by John Birge
YourClassical | February 28, 2022

https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2022/02/28/send-in-the-voices

A world of great voices comes to the Land of 10,000 choirs this week.

Honored with the title “Choir of the World” at the World Choir Games in 2017, The Aeolians is a student choir from Oakwood University, an HBCU in Huntsville Alabama. They inspire you to stand up and cheer, whether they’re singing Bach, spirituals or modern masterpieces. They will perform two concerts in Minnesota this week. The first is Wednesday at Albertville High School, and the second is Sunday at the annual Witness concert with VocalEssence in a celebration of the Black experience in classical music. Video clips scarcely do justice to the wow-factor of The Aeolians, but here they are in concert.

Seven great voices take the stage at Crooner’s Supper Club for Celebrating Sondheim, staged by Theater Latte Da. Latte Da has produced nine Sondheim musicals in Minneapolis to rave reviews, including “Best Theater Production of the Decade” from the Star Tribune. It was only natural that they would assemble singers from those productions to pay tribute to Sondheim. Meanwhile, you can hear the Latte Da casts who have graced YourClassical airwaves over the years with live studio performances from A Little Night Music, Into the Woods, Company, and Assassins.

VOCES8, the superb vocal octet from the UK, wraps up their US tour in Minneapolis this Sunday at Bethlehem Music Series. No surprise it’s sold-out, but you can bet they’ll be back. Minnesota has been a regular concert destination for VOCES8 for years, and they have a strong connection with YourClassical, having sung for Performance Today and been interviewed on New Classical Tracks. Their robust music education program chose the Twin Cities as a hub for training young singers in their VOCES8 Scholars program. YourClassical recorded this video in St. Paul last fall about the program.

Now if only VOCES8 if they could sing Sondheim. Oh, wait — don’t bother; they’re here!