By Julia Goldman
Former Camerata Artistic Director, David Wilson, stands beside a poster that advertises the group’s international performance in Dresden, Germany in 1999. A scholar and conductor, Wilson spent much of his life restoring the works of German composer Johann Adolf Hasse, which saw its performance for the very first time on this tour. Graphic by Julia Goldman.
What is now known as the Long Beach Camerata Singers began in 1966 as a small, 16-20 voice community college choir founded by Frank Allen under the name, “Vocal Arts Ensemble.” Now, 60 years later, the ensemble lives on, under a name introduced by its longest-serving artistic Director, David Wilson.
A teacher, scholar and conductor, David Wilson served as the artistic director of Camerata for 21 years, from 1984 to 2005. Described as a recognized expert in 18th century music, Wilson studied music at the University of the Pacific and University of Illinois. Prior to and throughout his leadership with Camerata, Wilson served as a professor of choral music at the University of Southern California, where he taught graduate courses in choral literature and conducted the USC Concert Choir. Additionally, Wilson also maintained a career as a church musician at the Riviera United Methodist Church.
Under Wilson, Camerata grew, and not only physically. Now an ensemble of 50 singers, he broadened Frank Allen’s initial mission to promote public vocal music and expanded the group’s reach across his two-decade leadership, with the ensemble now regularly performing outside Long Beach in Palos Verdes, Manhattan Beach and with groups like USC. His choice to rename the ensemble from Vocal Arts Ensemble to Camerata Singers came in 1992, to reflect the group’s versatility, musical range and period performance style of masterworks presented in concerts. A presentation of this choice actually made Long Beach history – with Camerata’s 1998 production of “Bach’s B Minor Mass” marking the very first presentation of the masterwork in South Bay History. Additionally, a portion of his legacy still lives on today through his creation of the first Long Beach Unified School District Honor’s Choir, for which he selected the year’s top 50 choral students to rehearse and perform under Wilson himself.
A large portion of Wilson’s life, alongside much of his doctoral work, was devoted to the musical reconstruction of the 18th century German composer Johann Adolf Hasse. As a young man, Wilson went behind the Iron Curtain that divided Europe between the end of World War II and the Cold War and visited historic musical libraries in Germany, digging through boxes of work by Hasse. Writing down and transcribing the music for a choir, he later brought the music to Camerata.
One year after the Iron Curtain fell in 1999, Wilson led Camerata internationally for the first time in the Dresden Tour to sing the work of Hasse that he had reconstructed. Joining him as a singer then was Lee Lasseter, who works as an organist and music educator today.
“It was like the culmination of his dream for what the work would’ve yielded,” Lasseter said, recalling the Dresden Tour. “We were the vehicle for him to have his dream come true.
Those who knew Wilson in life, like Lasseter, describe Wilson as a wonderful human being who was very intelligent, talented and passionate about choral music. She credits Bach’s Christmas Oratorio fondly as her favorite piece of music sung at Camerata, and describes appreciation for Wilson’s repertoire choices and his conducting.
“It was the best of the best, it couldn’t have been any better,” Lasseter said, leaning forward in her chair. “The level of performance we did, the quality of his directing and his leadership – it was wonderful.”
In 2005, at 65 years old, Wilson retired and moved to Arizona, returning a few times to California for Camerata events. In the fall of 2021, Wilson passed away, and is remembered by Camerata and former USC students and colleagues as being a great mentor and dedicated advocate to the choral arts with a terrific and contagious sense of humor. His experiences throughout his thirty-year quest to locate, reconstruct and later perform the music of Hasse still lives on today in his book, “The Dresden Manuscripts: Unearthing an 18th Century Musical Genius.”