Tonight the Throckmorton Chorus presents their annual Spring Concert! Join us for an evening of enriching music and amazing talent. The Throckmorton Chorus, directed by Richard McKinley with pianist Allegra Chapman, celebrates the art of choral music and the pursuit of choral excellence in repertoire and performance.
Complementary Admission – Champagne Meet & Greet reception will follow the concert. Donations to support our programs are welcome and appreciated.
Richard McKinley (Director) has been a member of the Throckmorton Chorus since its inception, and became its Director in February 2015. He earned a BA in musical composition from Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA, and sang in the Glee Club for four years. He also sang in several Los Angeles area choruses, including the LA Mens Chorus and the Youth Symphony Chorus under Michael Tilson Thomas. While pursuing a career in finance, Richard moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1982 and has sung with many choirs in the Bay Area, including four years with the Festival Singers / Marin Symphony Chorus and four years with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Richard is also an experienced arranger, and the Chorus has sung several of his choral arrangements.
Pianist Allegra Chapman has been described as “brilliant” by the San Francisco Classical Voice. She is dedicated to engaging with new audiences as both performer and presenter. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at Alice Tully Hall, in the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, and at festivals including New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival and Bard Music Festival. Her performances have been broadcast on WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, and KALW San Francisco. Allegra performs regularly with local San Francisco ensembles and has collaborated with musicians Blair McMillan, Ian Swensen, and members of International Contemporary Ensemble and the Orion String Quartet. In addition to her performing career, Allegra enjoys a thriving teaching studio and has coached chamber music ensembles at many institutions, including San Francisco State University. She recently joined the faculty of the Xi’an International Music Festival in Xi’an, China.
Bass Section Leader Tim Silva is an active performer, teacher, and collaborator in a wide range of settings. Since completing degrees in composition and vocal music education, Tim has recorded with some of the Bay Area’s most elite chamber choruses (AVE, Volti, SF Choral Artists) as well on the debut albums of Briget Boyle and Nick Hours. This summer, he made his debut with Chalice Consort and also sang with the Russian National Orchestra in Volti’s Festival Chorus. He performs regularly with several independent artists as a drummer/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist, and also is one-third of the folk-pop trio Iron Henry. He teaches group classes, and private lessons; general music, choral music, music theory, and vocal technique; preschoolers, senior citizens, and everyone in between.
Tenor Section Leader Jonah Hopton has studied voice and composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and sang in the chorus there under Ragnar Bohlin. He has sung in choirs for many years, and has worked with a wide variety of musicians performing both his compositions and other works.
Alto Section Leader Britt La Gatta Brit began studying piano at age 5 with John Ludlow in his little studio near Old Mill Park. Her first singing experience was in the choir of Church of our Savior. After graduating from The Branson School and Sarah Lawrence College, where she majored in music and met her husband Lou, a native New Yorker, Britt lived in New York City, where she sang with Amato Opera on the Bowery and New York Grand Opera in Central Park. In 1986 Britt and Lou moved back to Marin, and they have lived in Corte Madera since. They own Marin Realty Group in Larkspur.
A busy freelance singer, for twelve years Britt was the soprano soloist at Old First Church in San Francisco. She has also been a soloist at Notre Dame de Victoires, The Cathedral of St. Mary, St. Patrick’s Church in San Francisco, St. Stephen’s in Belvedere, the Community Church of Mill Valley, and St. Mary the Virgin, where she was Children’s Choir Director for two years. She is well-known to Marin audiences as a frequent soloist with the Marin Symphony Chorus at the popular holiday concerts at St. Raphael’s, and has sung with the Dominican University Chorus. She also works as an assistant organ tuner and repairperson for Hupalo & Repasky Organ Builders. Britt recently transitioned to mezzo soprano, and has sung jazz with the Rob Ellis Trio at the Trident in Sausalito and Sorella’s in Fairfax. She is the alto section leader of the 142 Throckmorton Chorus and one of its founding members. She maintains a busy teaching schedule in Marin and San Francisco, and has for several years been a guest artist in the Tamalpais High School Music Department. Britt is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and Music Teachers’ Association of California.
A native of San Rafael, Soprano Section Leader, Katrina Zosseder, graduated from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin in 2014 with degrees in Vocal Performance and Anthropology. She frequently performs in the chamber music setting both on voice and violin, giving recitals around the Bay Area, and singing with St. Dominic’s Schola Cantorum as a section leader. Katrina also greatly enjoys performing and studying Celtic music. She had the opportunity to conduct pilot research in Ireland focused on traditional music, which culminated in her Anthropology capstone, “Reels, Apps, Youtube: Changing Performance Practices in Irish Session Music.” She currently enjoys playing in Irish sessions around the Bay Area, with her group the “Scottish Thistles” (with her mother, sister, and friends), and with her sister, harpist Elisabeth Zosseder. Katrina now works in the office at Opera Parallèle, a San Francisco based contemporary opera company dedicated to bringing opera into the 21st century with bold repertoire, creative productions, and moderate ticket prices – for more information about Opera Parallèle and its productions, visit operaparallele.org.
