In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Gian Carlo Menotti. This episode features Tenor Dan Dressen. Gian Carlo Menotti 1911-2007 Gian Carlo Menotti, the Italian-American composer and librettist, became the most-performed contemporary opera composer of his era. At age 7, under the… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Rollo Dilworth. Rollo Dilworth b.1970 Rollo Dilworth is an American choral composer, arranger, conductor, and music educator best-known for his contemporary choral arrangements of African American spirituals. As a young boy growing up in St.… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Dale Trumbore. Dale Trumbore b. 1987 Dale Trumbore is a Los Angeles-based composer and writer whose music features soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies. Trumbore holds a dual degree in Music Composition and English from the… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Morten Lauridsen. Morten Lauridsen b. 1943 Morten Lauridsen is a National Medal of Arts recipient and the most frequently performed American choral composer in modern history. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Lauridsen worked as… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Antonín Dvořák. Antonín Dvořák 1841-1904 Antonín Dvořák, the Czech composer, was the first Bohemian composer to achieve worldwide recognition, noted for turning folk material into 19th-century Romantic music. He came to know music early and… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Virgil Thomson. Virgil Thomson 1896-1989 Virgil Thomson was a many-faceted American composer of great originality as well as a music critic of singular brilliance. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, his early connection to music came… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Henry Purcell. This episode features Soprano Maria Jette. Henry Purcell 1659-1695 Henry Purcell, the most important English composer of his time, is best remembered for his more than 100 songs, a tragic opera, his… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Joseph Canteloube. This episode features Soprano Maria Jette. Joseph Canteloube 1879-1957 The French composer, pianist, and folk-song collector, Joseph Canteloube, is best known for his compositions that evoke the landscape of his native region, the… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Ned Rorem. Ned Rorem b. 1923 Ned Rorem is one of America’s most honored and accomplished modern composers. He grew up in Chicago, where he studied the piano with Bonds and music theory with Sowerby.… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Anton Bruckner. Anton Bruckner 1824-1896 One of the greatest German composers of the 19th century, Anton Bruckner exerted an enormous influence on the development of music in the modern age. From an early age he… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Nils Lindberg. Nils Lindberg b.1933 Swedish composer and pianist, Nils Lindberg, is best-known for his works and arrangements for performers including Duke Ellington and Judy Garland. The music which he creates, whether written for choir,… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Frank Martin. This episode features Mezzo-Soprano Clara Osowski. Frank Martin 1890-1974 The German composer, educator, and pianist, Frank Martin, is best known for his religious choral works including his oratorio, In Terra Pax and his… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Alvin Singleton. Alvin Singleton b.1940 Alvin Singleton is an African-American composer and educator known for his prolific compositions for orchestra, theatre, and chamber ensembles. Singleton was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended New York… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley. Samuel Sebastian Wesley 1810-1876 The English composer and organist Samuel Sebastian Wesley was one of the most distinguished English church musicians of his time. Born in London, Wesley was named both after… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Paul Fetler. Paul Fetler 1920-2018 Paul Fetler was born in the United States but spent his youth in Latvia where the influences of Russian culture made a great impression upon him. At age six, he… Read More →
