Brown at Temple University. She has given
recitals in the US and abroad and was a member of
the San Francisco Opera Chorus. Locally, she has starred in many shows
at CAR and sings with the Columbia College Community Chorus.
Melina is founder/director of the Sonora Opera Guild and the Sonora
Master Chorale, and is chairperson of the St. James Concert Series and
past director of the Sonora Bach Festival.