Artists’ Vocal Ensemble is a professional choral group focused on music as an instrument of emotional healing and bliss. Our music videos and concerts unleash the transformative power of choral music. Bridging neuroscience and the arts, we present fully immersive programs which blur the line between performer and audience.
Our programming embodies Sacred Minimalism, exploring music which prioritizes impact over cognition. We bring repertoire from the early renaissance into conversation with works of modern minimalism; two traditions which reach beyond the brain’s need to grasp at understanding. We invite our audiences to lie down, borrowing from the incredibly popular Northern European concept of “Liegekonzerte”. The mind is quieted, allowing the performance to speak directly to the body, heart, and breath.
Our intention is to engender calm, love, compassion, and peace by returning choral music to its original purpose: to transform listener and singer alike. Our aim is nothing short of creating transformative, healing experiences for the soul through music.
AVE was founded on St. Cecilia’s Day (the patron saint of music) in 2006 and quickly established itself as one of the leading professional chamber choirs in Northern California. During its ten-year run, it presented dozens of concerts throughout the Bay Area, toured Barbados, made four complete recordings, and established a fan base which consistently compared AVE to the famed Tallis Scholars of England. An early champion of multi-media programs in collaboration with choreographers and poets, AVE asserted itself as a maverick in the field of performing ensembles. All concerts partnered with nonprofits to establish a real relationship between the Arts and social issues of our day.
Like a phoenix from the ashes, AVE is resurfacing at a pivotal moment in the history of humanity. In the face of ongoing humanitarian crises and the rapid emergence of dehumanizing technologies, human connection is under grave threat. What could be more human, more life-affirming, than the voice in song?
Choral music models connection through collaboration: the synchronization of breath (a word which is synonymous to “Spirit” in many languages), heartbeats, and intentions. Science and our experience prove that the human voice in song calms the troubled, soothes the stressed, and uplifts those that are depressed.
The San Francisco Bay Area sits at the center of the global industry of technology. It has played host to extraordinary revolutions in creativity and human consciousness, including the current pursuit of Artificial Intelligence. As such, San Francisco is uniquely poised to host the deployment of AVE’s new approach to the Arts for the betterment of humanity.
People are stressed out, and it’s no surprise. Their productivity has been maximized, their job security threatened, and their attention eroded. Their identity has been mined for divisive rhetoric, and their communities have been uploaded and targeted for advertisement.
This has all served to create an opportunity for healing and reconnecting music.
We envision a day when “centering breaks” become as normative in the workplace as cigarette breaks once were. We imagine healthcare workers, tech industry professionals, hospital patients, CEOs—anyone in need of a healing moment—able to tune-in to AVE’s musical meditative experience. AVE’s content functions like meditation but without the trappings and jargon that are off-putting to many. Our purpose is spiritual but entirely outside of institutional religions. Whether online or in live performances, AVE’s vision is to create multi-sensory artwork: world-class choral music paired with equally spectacular visuals. To our audience, we seek to provide increased calm, attention, authentic productivity, self-awareness, and a more open connection to our shared humanity.
AVE will be primarily a recording group, with the aim of producing one video per month. We will work alongside expert videographers; artists in their own right. Our focus is music from the Early Renaissance and Modernist periods, featuring slow-moving harmonic textures, long, melismatic phrases (many notes on one syllable), and ability to generate an affect of serenity and calm. With some exceptions, we find that music with fewer words is more effective in creating a transformative listener experience. We explore music that is not overly active in speed or harmonic rhythm. This helps the brain shift from its usual beta (thinking) brainwave state (14 – 35 Hz) to an alpha (relaxed) brainwave state (8 – 12.5 Hz), or even theta (deep meditation) brainwave state (4 – 8 Hz). In essence, we seek to create a sonic, multimedia experience that disengages the thinking brain and transforms our listeners.
Our repertoire is selected by a committee of advisors that will help steer the ensemble into its niche. Some initial selections are: John Taverner (‘Kyrie’ and ‘Agnus Dei’ from Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas), Thomas Tallis (Gaude Gloriosa), John Sheppard (Media vita), Palestrina (Sicut lilium), and Victoria (Ave Maria). We envision these standing alongside contemporary composers such as Arvo Pärt (Miserere), Stephanie Martin (from Four Motets), Pierre Villette (“Attende Domine”), Max Richter (“Song of the Beyond”), Anna Thorvaldsdottir (from old Icelandic psalms), Frank Martin (Agnus Dei from Mass), Esenvalds (“O Salutaris”), Jóhann Jóhannsson (“Odi et Amo”), Knut Nystedt (setting of Bach’s “Komm, süsser Tod”), and Caroline Shaw (No. 3 from Partita for 8 voices). But are only just beginning to dream.