Each singer in the Vox Nova Chamber Choir has their own reason for joining the choir, but the performers are all tied by a single thread: A love of music that can be found no where else in the Midcoast.
That’s by design, according to Vox Nova founder and Director Shannon M. Chase.
“Our mission has always been to use modern and contemporary composers,” Chase said during a phone interview in anticipation of the Vox Nova Chamber Choir’s upcoming concert, “The Four Seasons: Spring Equinox,” on April 15.
Chase said she seeks out an uncommon repertoire and, as a result, has made a unique niche for Vox Nova among the other choirs in Maine.
SHELDON BIRD of Bath, right, rehearses with the Vox Nova Intima recently in West Bath.
Chase said that, although the music may challenge the listener, the selections feel “cinematic” and approachable, thanks to familiar chord progressions, textures and emotions.
From behind a keyboard during a recent rehearsal in West Bath, Chase conducted the choir through David Ashley White’s “The Blue Estuaries.” Harmonies quickly layered upon each other to create the illusion of controlled chaos while still keeping perfectly within tempo.
VOX NOVA director and founder Shannon M. Chase conducts the chamber choir recently in West Bath.
And that was only within the composition’s first few dozen measures.
While the music sounds nearapocalyptic, the lyrics are somewhat whimsical and punctuated with a list of animal names: Mice, shrews, rats, porcupines and toads for example. It made for a wonderful dichotomy, like something our of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia.” In other words, the overall feel is, like Chase said, “cinematic.”
Before a rehearsal last week, a few choir members spoke about why they sing, the importance of music in their lives and how choral music composition is still ongoing, centuries after baroque and classical eras.
Among them was Sheldon Bird of Bath, a retired state government employee who worked in information technology management.
“I’m a computer guy,” he said, “but I’ve always done music. My father taught me to sing and play ukulele. I had piano lessons when I was a kid. But I’ve always liked singing. I think it runs in the genes.”
Bird sings bass in a voice he said was either made for “classical or country.” Performing in Vox Nova gives him the chance to perform works by modern composers with whom many are unfamiliar, giving them a first listen to new works.
It’s important for an audience, he said, to realize that “choral music didn’t die with Mozart.”
Choir members tend to use one word in initially describing Chase’s selections: “Challenging.”
“This stuff is a real mental exercise,” Bird said. “There’s nothing in there that matches people’s simple harmonic concept.”
Jean Edmondson of Bath, who is in her seventh season with Vox Nova, echoed Bird’s assessment of the music. But, she noted, it’s the challenge that attracted her to the genre.
“It’s just incredibly challenging music — it’s the dissonance of the music,” Edmondson said.
“There’s nobody else doing this kind of music,” said alto Barbara Beckelman of Portland. “I find it more interesting and unpredictable. … It’s not something you hear on the radio.”
Chase said she chooses composers who use “a lot of challenging devices,” often shifting between keys or using an atonal approach.
“Audiences come to us because we challenge them,” Bird said. “This stuff takes you to a higher plane, intellectually. And you’ll hear some absolutely gorgeous stuff that will rip your heart out.”
Some audience members may be inspired to join the choir after seeing a performance, the way Brunswick resident Rich Ellis did.
“This was a great opportunity to learn some really fantastic music and really sharpen my skills as a singer,” Ellis said.
Ellis, also a board member and performer with Midcoast Youth Theater, spoke to the importance of the performing arts in the community: “The Brunswick-area tends to value investments in the arts. My connections started as a member of the audience. Many audience members have the same experience I did — catharsis and emotion coming out of a performance. … It’s the ability to go to a show and be presented with something very artistic and walk away with feelings and emotions you didn’t have when you came in.”
Ellis said he believed about three-quarters of the choir either teach music or have some degree of formal training. Among them is soprano Julia Nadeau of Topsham, who holds a music degree, who said she Vox Nova has challenged her in a way no other choir has.
Performing modern and contemporary works means that it’s more important to be “true to the composition,” Nadeau said, “because maybe they’re going to hear it.”
That has happened more than once, said Chase, who has forged connections with living composers from across the globe.
In the Midcoast, Chase said she wants the community to experiment with new music. To attract a larger audience, Vox Nova has lowered its prices and increased its number of concerts.
“Maine has a real tradition of master works — Bach and Mozart,” Chase said. “But at our concert, they’re going to hear the Mozarts of the 21st century.”
jswinconeck@timesrecord.com
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
