Upcoming Events
Announcing VAE’s annual winter concert!
Saturday, December 13, 4 pm
Trinity United Methodist Church, Durham
O Holy Night: Darkness into Light
This holiday season, the 36 voices of the Vocal Arts Ensemble will present their annual winter concert, which brings together seasonal themes of darkness giving way to light and unquenched hope for renewal. The performance features various styles of choral music unified by these themes. British composer Joanna Marsh sets an image-laden secular poem by Jane Draycott, “In winter’s house,” using dramatically original musical language. By contrast, American composer Abbie Betinis takes the classic melody of the “In the bleak midwinter” carol and surrounds it with lush, evocative vocal lines. The concert includes both well-known choral music from the past, like Palestrina’s “Hodie Christus natus est” and Rachmaninoff’s “Salvation is created,” and less familiar recent music, with works by two Venezuelan composers and a thrilling setting of Tennyson’s poem “Ring out, wild bells” by Jonathan Dove that virtually explodes into a joyous call for a changed world. The concert will also feature Arvo Pärt’s stunning setting of the Magnificat plus the winner of VAE’s audience poll for their favorite holiday piece: Biebl’s “Ave Maria.”
Some rare and intensely beautiful fare that was almost without exception profoundly inspiring and moving, particularly given the magnificence of the singing… We may never take this art for granted, so it’s worthwhile reflecting on how much work goes into it… so what one remembers is the sheer beauty as each of the individual pieces unfold… so pure, so refined was the singing
About VAE
The Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham was founded in 1996 by Rodney Wynkoop to provide superior choral performance opportunities for outstanding singers in North Carolina’s Triangle region (Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh). Its 32 members are selected mainly from among musicians who have sung in other choral groups under Dr. Wynkoop’s direction.
VAE sings two concerts each year: a summer concert in June and a holiday concert in December. They have also frequently been chosen to perform at national and divisional conferences of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). The group sings music of many different styles and eras, much of it unaccompanied, ranging from simple folksongs to highly complicated works like Tallis’s Spem in alium, Schoenberg’s Friede Auf Erden, Martin’s Messe, and MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados. The group has released two CD recordings: My Spirit Sang All Day (on the Arsis label) and O Holy Night, a collection of Christmas music from past VAE concerts.
YouTube Channel
Visit the VAE’s YouTube channel to see professionally recorded past live performances, including the 25th Anniversary Concert in Duke Chapel and the 2021 Holiday Concert at First Presbyterian Church.