Press Release

 

The auditioned mid-coast a cappella vocal ensemble VoXX: Voice of Twenty will return to the stage after a two-year hiatus with its 2023 winter concert series “Music for a New Year,” presented in three venues in January, led by returning Music Director John Mehrmann.

 

The program centers around music of consolation and joy as we emerge from the worst of a worldwide pandemic and welcome the lengthening days and the return of the sun. A wide range of composers and genres offer variations on these themes, from works such as John Sheppard’s In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescat (In true peace shall I sleep and rest), Remember, an interpretation of a Christina Rossetti poem by contemporary composer Stephen Chapman, Viadana’s joyful Exultate Justi, and the lovely Calme by Saint-Saëns.

 

Early works, a staple of the VoXX repertoire, will include those by Sheppard (In pace), Viadana (Exultate Justi), and Hans Leo Hassler (Cantate Domino). Later works range from Yea,Though I Walk by Arthur Sullivan (yes, of Gilbert and Sullivan) to Virgil Thompson’s My Shepherd Will Supply My Need, to Maurice Duruflé’s Ubi Caritas – a twentieth-century work with medieval echoes – and a setting of the spiritual Hear My Prayer by African-American composer Moses Hogan. 

 

In keeping with our enthusiasm for a challenge, the program also includes some adventurous programming by living composers: James MacMillan’s haunting Ave Maris Stella, and Ola Gjeilo’s Northern Lights, a soaring interpretation of text from the Song of Songs.

 

VoXX will present “Music for a New Year” three times:

 

Friday, January 13

Belfast, The Old Boathouse, 15 Front Street

7 p.m.

 

Sunday, January 15

Union Hall, 24 Central Street, Rockport

4 p.m.

 

Sunday, January 22

Phippsburg Congregational Church

Congregational Church, 10 Church Lane, Phippsburg

3 p.m.

 

Tickets are $20 (cash or check), available at the door. 

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Media contact: Laura Buxbaum

lbuxbaum@roadrunner.com or 207-518-0609