Sotto Voce Concert

Local ensemble Sotto Voce Vocal Collective will offer a concert on Saturday, November 17th at 5 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo, located on 655 Elmwood Avenue. The ensemble, which has a strong connection with the UB Music Department, aims to promote awareness of both the capabilities of the human voice and the diversity of composers living today. Since their founding in Summer 2016, the group has premiered works by group members—and UB composition students—Jessie Downs and Brien Henderson, and presented works by other up-and-coming composers such as Porter James (Boston) and Sylvia Lim (London). They have also collaborated with inspirational established composers such as James Weeks, Chaya Czernowin, Reiko Füting, Osnat Netzer, Antoine Beuger, Eve Beglarian, and Lauren Redhead. It is therefore not surprising that all the compositions they will perform in their upcoming presentation have been written after 2010.

Their concert, titled “Science and Spirit,” will offer a program that grapples with questions about the nature of existence. The pieces on the program explore ideas from science, religion, and the spaces in between, reflecting a diverse group of living composers’ experiences of the world. Four world premieres will be featured, including 2 new pieces commissioned by Sotto Voce: @quantumloop_#love by Elizabeth A. Baker and Ave virgo virginum by UB fourth year composition PhD student Igor Coelho A.S. Marques. The commissioned composers will both be active participants in the show: Elizabeth A. Baker will showcase her far-ranging musicianship by performing on piano, toy piano, and electronics on three different pieces, and Igor Coelho A.S. Marques will both conduct his new work and play piano in the concert’s finale. Sotto Voce’s vocalists will perform works by these and other composers in duo through septet formations.

(Sotto Voce)

All the musical selections will feature melodies, rhythms, and textures inspired by a hybrid of electronic and classical musics, and physical choreography and projections will help elucidate the composers’ inspirations. The show is bound to be an accessible introduction to the exciting work being created by living composers around the world.

This is the program:

• Janet Oates - Atomic Choruses (2014, rev. 2017)
• Gabrielle Cerberville - Phases (2016)
•  Elizabeth Baker - @quantumloop_#love (2018 - WP)*
• Amanda Feery - Squarepushers (2012)
• Gabrielle Cerberville - Particle (for solo piano, 2018)*
• Eva Maria Houben - Psalm 117 (2008 - WP)
• Igor Coehlo Arantes Santana Marques - Ave Virgo (2018 - WP)
• Elizabeth A. Baker - repetition_deviation@hesitation.reality05812 (for toy piano + piano, 2018)
• Gabrielle Cerberville - Ubi Caritas (2014)

Tickets for the concert can be purchased here.