After more than 50 years of championing the power act of singing together, VocalEssence has been recognized by organizations around the world.
We received the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for adventurous programming of contemporary music six times and has been honored with more Chorus America awards than any other ensemble nationwide, including the once-in-an-organizational-lifetime Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence. Our learning and engagement programs have also received a number of awards including the Chorus America Education and Community Engagement Award in 2002 for our VocalEssence WITNESS School Program and in 2019 for our youth choir, VocalEssence Singers Of This Age. We also received the Chorus America Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award in 2016 for our VocalEssence WITNESS School Program. The award recognizes organizations whose work builds on Dennard’s commitment to diversity, inclusiveness, and furthering African American choral traditions and other diverse choral music traditions through performance, research, or the creation of new compositions of significance.
In addition to the organizational awards listed above, VocalEssence Artistic Director and Founder Philip Brunelle has also received ample recognition for his work:
- Kodály Medal (Hungary),
- Royal Order of the Polar Star (Sweden)
- Stig Andersson Award for contributions to Swedish music
- Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit
- Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
- Ohti Recognition Award from the government of Mexico (2011)
- Michael Korn Founder’s Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art (Chorus America’s highest lifetime achievement award)
- Champion of New Music, given by the American Composers Forum (2007)
- Melius Christiansen Award (highest honor of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association)
- Weston H. Noble Lifetime Achievement award, given by the North Central American Choral Directors Association (2012)
- Minnesota Music Hall of Fame
- U.S. Bank Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Commitment
- Best Impresario, given by Mpls.St.Paul magazine
- Local Legend award, presented by General Mills and United Negro College Fund (2010)
- Minneapolis Award, presented by Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton for “going the extra mile” to enrich the community (1998)