Feel the Rhythm Finishes 2008/2009 Season with Flourish

We were thrilled with this past Saturday’s fantastic close to Voces Intimae’s third full season! Seven performers took the stage at Grace United Methodist Church for an evening of Latin American Song, with twists and turns along the way. Many thanks to Grace for hosting Voces again this season – twice! It is wonderful to have built a presence in East Dallas in such a warm community.

Featuring music for voice and piano – and guitar – and violin, the recital offered flavorful renditions of songs from the Americas. Read the enthusiastic review in the Dallas Morning News below. Bravi tutti!

Classical Music Review: Voces Intimae offer lush, artful appreciation of Latin songs

11:38 PM CDT on Saturday, May 16, 2009

By SCOTT CANTRELL / The Dallas Morning News
With Latinos now outnumbering gringos in Dallas, it’s almost a scandal that local classical music groups have shown so little interest in music from south of the Rio Grande.

Voces Intimae, Dallas’ still-young art-song series, went some way to redressing the neglect Saturday night. Four singers, variously accompanied by piano, two guitars and violin, sampled quite a variety of songs by composers from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Styles ranged from the lush romanticism of Carlos Guastavino’s “La rosa y el sauce” to the hip-shifting sassiness of Manuel Gómez Carrillo’s “El Escondido,” from Alberto Ginastera’s eerily unsettling Las horas de una estancia (to haunting symbolist poems by Silvina Ocampo) to Ary Barroso’s hit tune “Brazil.”

Presented in the lively acoustics of Grace United Methodist Church, the concert was also a display of fine vocalism. More….

Review for White Nights and Northern Lights: Russian and Scandinavian Song

Four performers tackled Russian, Finnish, and Norwegian song repertoire this winter in a moving program – Voces Intimae’s first at Zion Lutheran Church.  Despite the linguistic challenges, we artists found many rewards in exploring art songs from Northern and Eastern Europe!

Classical Music Review: Warm feelings for the music of cold countries in Voces Intimae concert

10:36 PM CST on Saturday, February 28, 2009

By SCOTT CANTRELL / The Dallas Morning News

Before Voces Intimae, chances to hear art songs around here were rare indeed. And even in cities where the medium gets more attention, repertories from Western Europe are performed far more often than Russian and Scandinavian. Saturday’s selection provided revelatory variety..

Excerpts from Songs and Dances of Death and The Nursery certainly validated Mussorgsky’s claims as a genuine original. The spare, quirky accompaniments are virtually unprecedented, and the Arseny Golenishchev Kutuzov poems in Songs and Dances of Death are darkly modern in a way one hardly expects from the 19th century. Even the mischief of the Nursery songs feels sinister.

The darkness often associated with Russian literature as well as music was subtly realized in three Prokofiev songs to poems by Anna Akhmatova. Rachmaninoff’s familiar pianistic idioms were certainly evident in a nicely contrasted selection of songs. Rounding out the Russian contingent was a Mikhail Glinka duet, a sadly flowing lament for lost love.

Edvard Grieg’s Op. 48 Six Songs, to German poems, were conventionally and pleasantly romantic in idiom. Two songs by Sibelius, one flirtatious, one wintry, whetted the appetite for more. More….

Press for 2008/2009 Season Opener

Our first concert of the season, From Art Deco to Art Song, was a great success and garnered wonderful press for Voces! Featuring classical and popular songs written in 1938 and music by composers born in 1938, as well as inconic photographs of Fair Park by Frank Lopez, we were thrilled to kick off the 2008/2009 Season: Art Songology in style. Thanks to our wonderful artists and lecturer! Read the reviews in the Lakewood Advocate Magazine and Dallas Morning News.

Historic Grace United Methodist Church, home to two Voces concerts this season (photos by Carla Brown)

Frank Lopez in front of one of his photographs

Celebrating afterwards!