Eric Whitacre Extravaganza
VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers
The St. Olaf Choir
Eric Whitacre High School Honor Choir
Eric Whitacre, Anton Armstrong, & Philip Brunelle, conductors
Sunday, March 22, 2009 (4 pm)
Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN

Tickets: $20-$40 (Service charges may apply. Student and partial view tickets are half price. Group discounts are available.) To order, call 612-371-5656 (800-292-4141) or purchase online at www.vocalessence.org.

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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (December 31, 2008) – The London Times calls his music "extraordinarily beautiful" and Classics Today claims it is as "electrifying as anything you’ve ever heard." Choral superstar Eric Whitacre conducts the VocalEssence Chorus & Ensemble Singers and special guests The St. Olaf Choir and a 160-voice High School Honor Choir on Sunday, March 22, 2009 (4 pm) at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.

Eric Whitacre Extravaganza will feature some of the composer’s most captivating music including Sleep, Lux Aurumque, Cloudburst, Water Night, and A Boy and a Girl – as well as the world premiere of a new work commissioned by VocalEssence for this occasion. VocalEssence Artistic Director Philip Brunelle and Anton Armstrong, director of The St. Olaf Choir, will also conduct.

Dubbed "the hottest thing in choral music" by The Philadelphia Inquirer, Eric Whitacre is an accomplished composer, conductor and lecturer who has quickly become one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. His published works have received thousands of performances and have sold well over 750,000 copies worldwide while his music has been heard over 1.4 million times on his MySpace profile.

In 2006, a collection of Eric’s a cappella music became an international best seller, appearing in the top ten of both Billboard’s and iTunes’ Top Classical Albums charts. Though he received no formal music training before the age of 18, Eric earned his Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano.

Eric Whitacre Extravaganza performance tickets ($20-$40, service charges apply), are available by calling 612-371-5656 or by visiting www.vocalessence.org. Student and group discounts are available.

The composer will also lead Sing with Eric Whitacre, a community sing event, on Friday, March 20, 2009 (7 pm) at the MacPhail Center for Music, located at 501 South 2nd Street in Minneapolis. He will conduct a musical "reading" session featuring a number of his greatest hits, including Animal Crackers, Sleep, The Seal Lullaby, and Lux Aurumque. Eric will also discuss his compositions and will participate in a question and answer session. Attendance for this event is limited and very few seats remain. Tickets for this event are $25 (including sheet music) and can be purchased at www.vocalessence.org/singwithwhitacre.

For press information and photographs related to Eric Whitacre Extravaganza, contact Jennifer Bauer (612-547-1459, jbauer@vocalessence.org).

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