REVIEW: For its 45th-season opener, Sunday afternoon at Central Lutheran in Minneapolis. VocalEssence went big with composer Jonathan Dove’s “There Was A Child.” For its 45th-season opener, Sunday afternoon at Central Lutheran in Minneapolis. VocalEssence went big. There was soprano Maria Jette, tenor Dan Dressen, the St. Olaf Choir and Northfield Youth Choirs, more than…  Read More →

If you were at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis Sunday afternoon for the opening of VocalEssence’s 45th season, we don’t need to tell you how glorious it was, how deeply, almost unbearably moving. Originally scheduled for Orchestra Hall, the concert was relocated to the church because of the ongoing contract dispute between Minnesota Orchestra management…  Read More →

REVIEW: For its 45th-season opener, Sunday afternoon at Central Lutheran in Minneapolis. VocalEssence went big with composer Jonathan Dove’s “There Was A Child.” For its 45th-season opener, Sunday afternoon at Central Lutheran in Minneapolis. VocalEssence went big. There was soprano Maria Jette, tenor Dan Dressen, the St. Olaf Choir and Northfield Youth Choirs, more than…  Read More →

By Rob Hubbard Special to the Pioneer Press Getting into the Christmas spirit was easy Saturday night. Outside the windows of the Colonial Church of Edina, big fluffy flakes wafted toward the ground, blanketing the spire of the very New England-esque structure and the rolling hills of the park across the street. And, inside the…  Read More →

From the Appleton (WI) Post-Cresent: …Thence to Minneapolis, where Philip Brunelle’s VocalEssence Ensemble Singers and Chorus recorded “Behold This Heavenly Light.”  Fully fourteen of the twenty tracks are world premiere recordings, making this a dream recording for a choral director in search of new things to sing.  But it is a listener’s dream as well,…  Read More →