A Celebration of Voices 1

VocalEssence Music Press offers a rich diversity of composers from various backgrounds and ethnicities which yields an enormous depth to the variety of musical styles in this series.

“La Ofrenda” (“The Offering”), by Sabina Covarrubias, is one of the most exciting and delightful pieces in the Graphite Marketplace, because it enables children to sing with full-throated, unrestrained joy. But the song is also musically sophisticated and satisfying. In fact, “La Ofrenda” may be unique: it is difficult to think of another piece that uses extended choral techniques (in the forms of shouting, speaking, and unpitched glissandi), Spanish language, children’s voices, and this particular instrumentation (guitar and percussion). With options for a small group of children set against the full treble choir, this piece even has echoes of choral concertos from the Baroque with the similar use of ripieno. What a wonderful way to welcome young singers back to communal music-making in a post-pandemic world!

Isaac Lovdahl’s “Dances With Daffodils,” for SATB & oboe, is a rich choral experience. Lovdahl has set the beautiful poetry of William Wordsworth with equally compelling music. The obligato oboe dances and spins like a wild daffodil in a field, while the choir answers by singing the poetry. Lovdahl shades the choral textures with added-tone chords and gentle dissonances. Lively rhythms propel the piece forward and also provide a counterpoint between voices and the oboe. There are clever rhetorical ideas, such as a single treble voice sustaining the word “solitude.”

“Cara de Pingo” (“The Boy With the Wicked Face), arranged by Diana Syrse Valdés, is scored for SAB, piano, marimba, and two guitars. This folk tune, set in the Michoacán language, provides a wonderful opportunity for school choirs in the U.S. to celebrate music from Mexico. Handclaps and unusual instrumentation will further engage the choir and audience.

VocalEssence Music Press is a dynamic music publishing company that offers a select group of emerging composers the opportunity to make their music available to choirs everywhere. And we offer choruses access to new music they can’t find anywhere else. Our mission is to help choruses, conductors and composers connect in meaningful ways by publishing exciting new music for singers at all levels. Discover cross-cultural collaboration through the VocalEssence ¡Cantaré! Series. Mexican composers wrote these works for Minnesota school, college and community choruses to sing. Even young children can master the challenge of singing in Spanish and the indigenous languages of Mexico. Get value-added with our free Music Resource Guides that are designed for conductors, teachers and students to use to learn more about the cultural context of the compositions. VocalEssence Music Press is a subsidiary of VocalEssence, a leading arts organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Sabina Covarrubias is a composer, multimedia artist, and researcher in the field of computer music. Covarrubias received a Bachelor of Music Composition degree in 2006 from the National School of Music at the UNAM in Mexico City. She earned a Master’s degree in Musicology, Creation, and Society in 2010 from the University of Paris 8 (France), where she specialized in Computer-assisted composition and Ethnomusicology. In 2016, she received a Ph.D. degree in Esthetics, Science and Technology of the Arts from the University of Paris 8. Since 2009 she has attended numerous workshops and residencies at the IRCAM, Centre Pompidou in Paris, France, including “Design Sonore”, “Techniques de Synthèse avec MAX MSP”, “Jitter”,”CAO dans Max avec la librairie bach”, “Audiosculpt”, “Spatialisateur”, among others. She studied “Mastering Techniques” at Berklee Music College. Her works encompass a wide array of genres, such as visual music, electroacoustic music, “musique mixte,” experimental electronic music, symphonic, which have been shown in highly renowned concert halls and festivals in Mexico, United States, Scottland, Italy, and France. Performances of her compositions have taken place in the International Festival for Women in Art in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Vision’R festival in Paris, France, Sonica Festival, in Scotland UK, Tate Modern Museum in London UK, Saturnalia Festival in Milano, Italy, Keroxen Festival in Tenerife, Mercat de Musica Viva in Barcelona, among others.

Isaac Lovdahl is a composer, conductor, educator, and vocalist currently based in Fargo, ND. He directed high school, church, and community choirs in Minnesota after graduating from Concordia College in 2015, and is now pursuing a DMA in Choral Conducting at North Dakota State University. Lovdahl also works as the director of music at Lutheran Church of Christ the King in Moorhead, MN. His choral compositions and art songs have been performed in the United States, Germany, South Africa, and Great Britain by educational, community, and professional ensembles and soloists. His distinct harmonic language, detailed attention to natural speech rhythms, and highly expressive text setting have begun to solidify a niche for him in the world of vocal music. He was named a winner of the 2017 VocalEssence ReMix composition program and has received notable recognition in similar competitions. His team took first place at Minneapolis SongSLAM 2020, an art song composition competition hosted by Source Song Festival in conjunction with Sparks and Wiry Cries. Most recently, he was named the winner of the 2021 Bellevue Chamber Chorus “Emerging Composer Competition”. His original music can be found online through Graphite Publishing, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, NewMusicShelf, VocalEssence Music Press, MusicSpoke, and his own website.

Diana Syrse is a composer and singer from Mexico City. Her music is characterized by an influence of jazz, rock, fusion, traditional music from around the globe, and avant-garde as well as the use of non-Western instruments, theatrical elements, and electronics. Her focus is on musical composition for new musical theatre, opera, staged concerts, and interdisciplinary collective creations. On several occasions, her music is performed by herself in collaboration with other ensembles, choirs, and orchestras. As a singer Diana has studied bel canto, extended vocal techniques, jazz, and improvisation and specializes in exploring different approaches to the composition and interpretation of new musical theater. Her catalog contains works written for choirs, orchestras, ensembles, electronics, electroacoustic music, dance, opera, and new musical theatre. She has worked as a composer and singer with the Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatsoper Hamburg, VocalEssence, the Babylon Orchestra Berlin, Kinderkinder, and Túumben Paax. She has been invited to international festivals in the United States, Mexico, Germany, Holland, and Latvia. Her compositions have been performed by the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cuban National Orchestra, the Anne Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra, Nemian Dance Company, Dance On Ensemble, Oktopus Ensemble, among others. In the area of opera and theatre, she has worked as a composer in residence at the Kammerspiele München, Schauspiel Frankfurt, the Berliner Ensemble, and the Staatsoper Hamburg. She was also the founder and artistic director of The Breakout Ensemble in Munich.

Our Contributing Editor

Jonathan Campbell received his B.A. from Luther College in 1998, a Master of Sacred Music degree from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota in 2002, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting in 2015 at North Dakota State University. As a composer, Jon has received numerous awards and commissions, including a Faith Partner’s Residency through the American Composer’s Forum, as well as first place in the Morningstar College Choral Composition Festival. From 2004-2012, Jon conducted the Honors Choirs of Southeast Minnesota Chorale and in the spring of 2011, served as interim director of choral activities at Winona State University. At Augsburg University, Minneapolis, MN he recently served as faculty conductor of the Cedar Singers male chorus and the Masterworks Chorale. Jon is founder and was artistic director of the Minnesota Renaissance Choir, and is currently Director of Music and Fine Arts at Claremont United Church of Christ and Lecturer in Music at Pomona College, both in Claremont, CA.