Events

Next concert

Date and repertoire to be confirmed – probably early May 2020. If you’d like to join us a singer, please send us an email. Basses particularly welcome!

 

Previous concerts

Our most recent concert was on Sunday 1st December 2019, 2:30pm, at Morningside United Church, 15 Chamberlain Rd, Edinburgh EH10 4DH, and all concert profits went to Re-Act: Refugee Action Scotland.

We sang works by Caroline Lesemann Elliott (our founder), Kathryn Rose, Chris Hutchings, Fiona Evison, Eric Pazdziora, Clive Whitburn and Gerda Blok Wilson.

 

Our first concert of 2019 was on Sunday 3rd March at 7pm, at St Columba’s by the Castle, Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh. We sang works by Emily Doolittle, Suzanne Parry, Greta Blok-Wilson, Alison Willis (world premiere of Swansong), Mary Ann Kennedy, Neil Tomas Smith, Chris Hutchings and Joanna Gill.

 

Voces Inauditae were proud to present their summer concert on May 19th 2018 at 8 pm, Sacred Heart Lauriston.

“Unto the Hills” was an exploration of wartime experiences and wartime texts in sacred music. The first half was comprised of entirely contemporary choral music, featuring two world premieres by Yfat Soul Zisso and Suzanne Parry. Each work explores physical feelings of pain in war and prayers for relief that accompany such pain.

The second half was built around Lina Braghetta’s Missa Sancta Heracleae, with short works by Clemens non Papa, Aleotti, Bach, Kinkel, and Hong interspersed between movements. Braghetta was an Italian partisan fighter in WWII. Her mass was published in 1951, as Italy began to recover from the horrors of war and come into its own as a nation. Between each movement of the mass is a short choral work with a wartime association, from the memory of peace in Clemens non Papa’s “Vidi Jerusalem” to a vision of the bitter end in Sungji Hong’s “Postea Sciens Jesu” (our third world premiere on the list).

Entry was by donation, and we raised over £150 for Safe Passage UK, an organisation that works to help refugees settle safely across this green and pleasant land.

 

Voces Inauditae had a successful February concert at St. Columba’s-by-the-Castle. Works included submissions elicited in our summertime international call for scores, and featured multiple world premieres, as well as selections from Steve Martland’s “Sea Songs.” Works premiered include works by Meghan Quinlan and Shona McKay. Works performed include works by Edmund Joliffe, Steven Grffin, Lena McLin, Undine Smith-Moore, and more. In these songs, we explored representations of the land and the ocean, and how nature fuels the human spirit.

 

 

 

 

Voces Inauditae is pleased to present their Christmastime concert, “All Things Praise: From Sin to Salvation.” The programme features choral music from the 16th century to present day, with works that explore concepts of sin and darkness before the nativity, as countered with the promise redemption of humankind through the birth of Christ. Composers featured include Judith Weir, Raffaella Aleotti, Luke Mathers, Marco Galvani, and more.

As always, the concert features an equal balance of male and female composers, both in terms of historical composers and contemporary composers. The concert will also feature premieres of works by Chris Hutchings, Justine Koontz, and Caroline Lesemann-Elliott. It will take place on December 2, 7:30 pm, in St. Vincent’s Chapel, Stockbridge, Edinburgh. Tickets are £7/£4 (student).

 

In their first concert of the academic year, Voces Inauditae presented a programme of new and old works, including pieces by Peter Warlock, Joanna Ward, Hubert Parry, Emma-Ruth Richards, and more. All works are themed with the idea of calmness in times of struggle, as felt in the embrace of one’s earthly and divine mother or father.

We raised £140 in donations for Safe Passage UK and Paragon Music.

 

 

 

For our anniversary concert this past April, Voces Inauditae performed a European themed concert, drawing on 20th century composers from all corners of Europe, including Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Norway, and more. The concert especially featured works by Lili Boulanger, a titan of 20th century composition, particularly with regards to choral works. The choir and orchestra will performed two of her larger works, Psaume 24 and 129, as well as a smaller work, “Hymne au Soleil.”

The concert also featured a solo appearance by Sally Carr, who sang “Isjungfrun” by Helena Munktell, “Pie Jesu” (also by Lili Boulanger), as well as solos in various works throughout the concert. We are so thankful for the wonderful support given by our audience, and are looking forward to future performances over the coming year!

 

Voces Inauditae was back for a consort-sized concert on February 17th at the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, Edinburgh, at 7.30 pm. Featuring an octet of soloists, the programme consisted of contemporary Catholic and Orthodox music, as per usual, by under-recognised contemporary composers. We raised just over £121 in donations, with half of the proceeds going to support the needs of Sacred Heart, and half of the proceeds going to support Paragon, an organisation that works towards making the music world more inclusive to people from less privileged backgrounds and sometimes with additional support needs.

You can learn more about Paragon and its mission here.

Singers included: Hannah Leggatt, Maisy Hallam, Sarah Gross, Caroline Lesemann-Elliott, William Anderson, Richard Allison, Dale McIntyre, and Grigory Matyunin.

 

 

Voces Inauditae’s Christmas concert was at Old Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, on December 2, at 4 pm, with entry as £6 general entry, £3 for students, under 16s free. The programme featured a combination of contemporary works and medieval works, with the contemporary works drawing on medieval and chant themes. The idea was to create a darker image of Advent in contrast with the more brighter images of Christmas and Epiphany- after all, one can only see the great light after walking in darkness. This is why we performed all seven O Antiphons, some by ancient writers, some as brand new commissions from student composers around the country, to symbolise the coming of the light from Heaven to Earth in the winter season.

You can learn more about the student composers on our “features” page, and access recordings of the concert on our Soundcloud!

 

Voces Inauditae‘s concert on the 10th of September, at 19.00, featured entirely contemporary works (with the exception of one work, by Undine Smith-Moore, which dates to the 1970s). The works included the compositions of various student composers, all of whom are listed on the “features” section of the homepage. Sadly, due to unforseen circumstances, we had to cut two of the works, one by Jacob Howarth, and one by Alex Lamb. We apologise to both composers for this unfortunate situation. We hope to be working with these composers in the future!

A recording of the whole concert is available on our Soundcloud.

 

Voces Inauditae‘s premiere concert in May featured female composers throughout Western history. The composers featured were Hildegard von Bingen, Juana Ines de las Cruz, Isabella Leonarda, Hermina Maria Amersfoordt-Dijk, Fanny Hensel, Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, Rosie Wilson, and Kathryn Rose. The concert was designed to raise awareness of the presence of female composers of the past, in order to challenge the idea that female composers are often excluded from the canon because there “weren’t any ones worth studying or performing.”

A review and discussion of the concert can be found in a blog post by an audience member.

You can also hear a snippet of some of our work in the video below: