Vox Musica

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 20 th - and 21 st -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 18 th 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.