If you were at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis Sunday afternoon for the opening of VocalEssence’s 45th season, we don’t need to tell you how glorious it was, how deeply, almost unbearably moving. Originally scheduled for Orchestra Hall, the concert was relocated to the church because of the ongoing contract dispute between Minnesota Orchestra management…  Read More →

By Rob Hubbard Anyone who has lost a child knows that the pain and grief are too overwhelming for words or music. So English composer Jonathan Dove took on an immense challenge in accepting a commission to write an elegiac oratorio for a 19-year-old drowning victim. He could have gone small with it, staying away…  Read More →

If you were at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis Sunday afternoon for the opening of VocalEssence’s 45th season, we don’t need to tell you how glorious it was, how deeply, almost unbearably moving. Originally scheduled for Orchestra Hall, the concert was relocated to the church because of the ongoing contract dispute between Minnesota Orchestra management…  Read More →

By Rob Hubbard Anyone who has lost a child knows that the pain and grief are too overwhelming for words or music. So English composer Jonathan Dove took on an immense challenge in accepting a commission to write an elegiac oratorio for a 19-year-old drowning victim. He could have gone small with it, staying away…  Read More →

By Rob Hubbard Special to the Pioneer Press Getting into the Christmas spirit was easy Saturday night. Outside the windows of the Colonial Church of Edina, big fluffy flakes wafted toward the ground, blanketing the spire of the very New England-esque structure and the rolling hills of the park across the street. And, inside the…  Read More →

VocalEssence and The Singers each present multiple concerts featuring old and new holiday songs. By WILLIAM RANDALL BEARD, Special to the Star Tribune This time of year brings an abundance of choral activity, organizations vying to take advantage of all the holiday spirit. This weekend, two go head-to-head: the veteran VocalEssence, presenting “Welcome Christmas,” and…  Read More →

BY ROB HUBBARD Pioneer Press If it weren’t for Felix Mendelssohn, you may never have heard of Johann Sebastian Bach. Had the relatively obscure Bach not been extolled so avidly by Mendelssohn in the mid-19th century, what Bach works we know may have joined the ranks of the many that have disappeared. If it weren’t…  Read More →