VOCES8 & Eric Whitacre
Biography VOCES8 & Eric Whitacre
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, 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 and across Europe, in Israel and the USA – a welcome return to touring after the covid restrictions.
The group’s entrepreneurial and community spirit and its innovative approach are fostered by the Co-Founders of VOCES8, brothers Paul and Barnaby Smith. The pandemic has provided the impetus for VOCES8 to further transform its already exceptional offerings, nurturing a new audience community providing hope, resilience and a chance to engage with classical music in new ways. Pioneering initiatives include ventures such as the LIVE From London digital festivals and the VOCES8 Digital Academy.
LIVE From London was created as a specific response to the pandemic. Winning praise for its collaborative approach from artists, press and audiences around the world, the team has delivered five digital festivals to date, broadcasting 70 concerts and selling 150,000 tickets in over 75 countries. 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.
Alongside this online work on its own platforms VOCES8 is heard regularly on albums, international television and radio. The ensemble is a Decca Classics artist and alongside that releases projects on its own label, VOCES8 Records. The latest Decca Classics album is “The Lost Birds” featuring music by Christopher Tin which is nominated for a Grammy at the 2023 Awards. New projects with Eric Whitacre, Paul Simon and Taylor Scott Davis are being released in 2023.
Eric Whitacre
Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre, is among today’s most popular musicians. His works are programmed worldwide and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united 100,000 singers from more than 145 countries over the last decade. Born in Nevada in 1970, Eric is a graduate of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music (New York). He is currently Visiting Composer at Pembroke College, Cambridge and recently completed his second term as Artist in Residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. In 2022, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra commissioned a new work for orchestra, Prelude in C.
Eric’s compositions have been widely recorded and his debut album as a conductor on Universal, Light and Gold, went straight to the top of the charts, earning a Grammy. As a guest conductor he has drawn capacity audiences to concerts with many of the world’s leading orchestras and choirs in venues from Carnegie Hall (New York) to the Royal Albert Hall (London). Insatiably curious and a lover of all types of music, Eric has worked with legendary Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer, as well as British pop icons Laura Mvula, Imogen Heap and Annie Lennox.
His composition, Deep Field, was inspired by the achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope and became the foundation for a pioneering collaboration with NASA, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and film-makers 59 Productions. His long-form work The Sacred Veil, a profound meditation on love, life and loss, was premiered by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by the composer, and released on Signum Records. In 2021, Eric launched the Virtual School with its first course “The Beautiful Mess: Masterclass in Composition and Creativity”.
A charismatic speaker, Eric Whitacre has given keynote addresses for TED, Apple, Google, the United Nations Speaker’s Program, in education and for numerous global institutions. His collaboration with Spitfire Audio resulted in a trail-blazing vocal sample library which became an instant best-seller and is used by composers the world-over.
