Christmas Joy was made
possible by grants from: The Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund and
the Alfred Nash Patterson Foundation for the Choral Arts Fund from Choral
Arts New England, and the Vermont Arts Endowment Fund of the Vermont
Community Foundation
Where you can purchase our CD's
BURLINGTON-BASED BELLA VOCE CHORUS RELEASES FIRST CD
Burlington, VT,
September 28, 2007 -Bella
Voce Women’s Chorus
of Vermont announces the
release of their first commercially available CD – Now Let Us Sing!
– a selection of seventeen songs composed and arranged by Vermont composer
Gwyneth Walker.
Bella Voce Women’s
Chorus of Vermont is a fairly recent addition to Vermont’s classical
music scene. Founded in March of 2004 by its director Dr. Dawn O.
Willis – this remarkable group of 40 auditioned women singers
performed its first concert in May of that same year and generated
immediate acclaim by area music critics and colleagues.
“Bella
Voce just keeps getting better.” Dan Wolfe, Vermont Times; “These women
could stand toe to toe with some of the finest ensembles in the United
States.” Cindy Couch - award-winning high school choral director
from Texas - as quoted in an article about Bella Voce by Lyn Taylor Hale,
Vermont Woman.
Shortly after their
debut performance Willis’ fledgling chorus caught the ear and imagination
of award-winning Vermont composer Gwyneth Walker.
The creator of more
than 170 commissioned works to date, Walker is among the most sought after
choral music composers in the country. Many
of Bella Voce’s subsequent concerts included some of Walker’s music. Last
year Walker approached Willis with the idea to do a professional CD
recording of several of her pieces written for women’s voices. Willis and
the chorus enthusiastically embraced this project.
After a whirlwind of
grant applications and fundraising, the project was underway. Willis and
the chorus were lucky enough to enlist the help of professional recording
engineer and producer John McClure. McClure, a recording executive
with Columbia Records, has worked with well-known Vermont-based ensemble
Counterpoint and its director Robert DeCormier, as well as such
artists as Leonard Bernstein, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Boston
Pops Orchestra. With McClure’s highly-trained ear, Willis’ dogged pursuit
of excellence and the choir’s energy and stamina for long recording
sessions, Bella Voce’s first CD Now Let Us Sing! was born.
The CD contains 17
songs by Gwyneth Walker based on texts and music that cover a wide variety
of topics from feminism to God to romance to death. Walker has included
American folk songs such as the title piece Now Let Us Sing! and
the rousing Quaker hymn How Can I Keep from Singing?; as well as
music set to the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson in a very moving setting
of Crossing the Bar, and a set of six songs based on the poetry of
May Swenson. Also featured on this CD is a piece Walker wrote based on
Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s
inspirational book Gift From the Sea. This piece is a preview of a
new cantata Bella Voce has recently commissioned from Walker entitled
Lessons from the Sea.
Willis and the chorus plan to debut the new work next spring in a series
of concerts around the state that will include readings from the book by
Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and famous pilot
Charles Lindbergh.
Bella Voce’s audiences
have long asked for a recording that they can take home as a souvenir of
their concerts. The CD will be available starting October 1 in area stores
and online as well as at all their concert venues. You can hear Bella Voce
live on October 14 at Chandler Hall Randolph at the Gwyneth Walker Choral
Festival; at the Stowe Community Church on December 8 and in Burlington on
December 9 at the First Baptist Church.
Bella Voce’s CD
Now Let Us Sing! was made possible by grants from the Argosy
Foundation
Contemporary Music
Fund and the Alfred Nash Patterson
Foundation for the Choral Arts Fund from
Choral Arts New England. The CD will be available at Hopkins Bookshop,
Barnes & Noble, Borders Books and Music in Burlington, VT, Buch Spieler in
Montpelier, VT and Cover to Cover Bookstore in Randolph, VT, starting
October 1. For additional information please contact Vikki Day or visit
www.bellavocevt.org.
About Bella Voce:
Bella Voce is a
501(c)(3) organization,
governed by a
13-member Board of Directors under the artistic vision of its founder and
Music Director Dawn Willis, for the purpose of promoting choral music of
quality through performances of high artistic value while providing
members with opportunities to enhance their musical knowledge and skills
and to enrich the quality of life of members and audience.
Contact: Vikki Day,
Bella Voce Director of Public Relations:
802-999-8881, vikkivt@comcast.net
www.bellavocevt.org
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Where you can purchase "Now Let us Sing!"
and "Christmas Joy"
