In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Orlando Gibbons. Orlando Gibbons 1583-1625 The English composer and keyboard player, Orlando Gibbons, was a leading composer of vocal, keyboard and ensemble music in early 17th-century England. Gibbons was the most illustrious of a large… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Franz Liszt. Franz Liszt 1811-1886 Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer, pianist, and teacher, was a leader of the Romantic movement with music known for his imaginative and technical approach to composition. Born in Raiding, his father… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Edward Bairstow. Edward Bairstow 1874-1946 Edward Bairstow, English organist, composer and conductor, is best known for his sacred choral works. Little is known about Bairstow’s rearing, however, after a period of teaching at Windsor, he… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Wilhelm Stenhammar. Wilhelm Stenhammar 1871-1927 Wilhelm Stenhammar was a Swedish pianist, self-taught composer, and conductor whose pioneering compositions evolved over three musical periods. He grew up in a home where the arts were strongly encouraged:… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Robert Wetzler. Robert Wetzler b. 1932 Robert Wetzler is an American composer, organist, and choirmaster based in Minneapolis, MN, well-known for his sacred choral works. Wetzler earned his Bachelor of Arts from Thiel College and… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1844-1908 The Russian composer and educator Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a luminary of orchestral orchestrations. Born in Tikhvin into an aristocratic family, Rimsky-Korsakov showed musical ability from an early age but instead… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Howard Hanson. Howard Hanson 1896-1981 The American composer, conductor and teacher, Howard Hanson, promoted contemporary American music and was, in his compositions, a principal representative of the Romantic tradition. He studied at Luther College, with… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Duke Ellington. Duke Ellington 1899-1974 Considered one of the greatest jazz composers of all time, Duke Ellington had an enormous impact on the popular music of the late 20th century. Born in Washington D.C. in… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Jonathan Harvey. Jonathan Harvey 1939-2012 Born in Warwickshire in 1939, Jonathan Harvey was a chorister at St Michael’s College, Tenbury, and later a major music scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge. He gained doctorates from… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Gioachino Rossini. This episode features a duet with Soprano Maria Jette and Mezzo-Soprano Clara Osowski. Gioachino Rossini 1792-1868 No composer in the first half of the 19th century enjoyed the measure of prestige, wealth, popular… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Harold Darke. This episode features Tenor Bradley Greenwald. Harold Darke 1888-1976 Harold Darke bears a distinguished and honorable place in the annals of 20th-century choral music. As organist of St Michael’s Church, Cornhill, in the… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Mabel Daniels. Mabel Daniels 1877-1971 The American composer Mabel Wheeler Daniels was born in Swampscott, Massachusetts to a musical family; both her grandfathers were church musicians, and her parents sang in Boston’s Handel and Haydn… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Knut Nystedt. Knut Nystedt 1915-2014 Knut Nystedt was a Norwegian composer, conductor, organist, and music teacher. Living to age 99 he held a central position throughout a long period of rapidly shifting musical currents. With… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Zoltán Kodály. Zoltán Kodály 1882-1962 Composer, pioneering ethnomusicologist, groundbreaking educator and critic, Kodály enjoyed a status in Hungary that is perhaps unrivaled by any other figure. Kodály was born in Kecskemét, Hungary, soon moving to… Read More →
In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Hugo Distler. Hugo Distler 1908-1942 Born in Nuremberg, Germany, Hugo Distler is known mostly for his sacred choral music. He began his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory in the conducting class, with piano as his… Read More →
