Arcovoce Information

ArcoVoce is a chamber group made up of some of the East Coast's most acclaimed performers on both modern and period instruments. ArcoVoce, whose name translates loosely from the Italian for strings and voice, may be unique in specializing in performances on both sets of instruments, as well as in including vocal chamber music as an integral part of its performances. ArcoVoce has performed in prestigious venues including Washington D.C.'s Phillips Collection and Corcoran Galleries, the German and Dutch Embassies, the Boston Early Music Festival, and Alexandria Virginia's Lyceum. ArcoVoce's repeated performances at the Phillips Collection have earned it status as a resident chamber ensemble of the gallery. Among the notable guest artists who have appeared with ArcoVoce are the celebrated baroque violinist Elisabeth Wallfisch, principal cellist of Musica Antique Koln Phoebe Carrai, and longtime principal clarinettist of the Cleveland Orchestra Franklin Cohen. ArcoVoce's performances have been hailed for both their outstanding quality and their remarkable innovation. Examples of ArcoVoce's innovative programming include pairing music of Hildegard von Bingen and Olivier Messian, music stemming from the same Catholic mystic tradition notwithstanding the eight plus centuries between composers. The ensemble's Compact Disk "The ArcoVoce Chamber Ensemble" links the moody, dark Bach e minor sonata for violin and continuo with the dark, moody instrumental song cycle of Shostakovich "Seven Romances to Poems of Alexander Blok. ArcoVoce often presents highly meritorious but less familiar pieces from the panoply of western music, including east coast premieres of music of the Dutch baroque composer Cornelius Padbrue, C. P. E. Bach's contemporary J.C. Graun, and contemporary composer Lori Leitman. ArcoVoce has also made the first recording of trio sonatas of the 17th century Italian baroque master Isabella Leonarda.