Past Voces Novae programs (reverse chronological order)

2023-24

The Microbiome. Voces Novae's final performance of the season came on May 5. The Microbiome explored all those little organisms in (and on) our body that we don’t often think about. With special guest Ross Gay, Bloomington poet and writer. Voces Novae sang a new work by Abby Henkel Roman set to the words of Gay’s poem, Thank You; other spectacular poetry set to music, including Miss T. by Walter de la Mare - a world premiere by Gabriel Lubell commissioned by Voces Novae for this concert; Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath, music composition by Allen Shearer; and Malcolm Dalglish's setting of Great Trees by Wendell Berry. Also, music by Mary Goetze, Palestrina, ABBA, Roger Miller, Matt Carlson.

There Goes the Sun - A Free Solar Eclipse Event. Something big happened in Bloomington the day after this concert. Voces Novae joined the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra to celebrate all things celestial at the City of Bloomington’s Switchyard Park.

Six Degrees of Separation. A short, thought-provoking choral concert exploring networks and connections, with music of the Beach Boys, Orlando di Lasso, Dominick DiOrio, Arvo Pärt, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Schubert, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Kurt Weill.

2022-23

Should I Stay or Should I Go? An exploration of the decisions we make about relationships, where to live and work, and those who don’t have any choice in those decisions. Music of Dale Trumbore, Graham Nash, Thomas Tomkins, Moira Smiley, David Walters, Sara Bareilles, The Clash, and others. Personal stories of an elderly Ukrainian refugee, young women from Afghanistan, and a DACA university student.

The Promise of Living. We collaborated with the Bloomington Chamber Singers and the IU African American Choral Ensemble for a dynamite program about reconciliation and hope, narrated by Marietta Simpson and our own Sylvia McNair.

Perigee. We recorded a beautiful piece by our own Abby Henkel, set to a poem by our own Mary Craig, for a competition. And it won! The piece was performed in Orlando in September 2023.

How Do You Feel? We explored the mind-body connection with an experiential program. We slowed down and sped up Josquin’s Ave Maria, moved our bodies to an ancient Quechua procession, and tested whether chocolate tastes different when eaten to dissonant music or sweet. Music of Biebl, Forrest, Kirchner, Joni Mitchell, Ruggles, Schumann, and others.

Gender 2.0. We revisited our Gender 101 program, further investigating non-binary and transgender issues, performing at the UU Church and Spencer Pride's annual meeting.

2021-22

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we sang outside in park pavilions all over town, on street corners, and in private yards. We called it, “taking it to the people.”

2019-20

Carmina Burana, the Bloomington Symphony’s 50th anniversary concert originally scheduled for May 16, 2020, was postponed.

Six Degrees of Separation, scheduled for March 9, 2020, was postponed.

On February 23, we supported the annual community Soup Bowl.

Voces Novae members sang at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater before the Bloomington Symphony’s program on Friday, November 29.

Haunted Bloomington. In October at the Irish Lion, master storyteller David Matlack narrated a creepy musical retelling of some of Bloomington’s spookiest legends. Howard Klug accompanied on clarinet. Special guest was Malcolm Dalglish.

2018-19

In May, we performed Vonnegut: Requiem (world premiere) by Lauren Bernofsky, Cary Boyce, Malcolm Dalglish, Don Freund, Stacy Garrop, Gabriel Lubell, Moira Smiley, and Dale Trumbore in conjunction with the 2019 Granfalloon.

In December, we partnered with Bloomington Symphony and Windfall Dance Studio to perform Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Our first concert of the 2018-19 season explored the topic of Sanctuary, which we performed twice on Sunday, October 21. The program included music by Peruvian composer Francisco Pulgar Vidal, Melissa Dunphy’s settings of texts by DACA Dreamers, and music by choral favorites Gjeilo and Whitacre. For the second performance, we arranged late afternoon tours of the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, a sanctuary to over 200 tigers, lions, and other large cats. Then, we served high tea and the concert at Clayshire Castle near Bowling Green, Indiana.

2017-18

Granfalloon: A Kurt Vonnegut Convergence. Voces Novae performed on May 11, 2018 at Upland Brewing Co. as part of Granfalloon: A Kurt Vonnegut Convergence, a conference and festival celebrating the life and work of Kurt Vonnegut. Billy Joel’s And So It Goes, Vienna Teng’s Hymn of Axiom, and the first movement of our Vonnegut: Requiem.

Dance Party Dance! February 10, 2018, at Harmony School gym. This family-friendly event featured choral waltzes, polkas, foxtrots, swing, Latin, Motown, rock-n-roll, and American Songbook favorites, a live band, a bake sale, dancing, and guest performances by members of the IU Music Theatre BFA program.

Team Spirit. November 5, 2017. Tailgate party followed by music by David Baker, Mendelssohn, Ockeghem, Poulenc, Sister Sledge, The Wailin' Jennys, and others. We explored our loyalties at different scales of time and space and why we say “We won!” when players we don’t know play a game.

2016-17

The Art and Science of Happiness. May 13, 2017. We celebrated our 20th anniversary with music by Eric Barnum, Hildegard von Bingen, Janequin, choir member Cindy Kallet, Rossini, Eric Whitacre, and Pharrell Williams. Afterwards, we celebrated Happy Hour with a Happiness Fair featuring activities to encourage scientifically proven ways to boost happiness, and a display of programs from Voces Novae's first 20 years.

Lew Wallace: the most interesting person you've never heard of. February 26, 2017. Songs, stories, and s'mores. Music by Stucky, Van, Billy Joel, and more. Professional storytellers from the Bloomington Storytellers Guild spun tales to an audience seated around a cleverly simulated campfire. After the concert, we made s’mores around a real fire.

There is a Singing Around Me. September 24 and 25, 2016. An installation of song, spectacle, and performance in collaboration with choreographer Selene Carter honoring the centennial of state parks in Indiana. This outdoor program at Spring Mill's Pioneer Village featured the beautiful music of Bloomington composer Malcolm Dalglish, accompanied by Dalglish on hammer dulcimer with IU dance students performing.

2015-16

Supporting Players. April 10, 2016. We explored celebrity and notoriety. We examined those in the shadow of brighter lights, extolled the paragons who support us, and asked why we might choose to sing back-up to others and what we are willing to uphold. Music of Michael Daugherty, Libby Larsen, Michael Haydn, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Norman Dello Joio, Josquin dez Prez, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Robert Lopez.

Points of Light: December 18, 2015. Krista Detor's annual holiday concert to benefit Visually Impaired Preschool Services. Music of Detor and Ešenvalds.

Meditations on Life~Death. We revisited the beautiful music from our double-CD book, Meditations on Life~Death, in two concerts on November 1. Music by Bach, Barber, Billings, Elgar, Ešenvalds, Haydn, Schuman, Wilbye.

2014-15

Gender 101: A Choral Cabaret. A light-hearted look at the span of human gender possibilities, with music ranging from Victorian parlor songs to music theater tunes, pop/rock favorites and Eric Whitacre.

Whaddya Know? A Musical Exploration of The Ignorance Map. Music by the Beatles, Benjamin Britten, Malcolm Dalglish, Gabriel Lubell, Giovanni Palestrina, Julian Wachner, and others. A reception featured fool-the-eye cookies, crackers, grilled cheesecake, and meatball cupcakes.

A musical walking tour of the B-Line Trail. A musical walk through Bloomington's history and thriving present. Music: Java Jive, Chimes of Indiana, The Harmonious Blacksmith, The Wabash Cannonball, My Merry Oldsmobile, In This Land, El Cielo Canta Alegria, Men and Melons, a Bulgarian pepper-planting song, Malcolm Dalglish's B-Line March, and a spontaneous performance of Durufle's Ubi caritas for a wedding party at the Wonderlab Science Museum.

2013-14

A musical walking tour of Rose Hill cemetery. Music by Billings, Hoagy Carmichael, Palestrina, Cole Porter, and others offered an opportunity to contemplate the lives of an African-American Revolutionary war veteran, astronomer Daniel Kirkwood, sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, musician Al Cobine, educator Mary McCalla, Negro League baseball player Rabbit Shively, fiddler Jasper Chambers, the legendary Hoagy Carmichael, and others. Postlude: the concert brought to light that George “Rabbit” Shively was buried there with no marker and funds were raised for gravestones for him and more than ten other family members.

A musical architectural tour of Columbus, Indiana. Participants experienced the famed contemporary architecture of downtown Columbus as they listened to music specially chosen for each space. Architectural locations included the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library by I.M. Pei and Partners/1969, First Christian Church's sanctuary and outdoor loggia by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen/1942, the glass atrium/1973 and Post Office Arcade/1970 by Roche Dinkeloo and Associates, the Bartholomew County Veterans Memorial by Mary Ann Thompson and Charles Rose, and the sculpture Chaos I by Jean Tinguely/1974.

Notes in the printed program highlighted the special features of the spaces. T. Kelly Wilson, Architect and Director of the IU Center for Art+Design provided guidance and discussion as the audience walked from venue to venue. Voces Novae sang music by Anton Bruckner, Guillaume Dufay, Eric Ešenvalds, Lee Hoiby, The King Singers, Jaakko Mantyjarvi, Stephen Paulus, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and the premiere of a commissioned work by composer Joshua Ratliff. Learn more about Columbus architecture

Into the Fray: Henry Ward Beecher and His Culture Wars, a choral program with narration, exploring the life and times of a man once considered "the most famous man in America," performed at First United Church in Bloomington and Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis where Beecher was a pastor. Michelle Louer narrated, and Henry Ryder represented Beecher. Music included works of Haydn, Mozart, Jeffrey Van, spirituals, hymns, and protest songs from the 19th century. The story wove words of Whitman, Lincoln, and Beecher's sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, as it explored Beecher's forays into religious schisms, race relations, women's rights, the role of science in religion, and the role of religion in politics.

2012-13

Aged to Perfection. Oliver Winery, conducted by Dr. Roger Henry, with the Ragin' Grannies

Decadence and Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and Our Town. Featuring Luna Pearl Woolf's Après Moi, le Déluge, with Jacobsen Woollen, cello, Craig Brenner, piano. IU freshman Mariah Coleman and Middle Way House volunteer coordinator Debra Morrow participated. The one-hour program explored stories of Katrina and Bloomington: Would Bloomington's social fabric hold or tear if put under Katrina-like pressure?

Solsberry Forge and Sculpture Trail. Performance at Mother's Day Aluminum Pour and Strawberry Social

2011-12

Superheroes! Children's program at Fire House No. 1, Bloomington (Program PDF)

Sweet Music of Healing, in honor of Dr. Betsy Sabga, Wegmiller Auditorium IU Health Bloomington Hospital

Migration and Pilgrimage with tours to see migrating cranes at Goose Pond, Marsh Madness Festival

By the Rivers of Babylon at St. Meinrad Abbey

Pauline Oliveiros's Bonn Feier. Performance on the roof of IU building to applause from Little 500 parade

2010-11

Capriole Goat Farm performance, City of Bloomington Farm Tour

AIDS Quilt display performance, Indiana Memorial Union

Bloomington Winter Farmers' Market performance

Public discussion of Psalm 137, By the Rivers of Babylon

By the Rivers of Babylon program at UU Church

15th Anniversary fundraiser program at The Stone Age Institute, with demonstrations of stone tool-making. Music of Arvo Paert, Don Freund, Ludovico Viadana, and the From the Big Bang to the World Wide Web Blues by Stone Age Institute co-director Nicholas Toth.

Food for Thought poetry reading sponsored by Indiana Humanities, Showers Atrium

Betsy Sabga, Voces Novae alto, memorial

2009-10

Lullaby CD produced and distributed to 1000 families in 4 counties

Bloomington Hospital parking garage performance, Herald-Times editorial “More Garage Concerts!”

Reclaiming the Commons, conference moderated by Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrum

The Proper Resolution of Dissonance in conjunction with Community Justice and Mediation. Program included a “Dissonance Meta Drama” composed by VN alto Deborah Phelps.

Food in Bloom, National Academic Conference banquet

Consumer Cooperative Management Association National Conference banquet

Named Midwest Living Magazine editors' Favorite Choir in Indiana

Featured in Chorus America Voice magazine in Fall and Spring issues for innovative programming

2008-09

The Grand Tour, IU Art Museum

Eugene V. Debs: An Indiana Original at Hippodrome in Terre Haute, sponsored by local unions

Lullaby recording

IU Emeriti House performance

Mother’s Day at Meadowood Pond

Featured in Bloom Magazine

2007-08

COEXIST: Hospitality, Banneker Community Center, co-sponsored by civic groups

Liebeslieder Waltzes, Night in Old Vienna event, Indiana Memorial Union

Art and Death event at Tutto Bene Wine Bar

Recycling and Transformation, Habitat for Humanity ReStore Warehouse

2006-07

COEXIST: Convivencia by John Rommereim (world premiere), co-sponsored by Christian/Jewish/Muslim dialogue groups

Tutto Bene Wine Bar, holiday music

The Art of Mental Health, performed with Malcolm Dalglish, Buskirk-Chumley Theater

Flight, with Malcolm Dalglish

Public round-table discussion of Eugene Debs

Eugene V. Debs: An Indiana Original, Woolery Stone Mill

2005-06

New Harmony: A Tale of Two Utopias at historic New Harmony Opera House

Tavern Shakespeare with Indiana Shakespeare Co., Sonja Rasmussen at Irish Lion Pub

Mathers Museum film festival

Progress and Perfectibility, with clown Joe Lee, UU Church

Public round-table discussion of "Progress"

2004-05

Utopias, St. David's Episcopal Church Concert Series, Bean Blossom

New Harmony: A Tale of Two Utopias, UU Church

Public round-table discussion of Utopias

(Susan Swaney named Artistic Director)

2003-04

Where Do You Draw the Line? Ethics and the Arts, UU Church

Public round-table discussion of Ethics and the Arts

Mathematics and Music, First United Church

Public round-table discussion of Mathematics and Music