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Explore with us!

The Vocal Arts Ensemble of Ann Arbor invites you on a journey, with Music Director Ben Cohen as your guide.

From Renaissance motets to Broadway hits, all the way to original compositions, this special chamber choir aims to share with our audience a fascinating array of vocal music from many ages.

The VAE’s 2012-13 Season

November 3rd, 2012
Be Not Afraid
7:30pm; First United Methodist Church,
120 South State St., Ann Arbor

Featuring the deeply beautiful Requiem by Herbert Howells - one of the treasures of a cappella choral literature in the twentieth century - and Bach’s motet Fürchte dich nicht - a double chorus work by turns troubling and comforting - VAE’s opening concert explores the themes of life and death, fear and fortification, loss and comfort.  The program will also include music of Schütz, Byrd, Pearsall and Stevie Wonder.
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December 8th, 2012
Seasonal Miracles
7:30pm; Genesis of Ann Arbor, 2309 Packard Road, Ann Arbor

VAE celebrates the music of the season with two master works for Christmas: Victoria’s Quem Vidistis Pastores and the Quatre motets of Poulenc, music for Hanukkah - Medieval, Sephardic, and contemporary settings of ancient texts - and a wide array of choral delights and surprises, all in the intimate setting of the Genesis sanctuary.
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February 16th, 2013
Pops Dinner Gala: Food, Glorious Food
5:30pm; Kensington Court Hotel Grand Ballroom, 610 Hilton Blvd., Ann Arbor

Our annual Pops fund raiser dinner serves up food and drink with a full concert; this time it tears into the theme of, fittingly, Food and Drink. As usual, our musical feast mixes Broadway and Hollywood classics with off-the-beaten-path fare, featuring versatile singers who are always happy to sing for your supper. Merriment and laughter abound. The evening includes a silent auction.

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May 11th, 2013
Hey And A Ho
7:30pm; First Congregational Church,
608 East William St., Ann Arbor

Our final concert of the season toasts choral literature inspired by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Dunne, Anonymous (who is responsible for more than a few ribald catches) and other writers of the Elizabethan era.  Music of Irving Fine (The Hour-Glass Suite), Vaughan Williams, Fanny Mendelssohn, Matthew Harris and much more reflects VAE's customary bent toward a wide spectrum of musical styles.

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Previous Seasons

2011-12

November 5, 2011
Awake! Arise!
8pm; Stamps Auditiorium,1226 Murfin Ave., Ann Arbor

Just as the late fall doldrums lull us to a drowsy torpor, the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Ann Arbor bids you to "Awake! Arise!" with a choral music program of both energy and beauty. J.S. Bach's immortal Cantata No. 140, "Wachet auf" (Sleepers Wake) fills our hall with its power and glory, while Thomas Morley's madrigal "Arise, Awake, Awake!" is lilting and inviting. Ronald Perera's "Why I Wake Early" embodies poet Mary Oliver's verse in vivid melodies and musical place settings in such sections as "Morning at Great Pond", "I Looked Up" and "White Night". Wilensky's "Uri Tsiyon" bids us wake with a rhythmic clarion call.

January 14th, 2012
Angst and Consolation
7:30pm; First Unitarian and Universalist Church of Ann Arbor, 4001 Ann Arbor-Saline Rd., Ann Arbor

In "Angst and Consolation", the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Ann Arbor explores those eternal opposites and complements - pain and joy - and how several composers in different eras have expressed these recurring themes of the human condition. The Renaissance Magnificat of Hieronymous Praetorius is contrasted with a very different Magnificat by modern Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Ola Gjeilo, a contemporary rising star among choral composers, combines celebratory Latin text with themes from Nordic folk songs in his "Prelude". Works by Rautavaara and Tomas Luis de Victoria round out this a cappella program showcasing a wide range of the choral art.

February 25th, 2012
Pops Dinner Gala: Heroes and Villains
5:30pm; Kensington Court Hotel, 610 Hilton Blvd., Ann Arbor

VAE's annual gala dinner concert and fundraiser looks at those extremes of human character -- heroism and villainy --  through music of the musical stage, pop, TV and movies, and a bit of classical. Between parts of a 3-course dinner, guests will be entertained by soloists, small groups and the entire ensemble. Complimentary glass of wine, cash bar, silent auction, coffee bar.

May 19th, 2012
I Hate, I Love
8pm; Stamps Auditiorium,1226 Murfin Ave., Ann Arbor

The Vocal Arts Ensemble explores the emotional opposites of hate and love, so closely bound together, as viewed by composers through the ages. Monteverdi's exquisite Italian madrigals embody the hopes, dreams and heartbreaks of love, interspersed with drama and struggle. The famous "Liebeslieder Waltzes" of Brahms are love songs in a variety of voices and settings. And finally modern composer Dominick Argento sets the ancient Latin poetry of Catullus in a song cycle for choir and percussion that ranges from adulation to bitter rejection.

 

2010-11

November 6, 2010
C'EST LA V.A.E.
8pm; St Thomas Church, 530 Elizabeth St, Ann Arbor

From the intricately sassy harmonies of Poulenc to the astonishing quadruple canon at the fifth in Mouton's Nesciens Mater to the lyric melodies of the composer of Moulin Rouge, this concert will bring you the music of French composers from late Renaissance motets to French film music, all in the reverberant acoustic of St Thomas. Charpentier's Requiem is a gem, seldom performed.

December 18th, 2010
SUDDEN BREATH: VAE WITH THE MCBQ
8pm; Genesis of Ann Arbor Sanctuary; 2309 Packard St, Ann Arbor

For the second consecutive year, VAE welcomes the Motor City Brass Quintet for another collaborative venture that will feature great choral and brass motets, carols and Sephardic music from across the centuries.

February 19th, 2011
ALL OF ME
5:30pm; Kensington Court Hotel, 610 Hilton Blvd., Ann Arbor

Following on the heels of Night and Day, last year's highly successful dinner concert, VAE returns with All of Me, a cabaret of Broadway and Hollywood songs about body parts.

May 7th, 2011
DOWN IN THE VALLEY
8pm; Mendelssohn Theater, 911 N University Ave, Ann Arbor

Our final concert of the season will feature American choral gems; a staging of Kurt Weill's one-act folk opera Down In The Valley with members of the local dance troupe, People Dancing; an appearance by the Greenhills School High School choir; and a commission for VAE by composer Dwayne Milburn (current director of the U.S. Army Chorus) dedicated to former VAE singer Kamilah Neighbors, who died in 2010 at the age of 33. A multi-layered, rich and beautiful event.