Music Worcester Celebrates The Voice With Three Vocal Concerts In February

Music Worcester celebrates the immense potential of the human voice with 3 very different concerts in 3 different venues during February 2024.  A cappella sensation and 2023 Grammy-nominated ensemble VOCES8 performs Saturday, February 10th at 8PM Mechanics Hall; Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique & pianist Warren Jones are at Assumption University's Curtis Performance Hall on Friday, February 23rd at 8PM; and The Worcester Chorus & Worcester Chorus Women's Ensemble come together on Sunday, February 25th at 4PM at First Baptist Church, Worcester.  Repertoire across these 3 performances spans seven centuries, and includes works by Thomas Tallis, Arvo Part, Benjamin Britten, Claudio Monteverdi, Mumford & Sons, Henry T. Burleigh, Morten Lauridsen, & many others.  Tickets and information are available at musicworster.org 

 

The 2023 Grammy-nominated British vocal ensemble VOCES8 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, and Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, amongst many others. This season they perform over 100 concerts in the UK and across Europe and visit the USA for 3 major tours. 

 

 Jeanine De Bique and celebrated recitalist Warren Jones will present a program featuring lieder and songs by composers including Britten, Reynaldo Hahn, and selected Caribbean Folk Songs. Ms. De Bique has been described as “one of the most exciting sopranos to catch onstage these days. Animated, joyful, and technically flawless, the Trinidadian vocalist with the light, starry voice that soars before landing on audiences' ears like a musical meteor shower” (Operawire) and a “sheer endless wealth of color and nuances[…] a radiant, free-floating timbre” (Opernwelt). 

 

Voices of Eternal Light is an afternoon of music by the Worcester Chorus and Worcester Chorus Women's Ensemble.  Artistic Director Chris  Shepherd will lead the Worcester Chorus singing Lux Aeterna, a work in five movements by Morten Lauridsen. This choral cycle contains references to “Light,” assembled from various sacred Latin texts.  The composer says, “I composed Lux Aeterna in response to my mother's final illness and found great personal comfort and solace in setting to music these timeless and wondrous words about Light, a universal symbol of illumination at all levels - spiritual, artistic, and intellectual.” 

 

Under the direction of Associate Director Mark Mummert, The Women's Ensemble will sing Linda Tutas Haugen's Anne Frank: A Living Voice.  Described as “an emotional tour de force, this multi-movement work is based on selected excerpts from The Diary of Anne Frank. Spanning more than two years of hiding in the annex, the texts and music portray a psychological progression from fear and despair to strength and hope.”  

 

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