Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@vaecinci opened its 2024-25 season with a fabulous program titled The Wounded Heart: Songs of Passion and Love, which featured two world premiere works mixed with works spanning the Renaissance to the 21st century, all under the direction of guest conductor Benedict Sheehan.
Opening with luscious performances of two short madrigals by Italian composer Maddalena Casulana, the first half of the concert was primarily a showcase for solo artists drawn from the ensemble, including an extended solo madrigal by Barbara Strozzi beautifully sung by soprano Fotina Naumenko, a setting for women’s voices of St. Aiden’s Prayer by the young composer Anna Olson (with influences from Rachmaninoff and Gustav Holst), and two unique scores by Canadian Laura Hawley.
The second half featured the world premiere of Sheehan’s newest large-scale choral work, The Passion of Mary, setting Eastern Orthodox texts in English addressing what he terms “the human experience of Jesus’ followers”, with a heavy emphasis on Mary Magdalene.
Scored for 8-part mixed chorus and bassoon (played by soloist Yu-Chuen Huang), this passion setting was more lush and sensitive than many others which have been written over the centuries, inspired more by the compositional style of Rachmaninoff and John Tavener as well as Eastern modal scales (especially in Part Three).
Vocal Arts Ensemble was in spectacular form as usual as they tackled this new work, with a strong and luminous timbre which possessed a quality like that of the twinkling of stars and the opening of the cosmos. This was also true of the solo lines sung throughout, including soprano Victoria Okafor, altos Lauren McAllister and Ellen Graham and tenors Jason Vest, Douglas Easterling and Avery Bargasse.
Benedict Sheehan is a true shining light as a choral composer and conductor, and his appearance on the podium tonight brought out all the great things which Vocal Arts Ensrmble brings to choral music in Cincinnati. To have a chamber choir of this caliber in The City That Sings is an absolute blessing, and I eagerly look forward to their annual Christmas program with guest conductor Matthew Swanson.