October E-Newsletter

VoxAmaDeus Welcomes the Return of 

Soprano Sarah Davis

VoxAmaDeus is happy to announce that Sarah Davis will return to its concert stage on Friday, October 11, as a soprano soloist in Mozart’s Grand Mass in c minor at the Kimmel Center, conducted by Valentin Radu. Sarah is more active than ever and has spent, and will spend, plenty of quality music-making time in the Philadelphia area. Here is Sarah in conversation with Richard A. Shapp.

 RAS: Sarah Davis, welcome back to the electronic pages of the VoxAmaDeus E-Newsletter. It’s been a while; what have you been doing?

SD: The last concert I sang with VoxAmaDeus was the Vivaldi Gloria in December 2011 at the Kimmel Center. It’s been a whirlwind since then! I am thrilled to be back singing with Valentin and my friends in VoxAmaDeus on October 11. It is an honor to have been invited to sing with such esteemed colleagues and to get the chance to perform this glorious music—the Mozart Grand Mass in c minor.

September Newsletter

Meet STEVEN ZOHN
flute soloist in the season-opener concert on
September 15 at Daylesford Abbey

...in conversation with Richard Shapp

Valentin Radu has programmed an exciting all-Bach concert to open the 2013-14 VoxAmaDeus concert season. Johann Sebastian Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos are among the most popular musical creations of all times. On Sunday, September 15, in the acoustically glorious and architecturally beautiful Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Maestro Radu will lead exciting performances of Concertos Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Baroque Spring ~ Final concerts of the season

With spring fully established, what better music to capture the season’s happy mood than the energetic and enchanting music of the late Baroque period (about 1700 to 1750). Under the vibrant direction of Artistic Director & Conductor Valentin Radu, the Camerata Ama Deus Baroque period-instrument chamber orchestra will offer two performances of effervescent works by three masterful Baroque composers—Johann Sebastian Bach, Benedetto Marcello and Georg Philipp Telemann.

From the musical genius of Bach, Maestro Radu and the Camerata Ama Deus will perform the Concerto for Two Violins in d minor, a triple Concerto for Flute, Violin and Harpsichord in a minor and the famed Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. From Italy comes the well-known Oboe Concerto in d minor by Marcello. And returning to Germany, the artists of the Camerata Ama Deus will perform two stunning works by Telemann—his Concerto for Recorder in g minor and the virtuosic Suite for Trumpet in D. This program will be offered twice in different neighborhoods of the Delaware Valley. 

 BUY TICKETS HERE

On Friday, May 31 at 8:00 PM, the concert will be presented at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin’s Lane (at Willow Grove Avenue) in Chestnut Hill. Then on Sunday, June 2 at 6:00 PM, the concert will be repeated in Daylesford Abbey, 220 South Valley Road in Paoli. Tickets for both concerts are priced at $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors and $10 for students & children. Doors open 45 minutes before the concert. 

Our CDs will be available at the concert, including our latest release: Gershwin & Ellington (see details below). 

Season 27 Announced! Click on the picture to enlarge.

Gershwin & Ellington CD released!

2 CD SET
Satin Doll - “Duke” Ellington
“I Got Rhythm” Variations - George Gershwin
Concerto in F - Gershwin
Second Rhapsody for Orchestra with Piano - Gershwin
New World A-Comin’ - Ellington
Rhapsody in Blue - Gershwin
Recorded live, Friday, January 4, 2013, in the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Phila. PA.

Click to purchase your copy today!

We are thrilled to announce the release of the recording of our January concert, "Gershwin & Ellington," featuring Peter Donohoe with the Ama Deus Ensemble, conducted by Music Director, Valentin Radu. For those who attended this exhilarating concert, the memory of an exciting evening of music is fresh in their memories. Buying one of these CD sets, you can feel as if you are there in the Perelman Theater. The electricity is evident from the first note!

May 2013 Newsletter: Beethoven & Paganini at the Kimmel Center

Niccolò Paganini

Violin Concerto No. 1

The Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 6, was composed by Paganini in Italy, probably between 1817 and 1818. The concerto reveals that Paganini’s technical wizardry was fully developed. Contemporary audiences gasped at the extended passages of double-stop thirds, both chromatic and in harmonics.

Paganini intended the Concerto to be heard in E-flat major: the orchestral parts were written in E-flat, and the solo part was written in D major with instructions for the violin to be tuned a semitone high (a technique known as scordatura), so that it would therefore sound in E-flat. This enables the soloist to achieve effects in E-flat which would not be possible with a normal D tuning (for example, the opening of the third movement, where the violin plays a rapid downward scale A-G-F♯-E-D, both bowed and pizzicato. This is possible on an open D-string, but is not possible in the key of E-flat), because two strings would be required. The key of E flat would mute the sound of the orchestra, whose strings would play fewer tones on open strings, and this would make the solo part emerge more clearly from the orchestral accompaniment.