By GRAYDON ROYCE, Star Tribune
March 10, 2011

VocalEssence will present new music from composers William Bolcom and Michael Daugherty and a collaboration with the Rose Ensemble as part of its 2011-12 season.

Bolcom and Daugherty’s work is featured in the season opener, Oct. 9 at Orchestra Hall. That concert will include Magnum Chorum, the Singers, the St. Olaf College Manitou Singers and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

The VocalEssence Ensemble Singers will stop at the Fitzgerald Theater (Nov. 6) at the conclusion of a state tour — to Marshall, Luverne, Montevideo, Duluth and St. Cloud –focusing on Minnesota’s musical heritage.

The “Welcome Christmas” concerts will be Dec. 3-4 and 9-11, with Stephen Paulus’ “So Hallow’d Is the Time” as the central piece.

Composer Hannibal Lokumbe has been commissioned to create a new work for the 2012 Witness concert. “In the Spirit of Being” is an hour-long four-movement piece. Lokumbe will also play trumpet as part of the concert, Feb. 9, 2012.

The Rose Ensemble joins the Ensemble Singers March 9-10 for a concert that explores Mexican music from antiquity through today.

Copper Street Brass Quintet highlights an April 13 concert featuring Britain’s leading contemporary composers.

Finally, VocalEssence will sing at the June 13, 2012, opening gala for the Chorus America Conference in the Twin Cities, which invites a multitude of Minnesota choruses. The following night, VocalEssence joins Monroe Crossing to perform Carol Barnett’s “The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass.”

For more information, 612-371-5642 or www.vocalessence.org.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299