Nathan Kreitzer has been conducting professionally since 1990. He has directed large and small choruses, full orchestras and chamber ensembles, pit orchestras, brass ensembles, and has conducted many major choral/orchestral works including Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ Requiem, Durufle’s Requiem, Berlioz Requiem, Bach Cantatas and most recently, the Verdi Requiem. He has prepared choruses for the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Symphony, the Music Academy of the West, Camerata Pacifica Baroque, and the SBCC Symphony. He directs music for weekly services at First United Methodist Church, and is the annual High Holy Days Director of the Shir Chaddash Choir at Temple B’nai Brith.
ENSEMBLES
The Concert Choir is a large non-auditioned ensemble that performs a variety of repertoire on their twice annual concerts. Recent major works performed, Brahms’ Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem with the Santa Barbara Symphony. The group tours every three years, recent destinations have included Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy and China.
The Chamber Singers is our top student ensemble at SBCC, the auditioned group performs mainly a cappella repertoire including madrigals, anthems and modern music, as well as vocal jazz and gospel.
The Quire of Voyces is comprised of professional singers and music educators from the Central Coast area. They specialize in the Sacred a cappella music of the Renaissance and 20th Century and beyond. The group has recorded seven commercial recordings and tours regularly. More info can be found on their website.
The First United Methodist Chancel Choir provides music for services every week at First United Methodist Church, Santa Barbara, as well as special concerts during the church year. Recent performances include Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Bach’s Magnificat, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Handel’s Messiah.
Nathan Kreitzer directs the Shir Chaddash Choir at Temple B’nai Brith in Santa Barbara every year for High Holy Days.
TOURS
WORKSHOPS and CLINICS
REVIEWS
“Early in last weekend’s long-awaited return of the Quire of Voyces’ “Mysteries of Christmas” concert, intrepid founder-director Nathan Kreitzer gazed affectionately at the healthy-sized audience in the St. Anthony’s Chapel. “It is so great to see people at a concert,” he effused. “You have no idea.” Actually, we in the long-deprived listening throng, have a very good idea.
For its first fully-engaged Christmas program since 2019, the prized a cappella Quire showed us what we’ve come to love about the beautifully integrated and sonorous group, and its cherished Christmas tradition in this entrancing sacred space.”
Josef Woodward from The Santa Barbara Independent (December 23, 2022)
“Saturday’s concert, one of the more intriguing Christmas programs of recent years, had the glowing, transcendent effect we’ve come to expect of this group. It’s something rooted in the intelligence and warmth of the program, the tautness and majesty of the choral ensemble, and the inspirational setting. The Voyces sang, and soared, once again.”
Josef Woodward from The Santa Barbara Independent (December 27, 2019)
“This beautiful and moving concert created a safe haven to come closer to the silence within and the unresolved issues that harbor there. Radiant sonorities evoked feelings large enough to respectfully cradle the mysteries of loss, change, and the borderland between time and the timeless.”
“As usual, Mr. Kreitzer’s special choir produced a glorious, seamlessly unified and disciplined ensemble sound, living up to the high standards it has set for itself. By now, it is hard to imagine Christmas in Santa Barbara without a spirited – and spiritual – dose of the Voyces.”
“Quire of Voyces generates a glorious and resonant ensemble sound, surely enhanced by the reverberant and reverent ambience of the old seminary’s magical chapel space. ”
“Quire of Voyces does not achieve its greatest effects by the massing of singers- there aren’t enough of them for that- but by a laser-like focus and attention to detail; by weaving a delicate, transparent web of music through the screen of consciousness. This is spirituality for the connoisseur, where the various settings of the sacred texts can be savored like fine vintages.”
“Nathan Kreitzer’s leading of the masterpiece was a potent reminder that live performances still prove more moving than even the best recordings - and that the current 25-member incarnation of the group he founded may be the finest.”
“All praise to Kreitzer and the Quire of Voyces for their adventurous programming and meticulous preparation.”
“Nathan Kreitzer has established his Quire of Voyces as the most elegant choral ensemble sound in the Santa Barbara area. Last Sunday’s concert had the audience around me literally holding their breath, then sighing with satisfaction at the end of each selection of the attractive Christmas program. ”
FESTIVALS
