A look at the Capital City Chorus spring concert series
Originally published on The JOLT News on March 25, 2026
Spring is here and just like our flowers and trees, our arts scene is blossoming and blooming all around us.
Last weekend, I wrote two reviews that did not make it into my JOLT lineup, but are published on my website. You can read my reviews of the Washington Center for the Performing Arts “An Evening with Fran Lebowitz” and “Ladies of Laughter” here.
As you read on, I invite you to get your calendars out and make a plan — the Capital City Chorus (CCC) has wonderful offerings planned for this weekend.
CCC and their festival orchestra will be performing a spring concert series this weekend. Grab your family and bring them to the free concerts held at Capital High School Performing Arts Center on March 27 at 7:30 p.m., then March 28 and 29 both at 2:30 p.m. Each concert features the same program — more on that in a moment.
Many of you have heard about the upcoming CCC Carnegie Hall performance in May. CCC will be holding one last trip fundraiser at Cooper Point Sweetlee's Ice Cream on March 29. Make your Sunday extra sweet with an ice cream before or after the Sunday concert. The address is: 1001 Cooper Point Road SW in Olympia.
About the program
To learn more about the spring concert programming, I had the opportunity to speak with CCC Founder, Artistic Director and Mixed Ensemble Conductor Dan Colgan and Treble Ensemble Director Vicki Jardine-Tobin.
To start our conversation, I asked Colgan and Jardine-Tobin how they would describe this program to someone they were bumping into at the grocery store.
“I would say this is probably some of the most beautiful, gorgeous and passionate music you will hear in your life,” Colgan said.
Jardine-Tobin added, “Some years, we perform music from the classical and romantic (eras), but this program is going to be filled with modern 21st century composers that have nothing but emotion for us.”
She continued, “Some of it will be fierce, some ‘drop dead lyrical,’ all of it will move your heart. … It’s just the time for this kind of beauty.”
One of the pieces the chorus will be performing is Dan Forrest’s, “Requiem for the Living.” I love the irony of that title because a requiem is usually written in honor of the deceased, but as Colgan shared, this was written very intentionally for the living.
Requiems tend to also follow a certain order that contains very specific movements, but Forrest moved a little away from tradition and added a “vanitas.” This has not been done before.
Vanitas basically means vanity, and when I researched this word a little further, it can be used to describe the vanity of worldly pleasures or be used to remind us of our own mortality.
Colgan said, “Forrest was inspired by the views out of the Hubble Space Telescope, and the piece has a sort of an intergalactic feel in the midst of the sacredness.”
He added, “It’s music that people can feel, relate, and latch on to the emotion of, even though it’s in latin.”
The Treble Ensemble will highlight modern composer Z. Randall Stroope and exploring Stroope’s many expressive capabilities. Some of the pieces will be love songs that Jardine-Tobin tells me the chorale is very excited to sing!
Choral music
Toward the end of our conversation, we discussed the continued relevance of choral music in today's world. This is what Colgan and Jardine-Tobin shared with me:
Colgan: “There is a reason why we do three concerts — we hear the community tell us they want more of what we offer, and appreciate what we do. We try to create as many opportunities as possible for people to experience this music, which is why our concerts are free. If 15 more people showed up to our 2025 Christmas Concert, they would have been turned away. CCC gives people the chance to contribute to their community, whether that be in performing this music, volunteering, attending concerts, or sponsoring or donating to the chorus.”
Jardine-Tobin: “We have so many lovely performance groups in this town, all in addition to the excellent programs in our schools. We are so blessed and so happy to be a part of that. I think we keep getting better and better each year, and we’re still fairly new to the scene. We are starting to become more of an institution that people look for — there’s just no question that this is relevant, wanted and substantial.”
Come and experience the magic of choral music for yourself. I will see you in the audience.
https://thejoltnews.com/stories/a-look-at-the-capital-city-chorus-spring-concert-series,28603