• At this year’s VocalEssence WITNESS: Leading with Love concert, we featured a showcase of Black makers and entrepreneurs who align themselves with the message of “leading with love” at the inaugural Black-Owned Business and Artist Showcase.

Click the button below to learn more.
Black-Owned Business and Artist Showcase

• To Lead with Love is to acknowledge that everyone deserves the right to live in a world that allows them to be fully alive and thrive. At WITNESS: Leading with Love concert attendees were invited to add their name to the pledge.

Click the button below to learn more and add your name to the growing number of folks who pledge to “lead with love.”
Learn more and sign the pledge

• Healing Beats Sessions with Melanie DeMore were held at five different sites with a total of 210 participants, including members of the St. Paul Police Department. Each session included Gullah stick pounding, singing, stick decorating, and dialogue with people of the communities where the workshops were held. All participants got to keep their pounding sticks and have been invited to join VocalEssence on stage during the VocalEssence WITNESS: Leading with Love concert.

• The VocalEssence Singers Of This Age performed in the 43rd annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute concert which was hosted and curated by G. Phillip Shoultz, III.

• VocalEssence Singers Of This Age joined a consortium of choirs from around the Twin Cities in a song share celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park.

Click the button below to learn more about the event.
100TH ANNIVERSARY OF BETH EL SYNAGOGUE

• Over the past several months, VocalEssence has hosted Sing Your Joy Sing-Alongs at Keystone Community Center. Participation has grown from 5 singers at the first event to 16 singers. These community sings are in preparation to launch a new Vintage Voices site in St. Paul in Spring 2024.

• Conversations between VocalEssence, vocal activist Melanie DeMore, and local police departments have begun to plan stick-pounding workshops that bring together community members through conversation and song.

• At the annual Fall Singer Retreat, VocalEssence singers split into groups to discuss a prompt regarding one of Moira Smiley’s pieces and the topic of cultural appropriation in music.

• Board and Staff have continued their commitment to inclusion, diversity, and equity work by taking the Intercultural Development Inventory and working with a consultant to process their results. They will work together to continue their intercultural capacity work and lead organization-wide impact.

• Singers from all four VocalEssence ensembles participated in Let Freedom Ring, a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the march on Washington with community members from choirs around the Twin Cities. 1,000 people attended the celebration featuring remarks by dignitaries from Minnesota and beyond. The concert highlighted the work of numerous local multi-disciplinary black artists.

• Members of VocalEssence Singers Of This Age joined Joe Davis and The New Renaissance to perform in Ancestors Rising, an immersive multi-sensory Afrofuturist theater production featuring over 20 local interdisciplinary artists weaving together choreography, live band music, singing, and poetic storytelling. The event also featured the launch of Mapping Black Joy in the Twin Cities.

• Songs from the Heart is a new VocalEssence program that engages young mothers and their babies in shared music creation and singing experiences at Longfellow High School in Minneapolis. Workshops with these twenty mothers are led by G. Phillip Shoultz III, VocalEssence Teaching Artist Ginger Commodore, 29:11 International Exchange, and Vox A Cappella Band. This program was recently featured on WCCO.
Click the button below to view the WCCO clip.
SONGS FROM THE HEART

• VocalEssence Singers Of This Age engaged with artists and community groups including 29:11 International Exchange, ComMUSICation, Vox A Cappella Band, CNLE (Community Neighborhood LE), and caterer Preps By Marvelles for neighborhood block parties during the weekend of the Change Sings concerts.

• Three WITNESS partner schools are having the opportunity to host a Teaching Artist for an extended residency to test a new more in-depth model for the WITNESS school program beyond our standard two session visit. Irondale High School, Osseo High School, and Las Estrellas Dual Language Immersion School in Minneapolis have all hosted Teaching Artists for a total of eight workshop days, spread out over multiple weeks. The experiences have been inspirational and positively impactful for both the students and teaching artists based on teacher and direct student feedback and will be important information to plan future classroom programming.

“I learned that no matter who you are, or what your beliefs are; We are all equal. We all deserve a chance. We all deserve to be ourselves. We all are deserving of love.”
—Osseo High School Student

• VocalEssence is partnering with catering and merchandise companies led by primarily Black owners.

• VocalEssence is a sponsor of Chorus America’s Choral Executive Leadership Academy which will identify and support the next generation of administrative leaders who have been marginalized because of race or identity.
Click the button below to read more about this initiative.
Choral Executive Leadership Academy

• On the Rise: Joe Davis Birthday Concert is an example of a partnership between VocalEssence and artists from cultures and musical styles representing and celebrating the global majority.

• VocalEssence hired a new executive director who will bring a new vision and goals to the organization.

Click the button below to learn about Amy Wielunski, the new executive director.
New Executive Director Announcement

• Funding Updates:
-A bequest was received from the Kaemmer Famiy that will benefit the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers and concert programming for the next ten years.
-The funds raised for Executive Director search were higher than anticipated expenses.

• Board leadership roles including officer succession plans were defined that will ensure the sustainability of the leadership of the organization.

• New funder updates:
-A three year pledge has been secured from the Hodder Family Foundation to support VocalEssence Vintage Voices.
-The Bob and Kathie Goodale Legacy Foundation provided support for the VocalEssence Chorus performance at the Midwestern Region American Choral Directors Association Conference in Omaha, Nebraska.
-Best Buy, Sue Shepard, and the Katherine B. Andersen Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation donated funds for the Executive Director search.

• VocalEssence renewed its commitment as a sponsor of Chorus America’s Choral Executive Leadership Academy which will identify and support the next generation of administrative leaders who have been marginalized because of race or identity.
Click the button below to read more about this initiative.
Choral Executive Leadership Academy

• This fall marked the launch of House Concerts, a board member generated initiative. Since September, there have been three concerts that were attended by 88 attendees. These concerts have generated new donors and expanded the visibility of the organization.

• The goal set for Philip Brunelle’s 80th Birthday Campaign has been met and the first funds were used for a commission by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds. His piece, Three Latvian Juletide Folksongs was premiered at Welcome Christmas.
Click the button below to hear Ēriks Ešenvalds share his inspiration for the piece and listen to VocalEssence singers rehearsing the first folksong of the piece.
Ēriks Ešenvalds Commission

• The Executive Director search is progressing. A committee has been established and Ballinger Leafblad has been engaged to lead the search process. Staff fundraising efforts have resulted in securing adequate support for the process from corporate, foundation and individual donors.

• In celebration of Philip Brunelle’s 80th birthday a special campaign was launched, raising (to date) nearly $300,000 to fund special artistic initiatives including recording projects, new music commissions and international touring.
Click the button below to learn more about Philip Brunelle’s 80th Birthday Campaign
Philip Brunelle 80th Birthday Campaign

• Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies renewed their funding for the VocalEssence Singers Of This Age initiative and community work for an ongoing investment of $1 million.

• We welcomed Emma Jirele to the VocalEssence staff to support the expansion of our Learning & Engagement work and other initiatives.

• We ended the 2023 fiscal year with a healthy surplus that will be reinvested into future program initiatives.

• VocalEssence is no longer asking singers to pay a fee to audition for the Ensemble Singers and Chorus. In addition, we are subsidizing payment to the pianist, so all candidates have access to a free accompanist.

• Participation in our flagship Sabathani Vintage Voices program increased by four singers and celebrates nine years of engaging older adults in the power of singing together.
Click the link below to view their latest digital concert.
SABATHANI VINTAGE VOICES FALL CONCERT

• We met our Bridge to the Future Campaign goal of $4.5 million through the generosity of 101 individual and institutional donors.
Click the button below to learn more.
Bridge to the Future Campaign

• Six young alumni are participating as mentors with VocalEssence Singers Of This Age members, encouraging lifelong participation in choral singing.