


Music for a New Year
Music from the 16th to the 21st centuries
Palestrina, Durufle, Saint-Seans, Finzi, and more
Music Director, John Mehrmann
January Concert Dates
Friday, January 13
New Event Center @ 15 Front Street
in Belfast at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 15
Union Hall
in Rockport at 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 22
Phippsburg Congregational Church
in Phippsburg at 3:00 p.m.
Tickets are $20 (cash or check), available at the door.
Students are free.
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.
Media contact: Laura Buxbaum
lbuxbaum@roadrunner.com or 207-518-0609
Love to Sing? Join VoXX!
VoXX is seeking enthusiastic choral singers
who read music and are comfortable singing alone on their part.
We are looking for a few more singers in every voice part to join us for concerts in January 2023 and beyond.
Click here if you would like to audition.

