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

# # #

Where you can purchase "Now Let us Sing!"

Barnes and Noble Booksellers

102 Dorset Street

South Burlington, VT 

(802) 864-8001

Bear Pond Books

Main Street

Stowe, VT

(802) 253-8236

Book Spieler

27 Langdon St.

Montpelier, VT 

(802) 229-0449

Borders

29 Church Street
Burlington, VT 
(802) 865-2711

Hopkins Bookshop

St. Paul's Cathedral

2 Cherry Street

Burlington, VT

(802) 658-6223 or toll free (800) 639-3611

www.hopkinsbookshop.com

Cover to Cover Books

27 N. Main Street

Randolph, VT

(802) 728-5509

www.covertocoverrandolph.com

www.Amazon.com

CD Baby