VOCES8 will perform at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church Feb. 21 and Feb. 23
HOUSTON, February 12, 2025 – The Grammy® Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir announces that VOCES8 Artistic Director Barnaby Smith will serve as special guest conductor at the upcoming Love Songs & Sonnets concert on Saturday, Feb. 22 at South Main Baptist Church. Love Songs & Sonnets is the Houston Chamber Choir’s post-Valentine’s offering, which will be conducted by Dr. Betsy Cook Weber, Artistic Director Designate.
During Love Songs & Sonnets, Smith will conduct two Gustav Holst arrangements from Six Choral Folksongs, Op. H. 136. “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Barnaby Smith to the stage for Love Songs & Sonnets,” says Weber. “Under his brilliant leadership, VOCES8 has become one of the most revered and respected choral ensembles in the world.”
“To have a British musician of Barnaby’s stature conduct these two British pillars of the choral repertoire is an unbelievable gift to us and to our audience,” Weber continues. “We are grateful beyond words to Sid Davis, St. Lukes United Methodist Church Director of Music and Fine Arts and Houston Chamber Choir Board Member, for helping make this happen.”
VOCES8 is an internationally renowned British vocal ensemble which performs an extensive repertoire both in its a cappella concerts and in collaborations with leading orchestras, conductors and soloists across the globe. The group will perform two concerts at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, including Friday, Feb. 21 and Sunday, Feb. 23, both at 7 p.m. Find a link to tickets here for VOCES8 St. Luke’s concerts.
VOCES8 has performed at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church numerous times over the last several years, thanks to its close connection with Davis. The church is known for its music ministry, including the Chancel Choir, Pure Sound (Youth Choir) and the many guest artists it brings in for special programs, including VOCES8, Conspirare, Howard Goodall, Ken Medema, Christina Wells (The Voice) and many more.
“What a pleasure and an honour to have been invited to work with such a talented and prestigious ensemble,” says Smith. “I’m excited to share this wonderful repertoire with them and our audience. Houston feels like a second home to VOCES8, so it’s particularly nice to be making this connection with the chamber choir.”
The Program:
The Houston Chamber Choir will take the listener on a romantic journey that begins in the Renaissance period, opening with two searing Monteverdi madrigals, Si ch’io vorrei morire and Quel augellin che canta.
Next, are two important pieces from the Romantic period — with the first being Brahms’ Vier Gesänge for treble choir, horns, and harp, a staple of the repertoire. The second is Franz Schubert’s Ständchen for tenor-bass chorus.
Following these are the Holst offerings conducted by Smith.
The two languid, 21st-century settings from Songs of Solomon, His Left Hand and I am the rose of Sharon, are similar in tonality and affect. Written respectively by Swedish composer, Sven-David Sandström and Swiss/Italian composer, Ivo Antognini, the Scriptural texts explore the ways in which a lover’s right and left hands are used to learn and embrace.
For a jazzy spin we turn to British jazz pianist George Shearing who wrote seven Songs and Sonnets on various Shakespearean texts. Finally, the choir closes with an example of the uniquely American genre, barbershop singing, with a clever arrangement of the partner song Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You from Music Man.
The Houston Chamber Choir invites guests to a special “after-prom” at the conclusion of the concert for additional music, along with refreshments and fun.
Love Songs & Sonnets details:
WHEN: Saturday, February 22, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. CT
WHERE: South Main Baptist Church, 4100 Main St., Houston, TX 77002
COST: $10 – $45 for single tickets. Go to www.houstonchamberchoir.org/2024-2025-season/love-songs-and-sonnets to purchase.
MORE: There is ample free parking in the church lot.
Check out our website at HoustonChamberChoir.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
St. Luke’s United Methodist concert details:
WHEN:
Friday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. For the Beauty of the Earth. This program features VOCES8 and the VOCES8 US Scholars with Jim Roman, organ.
Sunday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. VOCES8 and St. Luke’s Chancel Choir. This program features VOCES8, VOCES8 US Scholars, and St. Luke’s UMC Chancel Choir, including the St. Luke’s Staff Singers. A highlight of the program will be a selection of Handel’s Coronation Anthems.
WHERE: St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 3471 Westheimer Rd., Houston, TX 77027
Link to photos here
Photo credit: Jeff Grass Photography and Andy Staples
About Houston Chamber Choir
Led by Founder and Artistic Director Robert Simpson and Artistic Director Designate Dr. Betsy Cook Weber, the Houston Chamber Choir is a Grammy® Award-winning ensemble of 24 professional musicians selected from the finest choral artists in our region. “One of the jewels of the city’s cultural scene” (Houston Chronicle), the Houston Chamber Choir has brought Houston an array of choral works for 30 years ranging from early music and Baroque masterpieces, including the city’s first period instrument performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass, to the rarely heard Third Sacred Concert by Duke Ellington, and performances and premieres of works by today’s leading composers, many with Houston ties — David Ashley White, Christopher Theofanidis, Dominick DiOrio, J. Todd Frazier, Mark Buller, Karim Al-Zand, Pierre Jalbert, Marcus Maroney, and Daniel Knaggs.
The Houston Chamber Choir’s awards include Chorus America’s Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence and the American Prize. They were one of 24 international ensembles selected to appear at the 2020 World Symposium on Choral Music in New Zealand. The Houston Chamber Choir has appeared at national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the American Guild of Organists, and Chorus America. Tours have taken them to Mexico, Wales, and the Northeastern United States where they performed at Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York City, and Yale University at the invitation of the Institute of Sacred Music.
The Choir’s recording of the complete choral works of French composer Maurice Duruflé was awarded the 2019 Grammy® Award for Best Choral Performance. In January 2022, Signum Classics released its newest recording of compositions by acclaimed British composer Bob Chilcott. For this recording, the Houston Chamber Choir is joined by the Treble Choir of Houston directed by Marianna Parnas-Simpson. The title work, Circlesong, is a 13-movement composition for two choirs, two pianos, and percussion based on indigenous poetry of North America.
About VOCES8
Touring globally, VOCES8 performs an extensive repertory both in its a cappella concerts and in collaborations with leading musicians, orchestras, conductors and soloists. Versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s performance and education ethos which is shared both online and in person.
VOCES8 has performed at many notable venues since its inception in 2005 including Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin Philharmonie, Cité de la Musique Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus, Tokyo Opera City, NCPA Beijing, Sydney Opera House, Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, Victoria Concert Hall Singapore, Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico City amongst many others. This season they perform over 100 concerts around the world, their 20th Anniversary season, including a birthday celebration concert at the Barbican, London.
They have collaborated in concert and in the recording studio with musicians including Paul Simon, Jacob Collier, Eric Whitacre, Christopher Tin, Olafur Arnalds, Cody Fry, Rachel Podger, Jack Liebeck, Bomsori Kim, Jonathan Dove, Chanticleer, The King’s Singers, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and others.
VOCES8 is passionate about music education and is the flagship ensemble of music charity the VOCES8 Foundation which actively promotes ‘Music Education For All’. Engaging in a broad range of in-person outreach work that reaches up to 40,000 people a year, the Foundation runs an annual programme of workshops and masterclasses at the VOCES8 Centre at St Anne & St Agnes Church, London. Dedicated to supporting promising young singers, VOCES8 awards eight annual choral scholarships through the VOCES8 Scholars initiative. These scholarships are linked to the annual Milton Abbey Summer School at which amateur singers of all ages learn and perform with VOCES8. Through the separate VOCES8 USA Foundation there is another set of twelve talented Scholars.
VOCES8’s entrepreneurial and community spirit is fostered by Co-Founders Paul and Barnaby Smith. The Covid-19 pandemic gave the impetus for VOCES8 to transform its already exceptional offerings, nurturing a new online audience community providing a chance to engage with classical music in new ways. Pioneering initiatives include the LIVE From London online festival and the VOCES8 Digital Academy.
