San Luis Obispo Master Chorale presents
The Creation
SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2026 | 3 PM
Perfoming Arts Center San Luis Obispo
The San Luis Obispo Master Chorale invites you to enjoy The Creation.
The Creation, an oratorio in three parts inspired by Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt, is a choral gem of the Age of Enlightenment that draws out the story of the Creation, depicting all the wonders of the first six days.
The Creation is sponsored by Mark and Stephanie Fugate, Marti Lindholm, and Alison Stuart.
Concert soloists are sponsored by Thomas and Susan Davies
The concert will be held in Harold Miossi Hall at the Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo on the Cal Poly campus.
Tickets are $10-$60 and are available at www.slomasterchorale.org or by calling the PAC box office at 805-756-4849.
Harold Miossi Hall
Performing Arts Center
1 Grand Avenue
San Luis Obispo, CA
93407-0441
Amy Goymerac
Soprano Soloist (Gabriel/Eve)
Soprano Amy Goymerac has performed leading roles and as a concert soloist both internationally and throughout the US and with companies such as Opera San Jose, Opera San Luis Obispo, Pocket Opera, Valley Opera Performing Arts, Amherst Early Music Festival among others. She has appeared in concert with the Athens Philharmonia, San Luis Obispo Symphony, Redwood Symphony, the San Luis Obispo Master Chorale, and at the Berkeley Festival among others.
Highlight roles and repertoire include, Suzanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Adele (Die Fledermaus), Michaëla (La Tragédie de Carmen), Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Barber), Dona Nobis Pacem (Vaughan Williams), Messiah (Handel), and Maher’s 4th Symphony.
Ms. Goymerac premiered the role of Charlotte in the world concert premiere of Kirke Mechem’s latest opera, Pride and Prejudice. She appeared on her first album To All Women Everywhere under Cambria Records in spring of 2022. She earned her Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her Bachelor of Arts from Cal Poly, SLO and is currently working towards her certificate in Vocology. She is on faculty with the Cal Poly Music Department and lives on the Central Coast of CA with her husband, two daughters, and puppy. More information at www.amygoymeracsoprano.com.
Xavier Prado
Tenor Soloist (Uriel)
Chilean-American tenor Xavier Prado is widely regarded as one of the most compelling and versatile young lyric tenors of his generation. He has received unanimous critical acclaim for his portrayal of the title role in Héctor Armienta’s Zorro in highly successful runs with Opera Santa Barbara (West Coast premiere, 2024), Opera San José (2024), and Arizona Opera in both Phoenix and Tucson (2025). Reviewers have praised his “handsome countenance and vocal aplomb” (Theatre Eddys), “plaintive and strong” tenor with “swashbuckling flair” (Opera Today), “bell-like tone” and “charming underdog quality” (The Opera Tattler), and a performance that was “simply glorious as Diego de la Vega… with ringing conviction” and “truly exciting to watch” (Parterre Box).
Winner of First Prize at the 2024 Concorso Internazionale Piero Cappuccilli and an alumnus of the Accademia Rossiniana Alberto Zedda (2023), Prado has also been a finalist in the Loren L. Zachary and Giulio Gari competitions and has earned multiple awards at the Palm Springs Opera Guild, the Mary Jacobs Singer of the Year Competition, Pasadena Vocal Competitions, and many others.
Most recent highlights include three debuts for which he received great praise, first as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana with Opera Santa, Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca, and Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. His most frequently performed roles for which he has also received great recognition are the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto and Roméo in Roméo et Juliette; other signature roles include Alfredo in La traviata, the Prince in Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges, Rodolfo (La bohème), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Faust, and Don Quijote in Juan Colomer’s Mutante Dulcinea.
He has appeared in leading roles, oratorio, or solo work with Opera San José, Opera Santa Barbara, Arizona Opera, Opera Southwest, Sarasota Opera, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, California Philharmonic, Los Angeles Grand Ensemble, Rousse Philharmonic in Bulgaria, CSUN Symphony, Lyric Opera of Orange County, among many others.
Prado studies with legendary bass Carlo Colombara and has received valuable guidance in the course of his development from Ernesto Palacio, Juan Diego Flórez, Luca Canonici, Luis Lima, and Víctor De Renzi.
In 2026 he will appear at the Bombay Beach Biennale, return as Cavaradossi in Tosca in Palo Alto, California, and sing the title role in the East Coast premiere of Zorro in Williamsburg, Virginia. For more information about Xavier Prado, please visit xavierprado.com.
Colin Ramsey
Bass Soloist (Raphael/Adam)
Chinese-American Colin Ramsey possesses a “majestic, rotund, ravishing bass” (Opera Today). Mr. Ramsey’s 2024-2025 season included a return to Opera Santa Barbara for the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, performing Escamillo in Carmen at Amarillo Opera, and the title role in Polifemo, which he also performed in the U.S. premiere at Opera NEO. On the concert stage, he was featured as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah with both the Pacific Chamber Orchestra and the Santa Barbara Choral Society. In 2025-2026, Mr. Ramsey’s schedule includes his Lyric Opera of Kansas City debut as Alidoro in La Cenerentola. He sings the title role in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Las Vegas, joins the roster of the Metropolitan Opera to cover Dumas in Andrea Chénier, and makes a return to Opera Santa Barbara in the title role in Giulio Cesare and TJ Rigg in Elmer Gantry. In concert, he reprises Timur in Turandot with Orchestre Philharmonique des Melomanes, sings Raphael/Adam in The Creation with San Luis Obispo Master Chorale, and joins MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall as the Bass Soloist in Fauré’s Requiem.
Beyond the Notes
The San Luis Obispo Master Chorale is hosting two educational presentations as part of its Beyond the Notes series given by Michael E. Ruhling, PhD, Professor of Performing Arts in the College of Liberal Arts at the Rochester (NY) Institute of Technology and Senior Associate Faculty in Musicology at the Eastman School of Music.
The presentations will foster an enhanced understanding of Haydn’s background and compositional process for The Creation, offering an in-depth look at the piece and the history of the music.
The presentations coincide with the SLO Master Chorale’s season finale concert on Sunday, April 19, at 3 pm at the Performing Arts Center San Luis Obispo, featuring a performance of The Creation by Franz Joseph Haydn.
Sponsored by the Harold J. Miossi Charitable Trust and Carol Nelson-Selby
Doctor Michael E. Ruhling
Michael E. Ruhling is Professor of Performing Arts in the College of Liberal Arts at the Rochester (NY) Institute of Technology, and is a Senior Associate Faculty in Musicology at the Eastman School of Music. He is the author of Johann Peter Salomon’s Scores of Four Haydn Symphonies: Edition with Commentary, and his essay on the symphonies of Michael Haydn is included in The Symphonic Repertoire, Vol. 1: The Eighteenth Century Symphony.
Other publications include articles on performing Michael Haydn’s Requiem, Joseph Haydn’s sacred music, and Haydn in pedagogy, and he has been invited to give presentations on Haydn’s music in performance and in liturgy to general audiences. He is also an active conductor and church musician.
Ruhling was named the 2008-2009 Christopher Hogwood Historically Informed Performance Fellow by the Boston Handel and Haydn Society. He is the founder and president of the Haydn Society of North America and edits their online journal HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America. For his work in Haydn research and publication, Ruhling was elected as a lifetime member of the Haydn Society of Great Britain’s Committee of Honour in 2010.
Saturday, April 18, 2026 | 3:00 pm
Beyond the Notes: Joseph Haydn: English Gentleman?
presented by Michael E. Ruhling, PhD
Saturday, April 18, 2026, 3:00 pm, Indian Hill Clubhouse at San Luis Bay Estates
6375 Firehouse Canyon Road, Avila Beach, CA, 93424
British newspapers celebrated Haydn’s impending arrival in early 1791, and once there, Haydn was a frequent guest at the many salons hosted by London’s elite, including the Prince and Princess of Wales. This “New Orpheus” of London’s cultural life firmly established himself as the heir-apparent of the great Handel, and thus worthy of receiving an oratorio libretto originally intended for Handel: The Creation.
Please RSVP to reserve your space. This event is offered by donation only, so please choose an amount that works for you on the checkout page when placing reserving your space.
Admission includes light fare of grazing boards, hors d’oeuvres, and wine beginning at 3:00 pm.
Only a 10 minute drive from downtown San Luis Obispo!
Directions to Indian Hill Clubhouse at San Luis Bay Estates:
Address: 6375 Fire House Canyon Rd, Avila Beach, CA 93424
From the 101 southbound:
- Take exit 196 for San Luis Bay Dr. toward See Cyn/Avila Beach
- Turn right onto San Luis Bay Dr. and continue for 1.4 miles
- Turn right onto Bay Laurel Pl.
- At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit to enter the gated area through the “Guest” lane; stay on Bay Laurel Pl.
- Tell the guard your name and that you are attending the SLO Master Chorale event at the Clubhouse
- After passing through the gate, turn left onto Lupine Canyon Rd.
- Take the next right onto Fire House Canyon Rd., and the venue will be on your right.
- Parking is available in the lots on either side of the Clubhouse.
From the 101 northbound:
- Take exit 195 for Avila Beach Dr.
- Continue on Avila Beach Dr. for 1.3 miles
- Turn right onto San Luis Bay Dr.
- Take the next left onto Bay Laurel Pl.
- At the traffic circle, take the 2nd exit to enter the gated area through the “Guest” lane; stay on Bay Laurel Pl.
- Tell the guard your name and that you are attending the SLO Master Chorale event at the Clubhouse
- After passing through the gate, turn left onto Lupine Canyon Rd.
- Take the next right onto Fire House Canyon Rd., and the venue will be on your right.
- Parking is available in the lots on either side of the Clubhouse.
Sunday, April 19, 2026 | 1:15 pm
Beyond the Notes: “Haydn, the Enlightened Co-Creator”
presented by Michael E. Ruhling, PhD
Sunday, April 19, 2026, 1:15 pm, Pavilion, Performing Arts Center
1 Grand Avenue, San Luis Obispo
Free admission with concert ticket
Haydn famously described his compositional process as beginning with prayer and continuing as a divinely-inspired creative activity. In setting the story of the greatest creative act of all—Creation itself—Haydn most deeply recognized the Enlightenment perspective of human co-creativity and caretaking, exemplified by the culmination of the oratorio in the Adam–Eve love duet of Part III.
Sunday, April 19, 2026 | 1:15 pm
Beyond the Notes: Haydn, the Enlightened Co-Creator
Location: Pavilion, Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Avenue, San Luis Obispo