HEADLINES
Bella Voce is Back! - 2005 - 2006 Season Schedule - Upcoming Concerts Dates and Venues - American A Cappella NEW CD!! - Bella Voce wins Alice Parker/ASCP award - Bella Voce at Home - Support Bella Voce - Our Venues
In Spring, a young person's fancy turns to thoughts of love, while Bella Voce, led by Dan Robinson, turns this Spring into music about love.
Come hear the group's final program of the season, love sacred and profane, featuring an exceptionally wide range of repertoire that spans the Renaissance through the 20th century: from Gesualdo's almost uncontrolled dissonance to the formal complexities of Bach's great motet, "Jesu, meine Freude" ... from the simplicity of an Appalachian folk tune to the romantic giddiness of a Pilkington madrigal.
Hear about love in its many forms.
Bella Voce's program love sacred and profane should inspire smiles of delight, some sighs, and perhaps a few tears.
Conductor Daniel Robinson is music director for the Savoy-Aires, now celebrating the conclusion of its 41st season in Evanston; and of the Great Lakes Dredge & Philharmonic Society, now celebrating its 71st season. Robinson conducts frequently at St. John Cantius Catholic Church in Chicago, where upcoming projects include a performance of Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" using period instruments in April 2006; and a performance of Handel's "Carmelite Vespers" in July 2006. He has served as founder and music director of several performing ensembles, most notably Basically Bach. Next June will mark his 40th year as a professional conductor. An Evanston native, Robinson earned an A.B. degree from Harvard University, and an M.A. and D.M.A. from Stanford University. He studied conducting with Richard Rosewall, John Ferris, and Robert Shaw, and also studied voice with Dale Moore.
CONCERT DATES
Saturday, May 6, 2006: 7:30 pm
Immanuel Lutheran Church, 616 Lake St., Evanston
Friday, May 12, 2006: 7:30pm
St. James Cathedral, 65 E. Huron, Chicago
Saturday, May 13, 2006: 7:30pm
Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, 815 South Washington St., Naperville
MAfter a brief period of dormancy, Bella Voce, Chicago's premier a cappella vocal ensemble, has regrouped and presents a series of concerts during the 2005-2006 Season.
Bella Voce's previous board has resigned amicably, a new board is in place, preliminary funds of more than $11,000 have been raised, and the ensemble is looking to the future with optimism and resolve.
Bella Voce will once again perform traditional and contemporary, sacred and secular choral music that inspires and exhilarates its audiences.
The newly re-formed ensemble will honor the traditions that won this stellar choral group so many admirers and supporters over the years. It will also eventually expand and explore new repertoire, and will occasionally seek to collaborate with other ensembles to enrich the performance experience of its audiences.
Additionally, Bella Voce will strive to attract new audiences and new sources of financial support.
In the spring of 2005 it was announced that Bella Voce (formerly His Majestie's Clerkes), was disbanding after 23 years of performing and recording. The news was greeted with sadness and dismay by the press and the public - and by the ensemble members. Artistic Director Anne Heider had earlier announced that her retirement would commence following the 2004-05 season; the board opted to disband the group rather than name a new artistic director. (The three finalists under consideration were Andrew Lewis, Clayton Parr, and Daniel Robinson; each was scheduled to conduct a set of concerts in 2005-06.) Ensemble members were informed of the board's decision after the fact. The final concerts of Bella Voce's 2004-05 season and the fundraiser-cabaret were enthusiastically received but bittersweet events that left performers and audiences hungering for more.
Several ensemble members essentially refused to accept the news of Bella Voce's demise, and commenced vigorous resuscitation efforts. Over the course of the summer, contralto Ruth Thuston and tenor Daniel Fulwilder led efforts to raise more than $11,000. They also recruited new board members, with the cooperation of the former board members and the blessing of Dr. Heider, who has dubbed the new entity "the Phoenix Group."
The re-formed Bella Voce ensemble comprises fewer singers (16) and offers fewer concerts in its first season, with the expectation that vigorous fundraising will eventually enable more singers to be engaged and more extensive concert seasons to be presented. Click here to see the 2005 - 2006 Season schedule.
Bella Voce is proud to announce the release of a new CD, "American A Cappella," a collection of music recorded in concert during Bella Voce's 2004-05 season, conducted by Artistic Director Emerita Anne Heider.
The CD contains songs from the wealth of styles and traditions of the American a capella.
African-American spirituals appear both in simple traditional harmonizations (My way's cloudy, Down in the river) and in high-voltage recent arrangements (Wade in the water, Been down into the sea).
Two songs from The Sacred Harp, ANTIOCH (1850) and GRANVILLE (1986), testify that traditional shape-note singing is an ongoing tradition while the 19th-century parlor song is represented byWalter Kittredge's Tenting tonight and Stephen Foster's Hard Times. Both arrangements hew pretty closely to harmonies that might have been improvised on the front porch or around a camp fire.
"American A Capella" is a Bella Voce production and is expected to be available by December 1 2005 .
At the national conference of Chorus America, held in Pittsburgh June 9-12, 2004, Bella Voce won the Alice Parker/ASCAP Award. This highly competitive award, which includes a $1,000 prize, is presented jointly by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Chorus America, the national service organization for choruses and choral musicians. The award is given to an ensemble whose programming in the past season is deemed to have been “an adventurous stretch” for the ensemble.
Bella Voce won on the strength of its 2002-03 season, which opened with the Midwest premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Vigilia (1972) and included Frank Ferko’s Stabat Mater (1999) and Guillaume Dufay’s Missa Ave Regina coelorum (1472). All three are extended works for a cappella chorus that presented a diversity of challenges to the ensemble’s highly accomplished singers. Chicago Tribune critic John von Rhein, reviewing Bella Voce’s performance of the Rautavaara work, wrote that “Director Anne Heider is taking Bella Voce to where no local chamber choir has gone before... A sense of high adventure pervades her concerts... Vigilia is one of the most beautiful and important religious works of the late 20th century, and the choir’s evident belief in this music made believers out of all of us too.”
The Alice Parker/ASCAP Award was first presented in 2003. It is named in honor of American living legend Alice Parker, whose illustrious career as a choral composer, arranger, conductor and mentor, and whose life-long commitment to melody and the singing voice have inspired countless thousands of choral musicians.
We made our first CD thirteen years ago, and since then have made eight other recordings, all of which have been enthusiastically received by critics and fans alike. Go to our CDs page to see a complete discography and find details on ordering our recordings, and enjoy the music of Bella Voce at any time of year.
Latest Release: Bella Voce recently released "American A Cappella," an equisite collection of music recorded in concert during the 2004-2005 season. "American A Cappella" is Bella Voce's third self-produced independent release, as well as their third recording under the ensemble's new name.
The ensemble has released recordings on Harmonia Mundi, Cedille, and Centaur labels under their former name, His Majestie's Clerkes; these recordings have been critically acclaimed both nationally and internationally. (Click here to go to discography and ordering page)
"They know how to present music of vastly different eras and idioms with zeal and immediacy." -- Ted Shen, Chicago Tribune
We couldn't do it without you! Donations from friends of Bella Voce are an important source of support for the group. We are grateful to all of you whose gifts, both small and large, have helped Bella Voce to flourish.
Click here to learn more about making a tax-deductible donation to Bella Voce and (if you like) make a donation online!
Our performances are made possible in part by our volunteers, who help us with ticket taking and ushering at every concert. Volunteering is easy, enjoyable, and of course, as part of the Bella Voce team, you get to see the performance for free! Click here for more information.
In each performance, Bella Voce takes pride in offering our audience a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. We perform in some of the most beautiful and interesting spaces in the Chicago area, always choosing our venues carefully for their acoustical superiority and architectural interest. For details on venues, click here.