ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES |
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Vox Femina has been honored in 2012 with invitations to perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as well as at the American Choral Directors Association Western Division Conference in Reno, NV.
The Mahler Project: Mahler No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand"
The Shrine Auditorium – with LA Philharmonic and 14 other choirs
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 8pm
Read the review!
2012 American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Western Division Conference
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Vox Femina’s 15th anniversary season takes off!
As one of 14 choruses invited via a rigorous blind audition process, Vox Femina is honored to be performing at the 2012 American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Western Division Conference in Reno, Nevada. ACDA is a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting excellence in choral performance, composition, publication, research, and teaching.
A member of ACDA since 1980 and serving as its National Chair, Repertoire & Standards for Women's Choirs, Dr. Iris Levine says that the performance will “raise the bar of our own performance…[presenting] an ensemble whose mission is, through music…to create a world that affirms the worth and dignity of every person.”
“When we perform for ACDA, all music is memorized, internalized, and delivered at a very high musical level….In the end, we truly will be one unit—one family of women who ARE Vox Femina Los Angeles.” –Dr. Iris S. Levine, Artistic Director
The experience of performing for ACDA differs from the concerts at downtown Los Angeles’ Zipper Hall according to members who have sung for them in the past. The audience comprises choral directors, who “know much of the repertoire; they certainly have a mastery of some level in the field,” according to founding member Helen Mendoza, alto and documentary filmmaker, who also notes an important benefit of touring: “We don’t sing in a vacuum…touring is a way to get our voice out beyond our community.”
“Vox Femina [is] a women’s choir … whose accomplishment is extraordinary. Challenging works by Stephen Paulus, Roger Bourland, and others were presented with ease, grace, wit and an obvious love of music….” - Nick Strimple, American Choral Review
Vox Femina will perform a program that “reflects the ensemble’s mission and goals plus engages the audience of choral colleagues,” according to Dr. Levine. The repertoire centers around Voices of Broken Hearts, by Steven Sametz, which was performed at the chorus’ fall concert to a standing ovation. Additional works include Sing, sing Ye Muses by Henry Purcell, If Music be the Food of Love, by David Dickau, the Irish traditional song, Cúnnla, by Michael McGlynn, and two pieces which speak to Vox Femina’s ethos: Oh! Let Me Die in Music’s Arms, a new work by a local composition student, Jamie Thierman, and Sister, My Sister by Sue Johnson, a piece that “speaks to the heart of who Vox is,” says Dr. Levine.
In the final week of rehearsals for this exciting performance, Voxxies are working diligently to ensure that their performance is up to our own high standards as well as worthy of the ACDA’s honor. Wish us a safe journey to Reno and a successful performance!
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Vox, Gustavo and Mahler, oh my!
Vox singers with Gustavo Dudamel and Grant Gershon during rehearsals for the Mahler Project.
In addition to its three regular performances this season, Vox Femina, under the artistic direction of Dr. Iris S. Levine, has been asked to join the LA Philharmonic, along with 14 other choruses and 2 orchestras, in performing Mahler's 8th Symphony on Saturday, February 4th, 2012. The “Symphony of a Thousand” performance is part of the Philharmonic’s Mahler Project, during which Maestro Gustavo Dudamel will conduct Mahler's nine completed symphonies in honor of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death.
“I’m awed by the thought of 800 people gathered to sing.” – Lisa Sloan, Vox Femina soprano since 2010, UCLA Ph.D. student in theater and performance studies
The chorus members’ excitement is tempered only by its humbling effect – Vox Femina will sing alongside esteemed professional and community choruses such as the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific Chorale, Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus.
How will a thousand performers stay in sync? Over the past two months, Dr. Levine worked with the women in Vox Femina, to master the score. “The singers must be so adept at singing their own part that they can enjoy how it fits into the [symphony],” says Dr. Levine. Over the last week, Grant Gershon, Music Director of the LA Master Chorale and Maestro Dudamel, accompanied by our very own Lisa Edwards on the piano, have led rehearsals of the combined choruses to integrate them with the orchestra and soloists. In what is sure to be a spectacular performance, Maestro Dudamel will conduct the entire body of musicians and perform the work for the public at the Shrine Auditorium this Saturday, as the Disney Hall’s capacity is not large enough to house so many musicians.
If you missed your chance to obtain tickets to this sold-out show, we will miss you! However, you can hear the women of Vox sing in our spring concert, “From Shakespeare to Shamrocks” on March 17, 2012. Tickets are on sale now! And join us after the concert at Noe, the lounge in the Hotel Omni, just steps away from Zipper Hall. What better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day than through song and companionship?