The VOCES8 Foundation welcomes friends from around the world to its home in London for its latest winter festival of iconic oratorios, traditional songs and new premieres, as its album ‘A Choral Christmas’ is released on Decca Classics.
LIVE From London Christmas 2023 will comprise six festive concerts released online from 4 December 2023 and remaining available on-demand until 7 January 2024, with a line-up including triple Grammy-nominated US ensemble Skylark, The Gesualdo Six, VOCES8, Apollo5, the VOCES8 Foundation Choir and its Orchestra, the festival will see the return of renowned seasonal works including Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and an extra special free-access family event to be gifted ahead of the festival.
Tickets for all concerts can be purchased via www.livefromlondon.org. Following the live stream on 4 December, all other performances will be available to watch live or on demand from 5 December until 7 January 2024, with the exception of ‘Silver Bells’ (out 23 December).
LIVE from London summer festival 2021
The LIVE from London festival returns in July and August!
Sprinkling ‘Stardust’ through a summer festival celebrating cycles of renewal and regeneration in nature and spirit, VOCES8 leads an internationally renowned cast joyfully exploring the yin and yang of our existence and looking forward to ‘A New Day’.
Appearing in every main festival performance, VOCES8 unites an exclusive line-up featuring new festival invitees The King’s Singers, Chineke!, Suzi Digby’s ORA Singers, a star quartet of Julian Bliss, Jack Liebeck, Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Katya Apekisheva, Mary Bevan, Zeb Soanes, the London Contemporary Orchestra and Robert Ames. Special concerts coming from the International Choral Biennale ‘Live From Haarlem’ include Cappella Amsterdam and the Doelen Ensemble, Consensus Vocalis, Laurens Collegium, Efterklang and the South Denmark Girls’ Choir. Returning favourites include I Fagiolini, Apollo5 and the English Chamber Orchestra.
From Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered, Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, a Mozart piano concerto, through to music by David Lang, Eriks Ešenvalds, a cappella and choral favourites, world premieres by Taylor Scott Davis, Afrodeutsche, Donna McKevitt, Paul Smith, Joanna Marsh and Ken Burton; voices, instruments and dance create a summer adventure to fuel community and give wings to one’s soul. Join us “singing till his heaven fills, ‘Tis love of earth that he instils,” (Meredith – The Lark Ascending).
Click here to see more and to buy tickets.
Live From London – Christmas festival 2020
Live From London returns with a Christmas festival running from December 1st – January 6th
The festival is split into two parts:
Live From London – Christmas: The first 11 concerts from 1st – 25th December and including the Gabrieli’s first Bach concert on Christmas Day
Bach for Christmas: All 6 concerts by the Gabrieli Consort & Players – Bach’s Christmas Oratorio BWV248 – starting on 25th December and ending on Epiphany, 6th January
A particular highlight on 15th December is the Choir of Westminster Abbey singing from Westminster Abbey itself. Viewers from around the world will this year have the rare opportunity to share in the magic of the annual Abbey Christmas concert.
The repertoire across the festival ranges from Bach, Praetorius, Eccard, Charpentier and Tallis to Howells, Britten, Pärt, Tavener, Michael McGlynn, Ola Gjeilo, and arrangements of best-loved Christmas pop, all filmed in ultra-high definition and featuring your favourite seasonal a cappella
Award-winning groups featuring include VOCES8, The Choir of Westminster Abbey, the Gabrieli Consort & Players, The Tallis Scholars, Take 6, I Fagiolini, London Adventist Chorale, ANÚNA, amarcord, The Aeolians, and Apollo5
With its first concert since lock-down, the Gabrieli Consort & Players perform Bach for Christmas, joined by a stunning lineup of soloists (including Carolyn Sampson, Anna Dennis, Tim Mead, Roderick Williams and Ashley Riches). Experience Bach’s Christmas Oratorio cantatas, each on the day for which they are liturgically written.
The festival supports the VOCES8 Foundation’s global message of ‘music education for all’ by gifting youth ensembles from across the world a stage for their singing in our Young Performer Spotlight (YPS). The lineup includes: Gabrieli Roar, VOCES8 Scholars, Canterbury Cathedral Girls’ Choir, VERSA, National Youth Chamber Choir of Great Britain, Voices of Singapore Children’s Choir and German Gents.
The festival includes six new VOCES8 commissions from Ken Burton, Melissa Dunphy, Jocelyn Hagen, Taylor Scott Davis, Paul Smith and Roderick Williams that will be published by Edition Peters in the VOCES8 Singles range, as well the premiere of a new violin part in Men and Angels written by Alec Roth especially for Rachel Podger.
More information and tickets sales can be found here.
VOCES8 Foundation #LiveFromHome series
The VOCES8 Foundation continues its #LiveFromHome series this week. Each day at 2pm (UK) / 10am (EST) a member of the Foundation – which comprises VOCES8, Apollo5, Paul Smith, the VOCES8 Scholars as well as choral leaders – offers a broadcast on a different aspect of the choral world, interactive and participatory. On Thursday 9th the US composer Jake Runestad will be onscreen in The Weekly Interview. He follows previous interviews with Ola Gjeilo and Roxanna Panufnik.
#LiveFromHome info is at the Foundation website at voces8.foundation/livefromhome
And if you’re enjoying it all, please consider donating to help to keep producing music in the future.
voces8.foundation/donate
VOCES8 Foundation wins at the Music & Drama Education Awards
The VOCES8 Foundation has been awarded the Classic FM Public Choice Award at the Music & Drama Education Awards, UK. It’s given to an individual or organisation which the general public feels has had the most significant positive impact on classical music education in the UK over the past year. This is a great tribute to Apollo5, VOCES8, Paul Smith, musician, composer, public speaker and all the Foundation team.
See all the categories and winners here.
Paul Smith’s “Winter Songs” at Curtis Institute of Music
Paul Smith, co-founder of VOCES8 and CEO of the VOCES8 Foundation, has written a new work called “Winter Songs” which gets its US premiere at the Curtis Institute of Music on February 23rd. Paul leads an interactive performance introducing tunes from around the world alongside soprano Olivia Smith and a string orchestra of Curtis musicians with “Winter Songs” in which audience and performers together explore music-making through singing and movement. Through his workshops, compositions and the VOCES8 Method, Paul’s work encourages confidence and creativity—with plenty of opportunities to make the music your own!
Winter Songs had its premiere at the VOCES8 Centre with Paul and Apollo5 earlier in the year.
Tickets and more info here.
Paul’s music is published with Edition Peters – check out his catalogue here.
VOCES8 Fall USA & Canada tour 2019
VOCES8 are heading to the USA and Canada to give concerts stretching from New York City to San Francisco in October and November. They will also give workshops everywhere they go in conjunction with Paul Smith, the author of the hugely popular VOCES8 Method book.
All of the group’s tour dates are on line at www.voces8.com/tour.
Reflections – new album from Paul Smith
Reflections is the new album of material composed by Paul Smith, and featuring performers Paul Smith, Clare Stewart, Neil Valentine, Apollo5, VOCES8 and the VOCES8 Foundation choir.
BBC Music Magazine has given the album a 4-star review: An immersive (and effective) endeavour, with plainsong, modern instrumental and vocal hues and early opera sitting together surprisingly comfortably. Definitely one for headphones and a darkened room.
The album launch concert is now available to watch on VOCES8’s Facebook page here.
Buy the album here.
Sheet music for one of the tracks, Nunc Dimittis, is available from Edition Peters here.
Paul’s own website is here.
VOCES8 and Paul Smith – debut Australian tour
VOCES8’s long-awaited debut tour to Australia begins this week. Their first concert is a recital at the Sydney Opera House, after which they work with conductor Benjamin Bayl and the student instrumentalists of ANAM in a performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass at the Melbourne Recital Centre. To end the trip they perform twice at Ukaria in Adelaide.
Tickets for the Melbourne performance are still available, with all other concerts sold out.
Alongside this schedule Paul Smith will be giving workshops either with VOCES8 or by himself, in a mixture of sessions based on the VOCES8 Method, of which he is the author, and also working on pieces prepared by choirs. He will be leading a workshop at Sydney Opera House before travelling to Perth to work with Voyces Incorporated. He also gives sessions hosted by Firbank Grammar School, Melbourne and Immanuel College, Adelaide.
Read one of the articles about the trip here, this one from the Sydney Morning Herald.
VOCES8’s touring schedule can be seen here.
Apollo5 in Grenoble
Auditorium du Musée performance
Vocal ensemble Apollo5 gives another performance in France on November 8th, at the Auditorium du Musée de Grenoble, singing a programme of British music stretching from William Byrd to James MacMillan and Elton John.
The group is based at the Gresham Centre in the City of London and one of two vocal ensembles of the VCM Foundation along with VOCES8. The Foundation’s aim is to inspire people through music with an innovative education outreach programme alongside a busy schedule of concert performances around the world.
Tickets are available through the promoter website here.
See a video of Apollo5 performing live at the Festival La Clé des Portes, France, here.
Keep up with the group’s activities via Facebook. Their recordings are available on Spotify here.