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Voces8
Saturday, February 10, 2024 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Adult: $41-$69
Student: $17.50
Youth: $7.50
Music Worcester thanks the following supporters of this presentation:
Voces8
The 2023 Grammy-nominated British vocal ensemble VOCES8 is proud to inspire people through music and share the joy of singing. Touring globally, the group performs an extensive repertory both in its a cappella concerts and in collaborations with leading musicians, orchestras, conductors and soloists. Versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s performance and education ethos which is shared both online and in person.
VOCES8 has performed at many notable venues since its inception in 2005 including Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Cité de la Musique Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus, Tokyo Opera City, NCPA Beijing, Sydney Opera House, Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, Victoria Concert Hall Singapore, Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico City amongst many others. This season they perform over 100 concerts in the UK and across Europe and visit the USA for 3 major tours.
Alongside this online work on its own platforms VOCES8 is heard regularly on albums, international television and radio. The ensemble is a Decca Classics artist and alongside that releases projects on its own label, VOCES8 Records. The latest Decca Classics album is the Grammy Nominated “The Lost Birds” featuring music by Christopher Tin. New album projects for 2023 include albums with Eric Whitacre, Paul Simon, and Christmas arrangements for VOCES8 and orchestra by Taylor Scott Davis.
VOCES8 MEMBERS
Andrea Haines, soprano
Molly Noon, soprano
Katie Jeffries-Harris, alto
Barnaby Smith, alto and artistic director
Blake Morgan, tenor
Euan Williamson, tenor
Christopher Moore, baritone
Jonathan Pacey, bass
PROGRAM: AFTER SILENCE
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” — Aldous Huxley
In the essay from which the title After Silence is taken, Aldous Huxley offers his thoughts on the essential force of music. The most profoundly significant constituents of our being, he says, include our responses to beauty, pleasure, pain, ecstasy, and death. These can best be ‘experienced, not expressed’ through silence, and after silence, through music. The choral works in this 15th-anniversary programme (to accompany the ensemble’s compendium album release) are exalted, vital, and freed from their original contextual restraints and are distinguishable by their inexhaustible capacity to express the inexpressible.
ORLANDO GIBBONS
Drop, Drop, Slow Tears
ARVO PÄRT
The Deer’s Cry
THOMAS TALLIS
O Nata Lux
WILLIAM BYRD
Haec Dies
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
Bogoroditse Devo
PAUL SMITH
Nunc Dimittis
JAKE RUNESTAD
Let My Love Be Heard
J.S. BACH
Komm, Jesu, Komm, BWV 229
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI
Book VI: Lagrime D’Amante al Sepolcro Dell’Amata (Sestina Madrigals)
ÞORKELL SIGURBJÖRNSSON
Heyr, hymn smi∂ur
MUMFORD & SONS, arr. Jim Clements
Timshel
BART HOWARD, JIMMY VAN HEUSEN, & SAMMY CAHN, arr. Alexander L’Estrange
Come Fly with Me (To the Moon)
KATE RUSBY, arr. Jim Clements
Underneath the Stars
NAT ‘KING’ COLE, arr. Jim Clements
Straighten Up and Fly Right
Gramophone
“The singing of VOCES8 is impeccable in its quality of tone and balance. They bring a new dimension to the word ‘ensemble’ with meticulous timing and tuning.”
On Youtube
Voces8
Enjoy Voces8’s full collection of live performance videos and more on YouTube: