Phoenix Bach Choir

The Phoenix Bach Choir, regarded as one of the finest professional choral ensembles in America, is rapidly increasing its national and international presence. The Choir’s musical offerings inspire, entertain and educate audiences and have earned the group a stellar reputation recognized by local, national and international critics. The Choir is equally dedicated to commissioning, performing and recording exciting new music as well as informed and sensitive presentation of traditional masterworks. The Choir has been the featured choral ensemble at numerous regional choral conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, performing in Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis and in 2006, Salt Lake City. In March of 2003, the Choir performed the West Coast premiere of Daniel Lentz’ Café Desire before a capacity crowd in San Francisco as part of the Other Minds 9 new music festival and has performed for Arch-Bishop Emeritus of South Africa, Desmond Tutu and the Governor of Arizona.

The Phoenix Bach Choir is the first North American Choir to have an album on Chandos, the world’s largest independent classical record label. Audiences around the country have been treated to the sounds of the Phoenix Bach Choir through broadcasts on National Public Radio’s Performance Today as well as features on NPR affiliated stations including WFMT (Chicago) and WGBH (Boston) and around the globe including BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM in the U.K., and ABC radio –Australia. Its Shakespeare In Song recording has garnered world-wide praise. Eternal Rest, the Choir's second disc on Chandos is scheduled for release in the fall of 2007. Featuring Frank Martin's Mass for Double Chorus, Eternal Rest was recorded with the Kansas City Chorale.

In addition to performances, touring and recordings, the choir is active in schools around the greater Phoenix area, providing its Bach to School educational outreach programs for which it received a nomination for the best emerging education outreach program by Chorus America.

First known as the Bach and Madrigal Society, the Choir was formed in 1958 by Doctors Hal and Timona Pittman as a study group by devotees of fine choral music, particularly of the Baroque and Renaissance periods. Their living room served as the first rehearsal space. Since acquiring professional status, the choir has experienced phenomenal artistic and organizational growth, and now includes 24 professionally trained singers. In its 47-year history, The Phoenix Bach Choir has been under the baton of Vance George, (San Francisco Symphony Chorus) Anders Öhrwall, (Swedish Radio Choir & Stockholm Bach Choir) Jon Washburn (Vancouver Chamber Choir) and currently, Charles Bruffy (also with the Kansas City Chorale.)

Discography

Rheinberger

Oster-Hymne, Op. 134 for Eight Voices (Double Choir) for Church and Concert Vier sechsstimmige Motetten, Op. 133 Mass, Op. 109 in E flat major for Double Choir Drei geistliche Gesange, Op. 69 for Mixed Choir

'The massed forces of the Phoenix Bach Choir and Kansas City Chorale 'make a formidable choral machine' (BBC Music Magazine) and the choirs under the baton of Charles Bruffy here present a collection of unaccompanied sacred choral works by Josef Rheinberger. The disc includes the only available recordings of his Oster-Hymne for double chorus and Four Six-part Motets, op.133. The Oster-Hymne is a setting of two ancient Easter texts, particularly the famous sequence Victimae paschali laudes. During his lifetime, Rheinberger was lauded as a talented performer, prolific composer and masterful teacher. He observed that his primary consideration in music 'is that it shall be beautiful; music that does not sound beautiful has no attraction for me'.

8741 SACD $23.95

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Eternal Rest

Cabticum Calamitatus Maritimae There Will Be Rest (Frank Ticheli) IIn Pace (Rene Clausen) Messe Pour Double Choeur

Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (b. 1963) writes some of today's more innovative choral music. It's not only creatively interesting but it also maintains the qualities of tonal/harmonic accessibility and text-centered immediacy that allows it to register with a broad spectrum of listeners. His collections of Shakespeare Songs, More Shakespeare Songs, and No More Shakespeare Songs show a composer at once in love with his subject and fully in tune with his audience - and one clearly in possession of a sense of humor! On this recording we hear a profoundly serious work, in memory of the victims of a terrible Baltic Sea tragedy in September, 1994, in which the luxury ferry Estonia sank in a storm, killing 852 passengers. Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae incorporates elements of Psalm 107 ("They that go down to the sea in ships...") with news accounts of the disaster (taken from a Latin-language Finnish radio broadcast), employing dramatic, rich-textured choral utterances (including the whispered prayers of the opening and closing bars) along with chant-inspired passages and an occasional folk-song-like melody, all of which culminates in an extended passage of beautiful and often surprising harmonies, ideally defining the text at the end of the Psalm: "He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still..." This is a moving and memorable work, one that these choirs perform with care and confidence under Charles Bruffy's artful direction. Frank Martin's Mass for double choir has been recorded many times--and mostly very well--and this is another fine rendition of a work that seems to register its "classic" credentials more impressively every time you hear it. René Clausen's In pace, cut from the same vibrant-colored harmonic cloth as the Ticheli, is another work that deserves repertoire status, and again, Bruffy's singers perfectly capture its nuances of texture and dynamics and give full measure to the big sonorities. The complementary acoustics of Camelback Bible Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona, expertly recorded for this hybrid SACD, complete a program that should have strong appeal to all choral music fans.

8497 SACD $23.95

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Shakespeare In Song

Shakespeare Songs (Matthew Harris) The Tempest (Frank Martin) When He Shall Die (Steven Sametz) Four Shakespeae Songs (Jaakko Mantyjarvi) Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Nils lindberg) Sonnet No. LXIV (Dominick Argento) O mistress mine! (Alan Murray) Three Shakespeare Songs (Ralph Vaughan Williams)

Founded in 1958 as the Bach and Madrigal Society, the Choir originally focused on Renaissance and baroque period music, but today is equally dedicated to the creation and performance of new music. They are conducted by Charles Bruffy, one of the most highly respected choral conductors in the US. The CD features 23 songs, beginning with 7 cuts from Matthew Harris' "Shakespeare Songs," and 5 "Songs of Ariel from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest.' Steven Sametz' lovely "When He Shall Die," Jaakko Mantyjarvi's "Four Shakespeare Songs," Nils Lindberg's minor-key "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day," Dominick Argento's "Sonnet No. LXIV," Alan Murray's "O mistress mine," and the CD finishes strong with Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Three Shakespeare Songs." The Choir beautifully takes us into the drama, moodiness, pathos, romance and celebration of these songs, most of which are new to our ears. A worthy project, and a winning CD for Bruffy and his talented Phoenix Bach Choir! Extensive, colorful liner notes.

A Southwest Christmas

Milagros de Navidad - Ed Henderson Los Reyes de Oriente Angels we have heard on high A la nanita nana (Lullaby) Allà en el portal (Away in a manger) Noche de paz (Silent night) Fum fum fum Noel Sing We - Jon Washburn Magnificat secundi toni - Hernando Franco Lo, how a rose e're blooming - arr. Jon Washburn The Star - Jon Washburn I wonder as I wander How brightly shines the morning star Rise up, shepherd, an’ follow Weihnachtslieder - Johann Sebastian Bach

The Phoenix Bach Choir four years ago premiered Milagros de Navidad, a Christmas cycle for choir as a way of marking the holiday season in a Southwestern accent. In this recording, the choir has made Milagros the lead item in a superbly produced and packaged yuletide CD from an emerging Arizona label, Soundset. Jon Washburn conducts the ensemble of Frank Koonce, guitar; Mark Sunkett, percussion; and the choir with select soloists. In this sonically clean and vibrant recording, Milagros is a compendium of yuletide songs lovingly sung in Spanish and English, with running commentary from guitarist Koonce. Robert Tree Cody, on Native American Flute (the instrument of choice this season, it seems), is also heard here, in Washburn's own Noel Sing We, a kind of American Indian-haunted holiday landscape.

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