OC Q&A: Women’s Chorus has ‘magnificent adventure’ overseas

The Orange County Women’s Chorus took its first trip abroad this summer. And it ended up feeling pretty royal.

Eliza Rubenstein, the choir’s director since 2000, parlayed a childhood connection into a gig singing with a male chorus at a castle in Wales. That was one stop of many on the tour; the group sang in London, Bristol and Cambridge and at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod competition in Wales.

Nealy three dozen women made the trip to the U.K. The chorus, which began in 1997, didn’t place first in any categories, but that was of little consequence to Rubenstein.

The Costa Mesa resident, who chairs the music department at Orange Coast College, said she’s already daydreaming about possible destinations for the chorus’ next jaunt.

In the meantime, the chorus is busy scheduling auditions for the coming season. Rehearsals begin in September.

On a hot morning over smoothies at 118 Degrees in Costa Mesa, Rubenstein spoke about her recent excursion. The following are excerpts from the conversation:

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Weekend: This was your first overseas trip with the Orange County Women’s Chorus. How did that feel, finally performing overseas?

Rubenstein: It felt like a magnificent adventure that had been many years in the making. I had sung at this festival twice before, once in 1997 and once in 2007, and I knew the moment I got there in 1997 that it was some place I dreamed of taking one of my own ensembles someday. And the O.C. Women’s Chorus was the one that I most pictured in that role.

So I’ve been making noises for many years about wanting to do this with that group, and they undertook a major effort of fundraising, of outreach, and then of just musical development that allowed it to take place. There were a few minutes on the trip when I just looked around us and said, “We did this.” And that felt pretty amazing.

Weekend: You ended up doing a show in a castle, as I understand, with a men’s choir. How did that come about?

Rubenstein: I’m so glad you asked, because that’s one of the better stories of the trip. And actually, I think if you asked every member of the touring group what their No. 1 highlight of the trip was, I think the majority, or at least the plurality, would say that was it.

And there’s quite a backstory. When I was 9 and living with my family near St. Louis — we were a very musical family, and I sang in a children’s chorus. And we were asked as a group one day if any of our families would like to host members of a Welsh men’s chorus that was on tour through the Midwest. And my parents thought that sounded like it would be fun, and so they agreed to take a family of singers who were coming through.

Whoever did the matchmaking knew that my parents were musical, and so the family that they gave us was actually — the husband was a baritone in the group. His wife was their accompanist and, I think, assistant director, and then they were traveling with their daughter, who was a few years older than I was. And we just had a marvelous time.…

Anyway, fast forward 30-plus years, when we began planning this tour. I knew that we were going to be in Wales. I thought I’m just going to see if I can find [the husband] and see whether he’s still singing with the chorus. And indeed, he was. He was singing with the Chepstow Male Voice Choir. So I sent an email out of the blue — “Hi, I don’t know if you remember me, but you stayed with our family 30-plus years ago” — and immediately got a response. And he copied in the artistic director and the board members, and within about a dozen more emails, we were singing a public concert at the castle with them.

Weekend: What are the acoustics like in a castle?

Rubenstein: Better than you might think. We were out in a courtyard. It’s a very well-preserved castle, so we were in a courtyard and they had a pretty high-tech canvas tent/canopy, under which the singing actually took place. It was a free public concert, and a couple hundred people from the town showed up with their lawn chairs, sort of Hollywood Bowl style. It was awesome.

Weekend: Your choir placed twice [at Llangollen], as I understand. You got sixth for female choirs and third for adult folk songs. Were you satisfied with the outcome?

Rubenstein: Yes. I have never been someone who views music-making as a competitive sport. That’s never where its greatest meaning has resided for me. So our goal was to go and sing better than we’d ever sung before and sing as well as we were able to sing, and I think that we did that. And so, any sort of placement was truly a bonus. I know that everyone in the group was proud of their performance and felt that they had made the best music they could.