Review: Symphony of Voices Enchants With Concerts of Holiday Music

In my review of the debut concert of Symphony of Voices in September, I wrote of thresholds being crossed and niches being filled as the Knoxville music scene gained a professional choral ensemble. Last Saturday and Sunday, the conductor-less 12-member group took another giant step with their second appearance of the season—a concert of diverse winter holiday music representing traditional and modern Christmas, Hanukkah, and secular music. Bold choices in programming—elegantly performed with personality, polish, and musicality—made the statement that the ensemble is poised to make a serious contribution, not just to Knoxville’s music scene, but to a much wider arena if they so choose.

The concert bore the title Salvation Is Created after a 1912 work by the pre-Revolution Russian composer Pavel Tschesnokov. In the character of Russian choral music of a certain age, the ensemble’s solid basses (Paul Bryson, Harrison Cooke, and Tyler Owens) gave the work a distinctively appropriate solidity.

Equally enchanting was Stars by Ēriks Ešenvalds, a contemporary Latvian composer. Stars is written for the usual four part choir, but with the addition of tuned water glasses played by the ensemble. The vocal lines ebb and flow with rich harmonies and textures, with the water glass pitches creating an ethereal dissonance that was sonically intoxicating. The ensemble’s ability to maintain their own sense of pitch and harmony, while being supplemented with the glasses’ soaring overtones was impressive.

While many of their selections had familiar holiday music forebears, Symphony of Voices chose challenging arrangements of these that could intrigue a wide range of listeners. A perfect example was the familiar text of In the Bleak Midwinter but in an arrangement by the contemporary Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo that was a feast of delicious dissonance. On the early music side, O Magnum Mysterium by the 16th Century Spanish composer, Tomás Luis de Victoria, was splendid in its balanced harmonies.

Ensemble member, tenor Matt Parks, contributed his own engaging arrangement of Silent Night that took the familiar classic into new and satisfying choral territory. The very prolific contemporary composer and arranger, Alice Parker, was represented by a number of works on the concert: the solid and lush “O Tannenbaum,” “Fum Fum Fum,” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”

The Powell High School Singers, led by the noted Knoxville choral conductor Jim Kennedy, had an impressive segment of their own on the program and joined the Symphony of Voices for a gorgeous performance of Franz Biebl’s Ave Maria. Closing out the strategically balanced program was a lighthearted work by Nathan Howe, I Want to Stare At My Phone With You.

Having added a twelfth member since their September concert, the ensemble has all the pieces in place to hone what is already a sublime blend of articulation, balance, and vocal character, yet in a group in which the individuals remain attractively distinct in the all-too-necessary theatrical sense. I am particularly impressed by their ability to “self-balance” on the fly, something essential in a conductor-less ensemble. Equally impressive is their intention to challenge themselves and their audiences with bold programming choices.

Symphony of Voices has tentatively planned its next public appearances for February 8, 9, and 10. Stay tuned for this dynamic group’s next chapter.

The concerts reviewed here took place on Saturday, December 8, at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, and on Sunday, December 9, at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, both in Knoxville.