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MISSION:
Vox Musica (Voice of Music),
directed by Daniel Paulson, is a Sacramento-based women’s vocal ensemble whose
mission is to promote, develop and nurture music written for women’s voices; to
present live performances of the highest quality, representing a broad range of
choral literature; to promote new works through commissioning, performing, and
recording compositions of our time; to educate, challenge, facilitate, and
nurture the development of local artists; and to serve as a vital force in the
community’s artistic life.
SINGERS:
In a recent review, Edward
Ortiz, Arts Editor for the Sacramento Bee, hailed Vox Musica as a
“welcome addition to the music scene,” praising the group’s “stunning clarity,”
“intense color,” and “delicate touch.” The twelve members of the group include
trained choral singers, graduates of music programs at fine colleges and
universities, and professional musicians and teachers from throughout the
Sacramento area. The group’s intimate size, coupled with the wonderful colors
and textures of the sounds produced by a women’s ensemble, provides the listener
an opportunity to experience a type of choral singing rarely heard in our
community.
HISTORY:
Since its inception in January
2006, Vox Musica has become a staple of Sacramento’s growing classical music
scene. The group has been featured regularly on the city’s leading morning news
show, Good Day Sacramento, and on the region’s public radio station, Capital
Public Radio. In December 2007 Vox Musica released its first compact disc,
“Christmas Colours,” a showcase of 20th- and 21st-century
arrangements of traditional holiday carols and texts. Several pieces on the
recording were given their world premieres by the group during its inaugural
season. Indeed, Vox Musica has had the honor of performing six world premieres
(four of which were commissioned by the group) and more than 20 regional
premieres, and has enjoyed hosting a featured composer in person at many of its
performances.
Vox Musica gives four sets of
concerts each year and has performed to sold-out audiences since the start of
its second season. In addition to emphasizing new compositions, the group has
performed music from a broad range of musical eras, styles and languages. For
example, in September 2007, together with the Sacramento Baroque Soloists, Vox
Musica presented a concert of 18th century sacred music from the
Venetian Ospedali.
While the ensemble’s success is
important, so are its ties to the surrounding community. Vox Musica has given
several “open rehearsals” with very low ticket prices to enable a wide variety
of people to learn about the music the group performs, and director Daniel
Paulson has given a master class for young singers interested in learning more
about choral music and vocal technique. The group has performed for Sacramento’s
Second Saturday Art Walk (a monthly event in which galleries, restaurants and
performance spaces open their doors to throngs of foot traffic) to give the
public further exposure to music they might not otherwise hear. Vox Musica’s
outreach is not limited to the Sacramento area; the group has assisted
up-and-coming members of the classical music community throughout the United
States by performing works by young composers studying at the university level.
REVIEWS:
“[Vox Musica] proved, once again, it has the
facility to jump into the musical unknown by daring a new spin on the ancient,
and adding a compelling sheen to the fresh and new.”
- Sacramento Bee, December 2007.
“The recent arrival of the choir Vox Musica to
the Sacramento music scene is also indicative of the talent moving into the area
that highly values new music. This eight-woman choir, under the direction of
Daniel Paulson, devoted almost half of the programming of its first season to
showcasing the work of living composers, both local and international. And next
season promises a similar mix.”
- American Music Center, July 2007.
“[Vox Musica] sang the dissonances of [Cesar
Alejandro Carillo’s, Ave Maria] with a delicate touch that deepened the
profundity of this evocative piece.”
-
Sacramento Bee, December 2006.
“[Vox Musica] threw down a breathtaking
performance of my “Three Nightsongs” last season.”
- Joshua Shank, Composer, August 2007.
“Its hard to imagine that [Vox Musica’s]
expressive and tonally focused turn on Holst’s classic “In the Bleak Midwinter”
has been done any better.”
- Sacramento Bee, December 2006.
“Vox Musica’s performance of my “I Heard the
Bells on Christmas Day” was smokin.”
- Kurt Erickson, Composer, December 2006.
“This new vocal ensemble is a welcome addition to
the Sacramento music scene and they proved it by delivering the goods on a
smartly selected program by director Daniel Paulson. Choosing vibrant and
temporally relevant works by six living composers to counterbalance choral
masterpieces proved a smart move in the presentation of this concert.”
- Sacramento Bee, December 2006.
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