Classical Movements Co-presents Vox Virtual, August 22-29

Classical Movements co-presents Vox Virtual

August 22-29, 2020

Digital Togetherness in a Time of Physical Distance

9 International Vocal Ensembles Connect With Audiences around the World in First-of-Its-Kind Virtual Festival of Singing

Classical Movements will co-present the inaugural Vox Virtual from August 22-29, 2020, an online a cappella festival featuring 9 small professional vocal ensembles from around the world to remind each other that the musical community is strong, even when physically separated, and to spread beautiful music and a sense of togetherness around the world.

Conceived by Olga Vocal Ensemble and inspired by the model of Classical Movements’ Serenade! Choral Festival, which has brought international choirs and vocal groups (including Olga in 2018) to the D.C. metropolitan area every year since 2011 for joint concerts, workshops and a grand finale featuring individual and collaborative performances by all of the participating choirs. Vox Virtual will feature daily livestreamed concerts, interviews and workshops.

Vox Virtual will feature some of the world’s most exciting vocal groups, with a wide spectrum of musical influences and singing styles, including Cantus (USA),  Insingizi (Zimbabwe), Olga Vocal Ensemble (Iceland and Netherlands), Nairyan Vocal Ensemble (Armenia), The Swingles (United Kingdom), Les Itinérantes (France), Accent (International), Ensemble Rustavi (Georgia) and Anúna (Ireland).

Normally, artists only share their own content on their social media channels. This festival will be the first of its kind where artists will cross-promote each other’s performances for every concert featured during the festival in order to be united in the world during this socially distanced time. 

Six Free Livestreamed Concerts

Over the course of the week, participating ensembles will livestream five free concerts, each featuring two ensembles, and one Finale concert featuring all nine. All of the artists will livestream all concerts and interviews on their Facebook pages and YouTube channels on a daily basis during August 22-29.

The concerts will be presented free of charge, but audience members will be able to support the Vox Virtual ensembles by purchasing access to exclusive video workshops and other prerecorded material, as well as to make donations. All proceeds and any additional donations will be shared evenly by the participating organizations.

About the Workshops

Ever wanted to learn overtone singing? Or how to achieve a better blend in your ensemble singing? Or about the hidden stories behind the songs? Vox Virtual will feature a wide range of video workshops by our artists, giving in depth instruction on topics like vocal technique, composing, arranging, and musicianship in the modern world.

Details on workshop themes, pricing and how to sign up or donate are available here.

Vox Virtual is jointly presented by Classical Movements and Olga Vocal Ensemble

Classical Movements founder and president Neeta Helms comments: “After leading the way for a decade with the Serenade! Festival and our company’s history of bringing musicians together all over the world for 27 years, this seems an important way to use that vision to support ensembles whose livelihoods have been disrupted by the pandemic and the cancellation of so many live performances. Classical Movements is proud to lend our name to this new project and to offer our resources and experience to its planning.”

Says Philip Barkhudarov of Olga: “After twiddling our musical thumbs for some time during the COVID-19 lockdown, we had an idea: we could connect some incredible artists together and create a new, shared space online. Together, we’d be able to inspire our entire collective audience while supporting the artists in these difficult times when live performances are impossible. And so, Vox Virtual was born.”

About the Artists

Cantus (USA)

The “engaging” (New Yorker) men’s vocal ensemble Cantus is widely known for its trademark warmth and blend, innovative programming and riveting performances of music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century. The Washington Post has hailed the Cantus sound as having both “exalting finesse” and “expressive power” and refers to the “spontaneous grace” of its music making. The Philadelphia Inquirer called the group nothing short of “exquisite.”

As one of the United States’ few full-time vocal ensembles, Cantus has grown in prominence with its distinctive approach to creating music. Working without a conductor, the members of Cantus rehearse and perform as chamber musicians, each contributing to the entirety of the artistic process.

Insingizi (Zimbabwe)

This extraordinary trio from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe offers uplifting performances filled with harmonious a cappella singing, traditional chants, hand percussion, and superb choreography. Their songs possess a gentleness and honesty that stir the soul, conveying a wide range of challenges facing people today. A particular highlight of their live shows is the energetic performance of the traditional "gumboot dance" of the oppressed South African miners of long ago. Insingizi's music is filled with hope, optimism and faith, including such stirring compositions as Amasango, which means heavenly gates, a song that imparts the group's message of the ultimate answer to the world's seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Jerusalem is a song that negates the violence of the historical city by describing it, instead, as a heavenly paradise of fairy-tale mountains, valleys and rivers, which will, one day, be home, sweet home. Wherever they go, the purity of their vocal interplay is overwhelmingly beautiful, the lyric is ultimately hopeful, and the inherent tone of their message is true to their spiritual beliefs. Put simply, an evening with Insingizi is a sure recipe for a truly inspirational experience.

Olga Vocal Ensemble (Iceland and Netherlands)

Olga Vocal Ensemble creates musical joy – a joy she wants to share with the world. The Olga boys produce a remarkable resonance that fills spaces with the acoustics of an entire choir, compressed into five voices, and their charismatic performances have charmed audiences far and wide.

Olga Vocal Ensemble was founded in 2012 at the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands. With Dutch, Icelandic, English, and Russian singers, and music from many nationalities and genres, she is a truly international ensemble. She has toured all over Europe and the US, and tours to wild and craggy Iceland have been a regular fixture since the very beginning. The group once went on Icelandic national television to invite all the Olgas in the country to their concerts (the record was 13 women named Olga together in one concert). The Olga boys have produced a number of albums, and their mascot is a red kettle named Ketill Olguson.

Nairyan Vocal Ensemble (Armenia)

Nairyan Vocal Ensemble was founded in 2015 within the cultural programs of the Mughdusian Art Center. A group of young women have united around a common idea to present Armenian national classical music and contribute to folk and church music publicity and empower women through music.

The ensemble sings multi-voice, a cappella compositions, occasionally accompanying themselves with the clarinet and other instruments. The ensemble has performed flash mobs in various public places and has various songs aimed at publicizing Komitas, folk, and spiritual music. Since 2015, the ensemble has given many concerts and participated in various international festivals both in Armenia and abroad·

Starting in 2018, the ensemble learned to sing their songs using sign language, as they believe that music must be accessible to all.

The Swingles (United Kingdom)

For more than half a century, The Swingles have pushed the boundaries of vocal music. The seven young singers that make up today’s London-based group are driven by the same innovative spirit that has defined the five-time Grammy® winners since they first made waves in the 1960s. At a time when a cappella music is more popular than ever, The Swingles are recognised as masters of their craft.

In 1963, American-born Ward Swingle first assembled a group of Parisian session singers to sing Bach’s keyboard music. The resulting album, Jazz Sebastian Bach, launched the Swingle Singers to fame. Since then, they have won five Grammy® awards and made more than 50 recordings, with a repertoire that has grown to include a huge variety of music, including pop, jazz, folk, contemporary classical and new original songs. Recent releases include Folklore, inspired by traditional music from around the world; 50th anniversary album Deep End; and holiday collection Yule Songs vol. II.

Les Itinérantes (France)

The story starts in January 2017, Paris, France. Three girls who got to know each other at musical theatre school singing together for the first time for what was supposed to be "one or two concerts, just like that" and soon led to "Ok we need to do more and stay together!". Three musicians with various influences, from ancient music (Pauline) to jazz (Manon) to world music (Elodie)... who couldn’t make up their minds and decided to mix everything together. Et voilà, Les Itinérantes were born: an a cappella trio whose repertoire currently covers 11 musical styles, 9 centuries, and 19 languages.

"Les Itinérantes" is French for "the travelers" (or “the tramps” in Quebec, but that's another subject...). Traveling through time, space, and style, they see their singing as an adventure into the heart of vibration and the possibilities of the human voice. Sometimes caressing, sometimes powerful, their voices become a material to be sculpted in order to create images, stories, and emotions out of sound.

Their concerts are out-of-time moments, usually in the intimacy of a dark stone building softly lit by candles and lanterns. Walking through the audience, sometimes very close, sometimes very far, Les Itinérantes immerse their listeners in the heart of sound. Sharing fragments of their travel journals, they show the way to lands familiar and unknown in a journey where centuries intertwine and boundaries fade away.

Accent (International)

In the increasingly popular world of a cappella singing groups, Accent has carved out its own niche. Inspired by the wizardly jazz harmonies of TAKE 6 and, before them, The Hi-Lo’s, the six men of Accent, all of them accomplished arrangers and instrumentalists in their own right, are taking their love of close-harmony jazz singing – the denser and more intricate the better – as far as it can go.

The improbable meeting of Jean-Baptiste (“JB”) Craipeau (France), Simon Åkesson (Sweden), Danny Fong (Canada), Andrew Kesler (Canada), James Rose (United Kingdom), and Evan Sanders (USA), six self-described “jazz vocal nerds,” could have happened only in the age of social media. After becoming long-distance fans of each other’s multi-tracked videos on YouTube, they joined forces in 2011, collaborating online on songs and videos.

Since then, they have released four albums, performed at the London A Cappella Festival, played dates across Europe, North America and Asia, and were featured in a sold-out Christmas show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Their singular blend and arrangements have been acclaimed by a cappella devotees and fellow musicians alike, including Cedric Dent of TAKE 6 and Clark Burroughs of The Hi-Lo’s.

Ensemble Rustavi (Georgia)

Presently in Georgia there are several different kinds of ensembles that carefully maintain and develop the traditions of folk works. Undoubtedly, among them there is the State Academic Ensemble “Rustavi”. It makes fertile creative work: restores forgotten old folk songs, records songs to CDs, holds concerts, participates in festivals, radio and TV programs, makes and sounds films, travels abroad a lot and introduces Georgian folklore to many countries of the world.

The “Rustavi” was created in 1968. During its existence the ensemble has successfully performed more than 8,000 concerts, travelled through about 80 countries (most of them several times), has held concerts in such prestigious halls as “Olympia”, “Mogador” and the “Theater of Player” in Paris, London’s “Albert Hall”, the Great Theater of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Amsterdam, New-York, Tokyo, Cairo, Rome, Shanghai, Berlin and the great concert halls of other cities of the world met with ovations the performing art of the “Rustavi”. The press highly evaluates its concerts. In 2005, at its own 60th jubilee conducted in Nagoya, Japan, UNESCO invited only the Ensemble “Rustavi” to hold a concert.

At different times the “Rustavi” has recorded and produced on gramophone records and CDs more than 800 Georgian folk songs, hymns and their different versions. It must be noted that 318 songs from this catalog were recorded by “SONY”.

Anúna (Ireland)

In 1987, Dublin composer Michael McGlynn founded ANÚNA. The ensemble's name, originally An Uaithne, derives from the collective term for the three ancient types of Irish music Suantraí (lullaby), Geantraí (happy song) and Goltraí (lament). 

While most of the performers in ANÚNA come from the island of Ireland, the group’s members are drawn from across the world. The music they perform is composed primarily by Michael McGlynn, and includes reconstructions of medieval song from Ireland and traditional arrangements. ANÚNA perform live with twelve singers, and are equally at home in an amplified theatrical setting or an unamplified concert hall.

While the group's atmospheric stage performance still enthralls listeners across the world after over thirty years, it is the unique sound the ensemble make that continues to bring new audiences to see ANÚNA. Despite numerous changes of personnel their collective voice retains its power and ability to connect with people all over the planet.

About Classical Movements

Classical Movements is an industry-leading international concert tour and project management company for orchestras and choruses. For more than 27 years, we have established a network across 145 countries on 6 continents and focus particularly on bringing world-class orchestras and choruses not only to the world’s great concert halls, but also to destinations often overlooked by touring ensembles, including the first tours to Russia, China, Cuba, South Africa, Vietnam and Croatia in the early 1990’s. Classical Movements has organized more than 60 tours every year, producing some 200 concerts every season and plans to do the same after COVID-19 from 2021 onwards.

Classical Movements was centrally involved in the Minnesota Orchestra’s historic tours to Cuba in 2015 and South Africa in 2018 and have taken on a number of other challenging, significant projects including bringing the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra to Washington, D.C. in 2003, the YouTube Symphony Orchestras in 2009 and 2011 and organizing the inaugural Cuban American Youth Orchestra in 2019.

In response to the impact of COVID-19, Classical Movements has introduced a reinvention to meet the challenges of the current situation, including increased focus on domestic destinations and new series of international cultural tours for individuals and small groups.

In addition to its central touring activities, Classical Movement’ other initiatives include international choral festivals in Washington, D.C. and South Africa, an opera and orchestra festival in Prague and a new music program that has commissioned 97 works by composers from 30 countries. Winner of many awards and honors from national arts organizations, since its founding in 1992, as a truly global company Classical Movements remains committed to facilitating cultural diplomacy across the world through the medium of music.

Press Contacts

Adam Jackson

Artistic Planning and Executive Assistant to the President

1 (703) 683-6040, ext. 201
Adam@classicalmovements.com

Jessica Perez

Operations Manager

1 (703) 683-6040, ext. 213
Jessica@classicalmovements.com