Stories & Results

Voice Your Vote

   Take a minute and hear these powerful words from women from our Rightfully Hers performance. Voice your vote today! Already voted? Help someone else make a plan – you may be more important than you know. Need more information? Check out the League of Women Voters Minnesota website: https://www.lwvmn.org/ Watch Rightfully Hers Want…  Read More

Rightfully Hers Concert Resources

Rightfully Hers Preview Buy Stream Now in the press Classical Minnesota Public Radio interview with John Birge, actor Sally Wingert, and composer Jocelyn Hagen: https://www.classicalmpr.org/story/2020/10/15/vocalessence-rightfully-hers Concert Program   Learn More about the 19th Amendment Centennial There are so many wonderful resources to learn more about the 19th Amendment Centennial! Below are a few of our…  Read More

Where in the World are the Conductors – September 2020

Artistic Director Philip Brunelle and Associate Conductor G. Phillip Shoultz, III have been busy preparing for a safe and innovative 52nd season of VocalEssence. Online and physically distanced rehearsals have begun with VocalEssence Chorus & Ensemble Singers and will begin soon for our youth choir VocalEssence Singers Of This Age. Philip Brunelle has begun releasing…  Read More

Vintage Voices Singer visit at their homes

VocalEssence Vintage Voices Takes Singing Back Home

This September, VocalEssence Vintage Voices conductor Rob Graham has been visiting the homes of older adult singers from Sabathani Community Center in South Minneapolis. At a safe distance and accompanied by Sabathani Community Center Senior Program Director Georgia Marinkov-Omorean, Rob has been greeting them with a friendly visit as well as gifting them a care…  Read More

Table for More: Making Room in the Singing Arts

VocalEssence Associate Conductor G. Phillip Shoultz, III partnered with NATS Boston, Boston Singers’ Resource, and the Greater Boston Choral Consortium to present the 4-part Interactive Webinar Series “Table for More: Making Room in the Singing Arts” in August 2020. Offered free of charge, the webinars were interactive discussions surrounding the discrimination and injustice in the…  Read More

Bob Chilcott

Bob Chilcott | Musical Moments with Philip Brunelle

In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Bob Chilcott. Bob Chilcott b. 1955 Bob Chilcott is a British conductor, singer, and composer of music that choirs at all levels love to sing. Chilcott sang in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, first…  Read More

Eskil Hemberg

Eskil Hemberg | Musical Moments with Philip Brunelle

In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Eskil Hemberg. Eskil Hemberg 1938-2004 Eskil Hemberg was a composer and conductor born in Stockholm, Sweden. He studied organ, composition, and conducting at the Stockholm Royal College of Music under Herbert Blomstedt from 1957 to…  Read More

Honegger

Arthur Honegger | Musical Moments with Philip Brunelle

In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Arthur Honegger. Arthur Honegger 1892-1955 Arthur Honegger was born to Swiss parents, but spent much of his life composing in Paris. As a child, he studied violin and harmony privately in Le Havre and spent…  Read More

Hogan

Moses Hogan | Musical Moments with Philip Brunelle

In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Moses Hogan.   Moses Hogan 1957-2003 Moses Hogan was a leading arranger of African-American spirituals, as well as a talented pianist and conductor. Beginning at an early age, Hogan studied piano and was immersed in…  Read More

Hampton

Calvin Hampton | Musical Moments with Philip Brunelle

In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Calvin Hampton. Calvin Hampton 1938-1984 Calvin Hampton was best known for his music for organ and his talents as an organist, though he also composed beautiful sacred music for choir. He studied organ and composition…  Read More

Gjeilo

Ola Gjeilo | Musical Moments with Philip Brunelle

In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Ola Gjeilo. Ola Gjeilo b. 1978 Ola Gjeilo is one of the most frequently performed composers in the choral world. An accomplished pianist, improvisations over his own published choral pieces have become a trademark of…  Read More

Durufle

Maurice Duruflé | Musical Moments with Philip Brunelle

In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Maurice Duruflé. Maurice Duruflé 1902-1986 The French organist and composer Maurice Duruflé is known for the extraordinary sensitivity in his music. At age ten, he entered the choir school at Rouen Cathedral, where he was…  Read More

Byrd

William Byrd | Musical Moments with Philip Brunelle

In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer William Byrd. William Byrd 1543-1623 As the foremost English composer of the Renaissance, William Byrd made significant contributions to nearly every existing genre and influenced generations of younger composers. From 1563 to 1572, Byrd served…  Read More