VOCES8 & JACK LIEBECK

THE LARK ASCENDING

"The singing of VOCES8 is impeccable in its quality of tone and balance. They bring a new dimension to the word ‘ensemble’ with meticulous timing and tuning."- GRAMAPHONE MAGAZINE

"The virtuosity and fine detailing of Liebeck’s playing are pretty jaw-dropping ... fierce and thrilling” " - GRAMAPHONE MAGAZINE

The 2023 Grammy-nominated British vocal ensemble VOCES8 is one of the world's most exciting and versatile vocal groups who inspire audiences through music and the sheer joy of singing. Touring across Europe, the USA, Asia and Africa, appearing at prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Tel Aviv Opera House, Cite de la Musique Paris and Shanghai Concert Hall, VOCES8 and celebrated British violinist Jack Liebeck add Canberra’s Snow Concert Hall to the illustrious stages their have graced. With two DECCA albums released in late 2023, VOCES8 and Jack Liebecek share this stunning programming - a heart rendering portrait of hope, peace and renewal through the intimacy of the human voice and violin.

PROGRAM

VOCES8 | Jack Liebeck Violin | Barnaby Smith Artistic Director

GIBBONS O Clap Your Hands

DUNPHY Halcyon Days

RUNESTAD Let My Love Be Heard

SHAW and the swallow

GJEILO Serenity (O Magnum Mysterium)

RALPH VAUGHN WILLIAMS The Lark Ascending

Interval -

SMITH Nunc Dimittis

SCHUTZ Selig sind die Toten, SWV 391

REINBERGER Kyrie from the Mass in E Flat

BACH Partita No. 2, BWV 1004 with Chorales

VOCES8

The 2023 Grammy-nominated British vocal ensemble VOCES8 is proud to inspire people through music and share the joy of singing. Touring globally, the group performs an extensive repertory both in its a cappella concerts and in collaborations with leading musicians, orchestras, conductors and soloists. Versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s performance and education ethos which is shared both online and in person.

VOCES8 has performed at many notable venues since its inception in 2005 including Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin Philharmonie, Cité de la Musique Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus, Tokyo Opera City, NCPA Beijing, Sydney Opera House, Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, Victoria Concert Hall Singapore, Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico City amongst many others. This season they perform over 100 concerts in the UK, across Europe, the USA, Australia and Asia.

They have collaborated in concert and in the recording studio with musicians including Paul Simon, Jacob Collier, Eric Whitacre, Christopher Tin, Olafur Arnalds, Cody Fry, Rachel Podger, Jack Liebeck, Bomsori Kim, Jonathan Dove, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and others.

VOCES8 is passionate about music education and is the flagship ensemble of music charity the VOCES8 Foundation which actively promotes ‘Music Education For All’. Engaging in a broad range of in-person outreach work that reaches up to 40,000 people a year, the Foundation runs an annual programme of workshops and masterclasses at the VOCES8 Centre at St Anne & St Agnes Church, London. Dedicated to supporting promising young singers, VOCES8 awards eight annual choral scholarships through the VOCES8 Scholars initiative. These scholarships are linked to the annual Milton Abbey Summer School at which amateur singers of all ages learn and perform with VOCES8. Through the separate VOCES8 USA Foundation there is another set of twelve talented Scholars

VOCES8’s entrepreneurial and community spirit is fostered by Co-Founders Paul and Barnaby Smith. The Covid-19 pandemic gave the impetus for VOCES8 to transform its already exceptional offerings, nurturing a new online audience community providing a chance to engage with classical music in new ways. Pioneering initiatives include the LIVE From London online festival and the VOCES8 Digital Academy.

LIVE From London was created as a specific response to the pandemic. Winning praise for its collaborative approach with artists, press and audiences around the world the team has delivered ten digital festivals to date, broadcasting over 100 concerts and selling 250,000 tickets around the world. The VOCES8 Digital Academy is an online choral programme for high schools, colleges and individuals featuring live interaction with members of the ensemble, live and recorded lectures, and video resources to learn and perform music from the renaissance to today. Both LIVE From London and the Digital Academy is filmed by VOCES8 Studios, the in-house recording company.

VOCES8 Studios, the in-house recording company. Alongside their online work VOCES8 is heard regularly on albums, international television and radio. The ensemble is a Decca Classics artist, also releasing on its own label, VOCES8 Records. The Decca Classics recording of Christopher Tin’s “The Lost Birds” featuring VOCES8 and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was nominated for a Grammy-Award in 2023. The newest albums are “Home” conducted by Eric Whitacre, featuring his extraordinary work “The Sacred Veil” which reached the top of the classical charts in both the UK and USA, and “Seven Psalms” by Paul Simon in which VOCES8 was thrilled to participate. In the run-up to Christmas 2023 VOCES8 joins its own Foundation Choir and Orchestra in “A Choral Christmas”, a joyful selection of favourite carols with sparkling new arrangements for choir and featuring the premiere recording of Taylor Scott Davis’s “Magnificat”.

VOCES8 is proud to be working with Ken Burton as the group’s Composer-in-Residence and Jim Clements as Arranger-in-Residence. The ensemble has premiered commissions from Jonathan Dove, Roxanna Panufnik, Roderick Williams, Paul Smith, Jocelyn Hagen, Melissa Dunphy, Ken Williams, Taylor Scott Davis, Alexander Levine, Alexia Sloane, Alec Roth, Ben Parry, Ola Gjeilo, Mårten Jansson, Philip Stopford, Graham Lack, Thomas Hewitt Jones and Owain Park. They publish arrangements of its music, original compositions and educational material with the new digital VOCES8 Publishing house, and with Edition Peters. The VOCES8 Method written by Paul Smith is a renowned and unique teaching tool now available in four languages that adopts music to enhance development in numeracy, literacy and linguistics.

JACK LIEBECK

“His playing is virtually flawless in its technical ease, scintillating articulateness and purity of tone.” – Gramophone.

British/German violinist, director and festival director Jack Liebeck, possesses “flawless technical mastery” and a “beguiling silvery tone” (BBC Music Magazine). Jack is the Royal Academy of Music’s first Émile Sauret Professor of Violin and Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. “A diverse and interesting program, giving voice to many of the festival artists, this was a terrific offering for this year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music.” (Limelight Magazine). Jack’s playing embraces the worlds of elegant chamber-chic Mozart through to the impassioned mastery required to frame Brett Dean The Lost Art of Letter Writing and he has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and chamber musicians. Jack’ fascination with all things scientific has led to two new concertos being written for him and regular collaborator Professor Brian Cox – Dario Marianelli’s Voyager Violin Concerto and Paul Dean’s A Brief History of Time commissioned by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in commemoration of Professor Stephen Hawking. In summer 2023 Jack gave the online premiere of Taylor Scott Davis’ new concerto for violin, choir & orchestra To Sing of Love: a Triptych with the VOCES8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra conducted by Barnaby Smith as part of LIVE From London, commissioned for Jack this will be released on album in 2024.

Upcoming highlights include a tour of Australia with VOCES8 including performances at Sydney Opera House and with Queensland Symphony Orchestra performing a new arrangement of Lark Ascending and Christopher Tin The Lost Birds; his debut with Spokane Symphony performing Marianelli Voyager, return performances with Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Bruch with Jaime Martin), Savannah Chamber Music Festival, Franz Liszt Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall with Jack’s ensemble Salica Piano Trio, and debuts at La Jolla Festival and a new project with the Australian Youth Orchestra.

Upcoming album releases include featuring as soloist and guest leader on Decca Classics’ Christmas 2023 release, A Choral Christmas, with the VOCES8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra and Barnaby Smith; a recording of the Wilson Violin Concerto with Rory Macdonald and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for Linn Records; Vaughan Williams’ Concerto Accademico with London Choral Sinfonia; and a chamber recording for Orchid Classics of English composer and musical advisor Frederick Laurence’s Sonata for violin and piano and Spring Nocturne with pianist Anna Tilbrook. Jack’s Schoenberg & Brahms with BBC Symphony Orchestra was ‘Recording of the Month’ and BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Recommended Recording’ for Brahms Violin Concerto in its ‘the greatest violin concertos of all time’; the “flawlessly done” Music from the Ghetto on Signum with Simca Heled and the London Chamber Orchestra earned 5*’s in BBC Music Magazine.

In the 25+ years since his debut with the Hallé, Jack has worked with major international conductors and orchestras including Sakari Oramo, Andrew Litton, Leonard Slatkin, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Sir Mark Elder, Vasily Petrenko, Brett Dean (Royal Stockholm Philharmonic), Daniel Harding (Swedish Radio), Jukka Pekka Saraste (Oslo Philharmonic), David Robertson (St Louis Symphony), Jakub Hrůša and many orchestras across the world including Belgian National, Queensland Symphony, Moscow State Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Indianapolis Symphony and all of UK orchestras. Recent orchestral appearances include Queensland Symphony with Elena Schwarz, Uppsala with Rebecca Miller, Philharmonia with Santtu-Matias Rouvali, BBC Philharmonic, Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, Bournemouth Symphony with Jamie Phillips, BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Jac Van Steen, and Opera North with David Greed. Recital touring includes performances across Europe, USA and Australasia for festivals and venues such as Wigmore Hall, Savannah Music Festival, Portugal Festival de Música dos Capuchos, Arts and Lettres, Vevey, Inons Festival (CA), Leeds International Piano Competition, multiple UK festivals as well as his own Australian Festival of Chamber Music and Oxford May Music festival which celebrates the synergy between art, music and science.

Other recordings and collaborations include recordings Ysaÿe Six Sonatas on Orchid Classics “…in every track Liebeck excels in capturing the fury, poetry, madness and dazzle of Ysaÿe’s haunting music. This is an exceptional release.” (The Times 5*); The Lark Ascending with VOCES8 commemorating Vaughan Williams’ 150th anniversary, the world premiere recording of Stuart Hancock’s violin concerto released on Orchid Classics, two chamber discs for Albion Records (Holst and Vaughan Williams with Mary Bevan and Vaughan Williams Folk Songs vol.1 with Nicky Spence and Mary Bevan), The Mozart Question with Michael Morpurgo and the London Philharmonic, Classic FM’s, The Glorious Garden (poetry by Alan Titchmarsh, narrated by Alan with music by Debbie Wiseman), a collaboration with Alexis Ffrench on his new release ‘Truth’, a project with Opera North, and as BBC Music Magazine’s cover disc in celebration of Paganini, The Virtuoso Violin. He can also be heard in the soundtracks of The Theory of Everything, Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina.

As the first Émile Sauret Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music Jack works as an ambassador helping to recruit future talent both at home and internationally as well as nurturing the next generation of violinists in his class. Jack has a developing relationship with digital teaching app NomadPlay, a unique opportunity for individuals to play alongside renowned musicians and orchestras. He has written and curated pieces for Strad Magazine, guest edited Classical Music Magazine, and presented BBC Radio 3’s Inside Music. Jack is also a member of the Salieca Piano Trio and directs his own ensemble of regular collaborators, ‘Jack Liebeck and Friends’.

Jack plays the ‘Ex-Wilhelmj’ J.B. Guadagnini dated 1785 and is generously loaned a Joseph Henry bow by Kathron Sturrock in the memory of her late husband Professor David Bennett.