VOCALESSENCE FUSES MEXICO WITH MINNESOTA IN ¡CANTARÉ!
Minneapolis-based choral ensemble
premieres new works by Mexican composers
and local students in ¡Cantaré!
Community Concert
As
part of its commitment to celebrating different cultures through choral art,
VocalEssence pairs two Mexican composers-in-residence with elementary and high
school choirs as well as community choruses across the Twin Cities to explore
Mexico’s cultural and choral tradition. This year, students met with acclaimed
composers
Jean Angelus Pichardo (for elementary students) and Julio
Morales (for high school students) over three visits, for a total of
four weeks between October and May, to collaborate and compose eight new choral
pieces; the final works will be premiered at the Ordway Center. In addition,
selected works will be published through the
VocalEssence
Music Press.
The
VocalEssence Chorus will take the stage at
the concert alongside students from St. Paul’s Adams Spanish Immersion
Elementary School, Minnehaha Academy Lower School, Richfield’s Partnership
Academy, Youth Choir of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Blaine High School, Park High
School, Cottage Grove, and Southwest High School, Minneapolis.
“The underlying mission of VocalEssence is to explore, develop and share choral
music from all over the world,” said Philip Brunelle, founder and artistic
director, VocalEssence. “As one of our flagship educational initiatives, VocalEssence
¡Cantaré! is a lens through which we, as Minnesotans, can discover the musical
traditions and sounds of our neighbors in Mexico. It’s a wonderful way for us
to engage young people through music, to expand our shared choral repertoire
and hopefully, to spark more interest in musical mentorships. And, ultimately,
through all our efforts, we are just hoping to get more people singing, more
often.”
Jean Angelus Pichardo is a
composer, arranger, performer and music producer who creates and promotes
artistic projects combining music with other arts and disciplines. His music
has been performed around the world, and he is the recipient of several national
honors, including the National Endowment for the Arts Young Artist grant by the
National Fund for Arts and Culture (FONCA); the Young Artist grant (Endowment
for the Arts and Artistic Development) by State Fund for Arts and Culture
(FOCAEM) in 2011 and 2013 – 2014; awards from the National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM), and from National Council for Culture and the Arts
(CONACULTA). He has supplemented his academic training with courses and
workshops in theater and studies in law at the Autonomous Metropolitan
University (UAM).
Julio Morales’s passion for choral music
has taken his career as an arranger and composer to choirs including Coro
Altus, Ensamble Vocal Veracruzano, Coro de la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán,
the Ensamble Mesticanto of Venezuela, and the University of Michigan Men’s Club
in the United States. In 2012 his composition “Dos cuerpos,” with lyrics by
Octavio Paz, was included in the Cor-atl
México collection, which documented Mexican choral activity and its
national and international influence, and was presented by Jorge Cózatl, a
previous VocalEssence ¡Cantaré! composer. In 2013 he started as a professor in
the Instituto Superior de Música del Estado de Veracruz (ISMEV), and in the
Centro de Estudios de Jazz de la Universidad Veracruzana (JAZZUV). Now he is
studying to receive his Masters in Composition in the Universidad Veracruzana;
is the conductor of the choir Vox Populi Project; a tenor singer in the
EnsambleVocal Veracruzano; a professor of jazz choir in JAZZUV and professor of
Technologies Applied to Music in the Instituto Superior de Música del Estado de
Veracruz (ISMEV).
Tickets
for the
VocalEssence
¡Cantaré! Community
Concert are free and open to the public.
They are available through the Latino Communications Network,
Neighborhood House at Wellstone Center, Consulate of Mexico in Saint Paul and
the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. For more information about this
event, please call 612-547-1456 or visit
www.vocalessence.org.
VocalEssence, called “one of the
irreplaceable music ensembles of our time” by Dana Gioia, past chairman of the
National Endowment for the Arts, impacts thousands of students, singers,
and composers each year through its initiative programs, contests, and support
for innovative art. VocalEssence was founded in 1969 and has debuted more than
175 commissions and world premieres. For more information, visit www.vocalessence.org.
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