By John Redmond

Residents are encouraged to join the Camarata Choir from Jan. 29 in the Haebangchon district of Seoul near Itaewon.

“Join the Camarata Music Company (CMC) this spring as either a choir member, or member of the orchestra! The Camarata Music Company Chorale will be preparing Mendelssohn's famous oratorio Elijah. Complete with choir, orchestra, and professional soloists, it will provide for a fantastic concert. The concert will be at the beginning of May. Singing experience is not necessary. As long as you can sing in pitch, that is all we need,” states a bulletin.

The choir is comprised of 50-60 members that just love to sing. Members range in age and abilities, from people with degrees in music, to people who have only shower singing experience. The choir just finished their yearly tradition concert of Handel's Messiah, and received rave reviews. Over 1,357 people were in attendance, including ambassadors from various countries.

The CMC Chamber Singers perform numerous concerts throughout the year, including four large events. Along with these, the Chamber Singers can be seen singing for fundraisers, lecture concerts, various business events, and private parties. They often collaborate with other top choirs in Korea, to further provide for a mentally and emotionally stimulating concert experience.

The Camarata Music Company is a non-profit organization that provides an opportunity for people, both Korean and foreigners, to perform beautiful classical music together.

With the lack of performance opportunities within Korea, it aims to provide an avenue for classical musicians to perform, hone in on their musical technique, build a repertoire, and perform.

With members from many nationalities (currently from 26 different countries), the company hopes to bring different experiences from people of a variety of cultures.

It also hopes to provide more opportunities for the public to hear classical music, and experience collaborative performances of people from many different nations.

The CMC Chorale performs three major concerts every year, building up to the large Christmas event, Handel's Messiah.

The CMC Orchestra is a semi-professional orchestra. The orchestra can be heard alongside the Chorale in numerous concerts, including the annual spring concert, and the Christmas performances of Messiah. From 2012, the CMC orchestra will be hosting a "Young Artists of the Future" concert, where one young artist, aged 14 or under, will be selected to perform as a soloist with the orchestra.

It takes a step further than the standard repertoire in Korea, and works to perform other works that may not be as popular or mainstream in Korea, even if they are elsewhere. It also performs the classics, offering a variety of music genres, languages and styles, from Latin masses, oratorios, opera and operetta, musical theatre and secular classical.

CMC believes that music is something that should be shared with everyone, no matter what their situation, especially children. So, it is the vision of CMC to establish a music program in local orphanages and low-income areas.

One of the ultimate goals of this project is to create a children's choir and orchestra, provide lessons free of charge (in English and Korean), purchase musical instruments for children who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford them, and to provide high-quality performances that are accessible to all.

Rehearsals will be held Sundays 4-7 p.m.

If you are interested, please email: info@camaratamusic.comor jhille@camaratamusic.com. You can also call 010-9806-8655 (English) or 010-4506-8190 (Korean) for more information. Also visit: http://www.camaratamusic.com.