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In January 2009, the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers and artistic director Philip Brunelle will tour England, giving six public concerts in Oxford, Birmingham, London, Cambridge and Ely.

Heralded by the London Times as "a superb American choir…an engaging group, polished, bright and brilliantly balanced" – the Grammy award nominated and Gramophone award-winning chorus has previously performed in England at the Covent Garden Festival and the Aldeburgh Festival.

The week-long tour will include an engagement in one of the world’s most famous churches, King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, as well an in-studio collaboration with the BBC Singers in honor of choral conductor Stephen Cleobury.

The Ensemble Singers will be midway through the tour on the
historic day of President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Their London concert
on January 20 will be broadcast in the United States at 8 p.m. on
classical Minnesota Public Radio, 99.5 FM in the Twin Cities. John
Birge is traveling with VocalEssence to host the broadcast. The concert
program will be adapted to include a patriotic hymn for the audience to
sing along — with new lyrics written for the occasion by Garrison
Keillor!

A panoramic sampling of "American Choral Masterpieces: Past, Present & Beyond," the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers will perform selections spanning three centuries of United States history, from William Billings (1746), to folksongs of the 1800s, to 20th century masters such as Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. Works of contemporary composers Eric Whitacre and Aaron Jay Kernis complete the programme.

Concerts include:

• Saturday, 17 January, 19:30 – University Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford
• Sunday, 18 January, 15:00 – Birmingham Town Hall, Birmingham
• Tuesday, 20 January, 19:30 – St. John’s Smith Square, London
• Wednesday, 21 January,1:05pm – St. Giles Cripplegate, London
• Friday, 23 January, 13:10-14:00 – Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral, Ely
• Friday, 23 January, 19:30 – King’s College Chapel, Cambridge
• Saturday, 24 January, 19:30 – BBC Maida Vale Studio 1, London (collaboration with BBC Singers honoring Stephen Cleobury)

For press information and photographs related to these performances, please contact Jennifer Bauer at 612-547-1459 (jbauer@vocalessence.org).

Download high resolution photos for press use

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