By Rebecca Bratek:
Ten years ago in the fall of 2002, James Burritt and a friend sat around a table at SpoT Coffee discussing what was missing in the Buffalo music scene in terms of choral groups. They threw some names around, made a few phone calls, and hoped to form something out of this dream. Only two months later, this new group was established and performing its first concert.
Now, ten years later, the Vocalis Chamber Choir is ending its ninth season in the Western New York music scene and is a force to be reckoned with. Comprised of 18 voices that, by day, are not only music teachers and musicians, but also professionals from across the spectrum of disciplines.
“It was really just something I felt was missing from the Buffalo music scene–and that is a smaller choir, sort of more of a chamber type of choir with fewer voices,” said Burritt, who is also the current director of the group. “What I was hoping to do was to have a group of about 18 to 20 that could sing a different kind of music. We wouldn’t be interested in singing quite the same repertoire that those larger choirs would sing. There’s kind of something unique about a choir that size.”
What makes Vocalis different than the larger choruses–think the Philharmonic Chorus and the Buffalo Choral Arts Society–is not only the size, but also the types of music the group sings.
Vocalis is almost exclusively an a cappella group–it relies solely on the power of its members’ voices to fuel and present the material. The group isn’t accompanied by a piano and rarely commissions any other type of accompanist to help guide the voices.
“Everybody that’s in the group really has to be responsible for knowing their music very well and be very strong musical leaders. And I think that kind of helps make it a unique sound, where you know you’ve got a lot of responsibility on every singer,” Burritt said.
The group also tries to sing a diverse range of music. Audiences can expect to hear music from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance eras, classical selections such as Mozart, and on the same concert program, even hear popular selections from Billy Joel and The Beatles. This diverse range is unique and is something that distinguishes Vocalis from other choirs in the area.
Vocalis presents eight to ten concerts a year and even has a subscription program that patron can purchase to see an entire season of music. They’ve toured throughout New York State and have sung in other cities, such as Toronto and Pittsburgh.
The group has recorded and released four CDs, which are available at events and local stores. They’ve also been able to collaborate with other local groups, such as the Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus, the Amherst Symphony Orchestra, the choirs of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and they’ve even worked with Shakespeare in Delaware Park.
Vocalis recently presented “Requiem Light Eternal” as a close to its 9th season in Buffalo. For this program, they took excerpts from some of the great requiem masses–Brahm, Fauré, Duruflé, Victoria, and Howells–and arranged them to create a requiem movement of their own that portrays a powerful journey from darkness to light.
“There were definitely things people will recognized on the program and things that they didn’t, but that’s kind of what I like to try to do: give people things that they will know, but at the same time sort of educate them and expose them to something they might not know,” Burritt said.
Look for future concerts at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, which is located at 1080 Main St. in Buffalo. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 with a student ID, and children under 12 are admitted free.
Vocalis will also be a part of the Music Niagara Festival on August 13th at Niagara-on-the-Lake.
For more information on the Vocalis Chamber Choir, visit here.