20 professional singers creating a choral bridge across five centuries between Renaissance England and today’s California.
Suzi Digby OBE: Artistic Director
Benett Tsai: Cello
Jason Yoshida: Lute
The Golden Bridge was established in 2014 with the mission of uniting two great choral cultures: the Golden Tudor Era of England with the new, contemporary Golden Era of California. The exquisite masterpieces of the English Reformation, some 500 years ago, sit effortlessly alongside those of the Californian greats, including Lauridsen and Whitacre – the most performed and recorded choral gems of modern times.
The Golden Bridge has a strong commitment to fostering the work of emerging Californian talent, each year commissioning up to six new pieces as ‘reflections’ of renaissance works. To date we have commissioned 18 new works, and our world premieres have included pieces by Dale Trumbore, Julia Adolphe, Stephen Hartke, Nick Strimple, and our patron, Morten Lauridsen.
Led by internationally-acclaimed conductor Suzi Digby, Golden Bridge’s 20 professional singers work with the composers to present their contemporary reflections of timeless classics.
Suzi Digby has devoted her life and work to unite cultures through choral music. Each year The Golden Bridge presents programs of the richest and greatest choral music of all time, deepening the audience’s knowledge and understanding by supplementing each performance with Q & A’s (involving Californian composers) and mini talks. The preeminent scholars of Californian and English history and musicology contribute to the program notes, further enhancing the multi-dimensional learning of the audience.