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Volti
Volti is a 16- to 24-person professional vocal ensemble based in San Francisco, focused on the commissioning and performance of new music. In 2018, Volti became the first vocal group ever to have been awarded the Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming seven times.[1] Volti has released four CDs on the innova label: "Turn the Page," "House of Voices," "This is what happened," and "the color of there seen from here," released April 26, 2019. [1] Volti also appears with the Kronos Quartet on their Grammy Award winning recording of Sun Rings by American minimalist composer Terry Riley.[2] Founded by Robert Geary in 1979 as the San Francisco Chamber Singers, the group quickly developed a mission: "to foster and showcase contemporary American music and composers, and to introduce contemporary vocal music from around the world to local audiences."[3] When the group turned 25 in 2003-2004, it changed its name to Volti, a reference to the Italian musical instruction "volti subito" meaning "turn quickly."[4][5] 2019 marks the ensemble's 40th anniversary.[6] Volti performs two to three concert series each season in venues throughout the Bay Area. Volti has appeared at the Switchboard and SoundWave festivals of new music, has collaborated with many Bay Area new music groups including the Kronos Quartet, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and ODC/Dance, and has supported major orchestras in the performance of new music, including the Seattle Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen. Volti also sponsors the Choral Arts Laboratory, a commissioning and residency program for American composers under age 35, and the Choral Institute for high school students. OutreachChoral InstituteVolti's Choral Institute[7] program brings together high school choir singers from around the Bay Area for weekend-long workshops at the CYO-McGucken Center in Occidental. The high school singers work with Volti singers, Volti conductor Robert Geary, and their own conductors to improve upon their choral technique and to prepare pieces for performance as a massed choir. The Choral Institute is offered twice during the school year; once for mixed choirs in October, and once for treble choirs in January. In 2009-10, Volti added a resident composer to the Choral Institute program. Morten Lauridsen worked with the students for the weekend intensive, and returned in May 2010 to play the piano accompaniment to his "Nocturnes" song cycle, sung by the massed choir of 120 voices. Other composers in residence have included [2] Kirke Mechem, [3] Stacy Garrop, Eric Tuan, Melissa Dunphy and LJ White. Choral Arts LaboratoryStarted in 2003, Volti's Choral Arts Laboratory[8] is a commissioning and residency program aimed at composers under 35. Each year, the composer selected for the program takes part in workshops to develop a piece, then works directly with the Volti singers in rehearsal, hearing how the piece sounds and getting feedback the singers. The composer may then consult with Robert Geary (Volti's artistic director)[9] and Mark Winges (Volti's resident composer)[10] throughout the year as they finish perfecting the piece, which is then premiered at a Volti concert during the regular season. World Premieres2016It is possible these things do not exist - Amy Beth Kirsten (Volti Commission) 2015Death With Interruptions - Kurt Rohde (a chamber opera adapted by Thomas Laqueur from the novel by José Saramago, presented in collaboration with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble) Digression on No. 1, 1948 - LJ White (Volti Commission) 2014Scenes from “Unremembered” - Sarah Kirkland Snider (World Premiere of Chamber Chorus version) 2013Cancionero Amoroso - Armando Bayolo (Volti Commission) 2012Canticles of Rumi - Mark Winges (Volti Commission) 2011Delusional Paths - Tom Flaherty (Volti Commission) 2010Where Everything is Music - Mark Winges (Volti Commission) 2009The Assembling Landscape - Mark Winges (Volti Commission) 2008Dancing in the Wind - Elliott Gyger (Combined Volti & Piedmont Choirs Commission) 2007A Cricket Needs a Queen - Mark Winges 2006Blessings - Jacob Avshalomov (Volti Commission) 2005Ccollanan María - Gabriela Lena Frank (Volti Commission) 2004Image & Motion: A Choral Symphony - Mark Winges (Volti Commission) 2003American Shape-Note Tunes - Arr. Mark Winges (Volti Commission) 2002The Mystery - Tamar Diesendruck (Volti Commission) References
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