WHO WE ARE
Left to right: Yuhi Aizawa Combatti, Andrea Mich, Kristina Blehm, Colby Smith, Alice Del Simone, Lindsey McLennan Burdick, Rachel Rush, Celeste Winant, Monica Frame, Tim Silva, Eric Tuan, Jacob Thompson, Ben Barr, Sidney Chen, Philip Saunders, Joel Chapman, Nica Dennis, Robert Geary.
Volti’s professional singers, under the direction of founder and Artistic Director Robert Geary, are dedicated to the discovery, creation, and performance of new vocal music. The ensemble’s mission is to foster and showcase contemporary American music and composers, and to introduce contemporary vocal music from around the world to local audiences. The group has commissioned more than 120 new works, by emerging as well as established composers.
Hailed by San Francisco Classical Voice as “undoubtedly the finest collection of new music singers we have,” Volti boasts a 45-year track record of some of the most sophisticated vocal performances in the nation. Composers seek opportunities to partner with these stellar musicians, who are known for their sheer technical brilliance as well as their vibrant, passionate sound. Nationally recognized as a pioneer in new vocal music, Volti has won the prestigious ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music seven times – the only vocal ensemble to ever be honored with this award so many times – a testament to the fresh perspective and new voices the group brings to life — and is the 2023 recipient of Chorus America’s highest award, the Margaret Hillis Award for Excellence.
Art is redefined in every generation by the best and the brightest, artists who are paying attention to the world around them. Volti seeks composers who explore timely issues of the modern human experience. At a Volti concert you might hear music addressing such topics as social justice, political and class strife, and different conceptions of God/spirit. Volti explores the nexus between poetry and sound, the translation of inspiration to creation, the evocative power of an artist compelled to express this thing, at this time, in this way. At its best, it’s the aural equivalent of a sunspot — an explosion of energy, a flash of brilliance, a glimpse of some eternal truth seen in a new and breathtaking way.
Attending a Volti concert is like visiting a modern art gallery, stimulating the mind, the imagination and the heart.
PROUD MEMBER OF
HISTORY
Volti’s professional vocalists, under the direction of founder and Artistic Director Robert Geary, are dedicated to the discovery, creation, and performance of new vocal music. The ensemble’s mission is to foster and showcase contemporary American music and composers, and to introduce contemporary vocal music from around the world to local audiences.
Many singers and composers, past and present, at Volti’s 40th Anniversary Gala, May 2019
In the fall of 1979, Robert Geary established The San Francisco Chamber Singers, opening that first season with an all-Bach program. Quickly favoring the music of Benjamin Britten, the choir soon began to sharpen its focus on today’s music, and by the 1990s was focusing almost exclusively on premieres and commissions by living composers from the U.S. and abroad. (To learn more about our commissions, premieres, and other repertoire from recent seasons, click here.)
2003-04 marked the choir’s 25th Anniversary, and the ensemble celebrated with concerts featuring eight commissioned world premieres, as part of a season dedicated to American music. And, after 25 years, the choir adopted a new name – Volti – meant to evoke the energy, vigor, and forward-looking spirit the group is known for (taken from the Italian, volti means “turn”; used in music, it’s normally used in the construction volti subito, which directs musicians to “turn the page quickly” or “look ahead”).
Volti is esteemed for its commitment to and excellence in performing works by contemporary composers, particularly American composers. With 40 seasons of performances to its credit, the group has become one of America’s renowned professional choirs. The ensemble has performed at music festivals in the U.S. and abroad to remarkable critical acclaim, always performing new works by American composers as representative of the artistic excellence and spirit of its home.
“Among the wealth of choirs and vocal ensembles in the San Francisco Bay Area, few can claim their commitment to and excellence in performing contemporary music with as much conviction as Robert Geary’s Volti. Their steadfast dedication to new works has made them one of the most exciting and forward-thinking performance groups, and a cornerstone of the rich community of new music, in our region.”
–Charles Amirkhanian, Other Minds
Robert Geary accepts awards at the 2009 Chorus America national conference. Bob’s in the center, with Alice Parker on his right and David Lang on his left.
Volti has collaborated with many distinguished theatrical and musical organizations, both on stage and in recording. In just the past few seasons, we have:
Premiered the “Angel Island Oratorio” with the Del Sol String Quartet. Under a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions program, Chinese-born American composer Huang Ruo created a bilingual oratorio for string quartet and chamber chorus, inspired by poetry inscribed on the walls of the Angel Island barracks between 1910 and 1940.
recorded music of 7 contemporary American composers with the New Century Chamber Orchestra at Skywalker Sound for the CD “December Celebration”;
sent eight singers from Volti to perform Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia for Eight Voices and Orchestra with the UC Davis Symphony under Maestro Christian Baldini;
performed by invitation at the first annual New Music Gathering in January 2015, the only vocal group invited to perform;
provided the chorus for a new opera by Kurt Rohde, “Death With Interruptions,” both at its premiere in March 2015 and its revival in November 2017;
performed Terry Riley’s “Sun Rings” with the Kronos Quartet for Cal Performances in May 2016 and subsequently recorded it at Skywalker Sound on a Grammy-nominated album named one of the best 100 albums of 2019 by music critic Ted Gioia;
performed by invitation at the first two Bard Music West festivals in 2017 and 2018, “The World of Gyorgy Ligeti” and “The World of Henry Cowell”;
performed by invitation at Festival Napa Valley in 2015, 2017 and 2019;
collaborated twice with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, commissioning and premiering two works for small groups of instrumentalists plus chamber chorus, in October 2016 and two more in November 2018;
joined ODC/Dance in Joby Talbot’s “Path of Miracles,” an hour-long exploration of the Camino Santiago pilgrimage across Spain, with choreography by KT Nelson. Two sold-out performances in February 2018 were followed by repeat performances at Grace Cathedral in February 2019, at the re-opening of the renovated Presidio Theatre in October 2019, and on tour in Wickenburg, Arizona, in November 2019.
expanded to 32 singers at the invitation of Cal Performances, to perform the California premiere of “Become Desert” by John Luther Adams, with a 16-part choral score, in April 2018;
released a new CD of works commissioned by Volti, “the color of there seen from here,” in 2019;
Past partners have included Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, George Coates Performance Works, Earplay, SF Contemporary Music Players, the Berkeley Symphony, the Oakland Symphony, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, San Francisco Sinfonietta, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and others. In April 2013 we presented the West Coast premiere of David Lang’s major choral work, battle hymns, in collaboration with the San Francisco Choral Society, Piedmont Children’s Choirs, and the Philadelphia-based Leah Stein Dance Company.
In addition to touring in the United States and Germany, the group was for many years the Choir in Residence of the Newport Music Festival in Rhode Island. Volti’s performances have been broadcast in the Bay Area on KALW, KQED, KKHI, KDFC, and KUSF; nationally on Monitor Radio, Voice of America, and National Public Radio; and internationally on American Armed Forces Radio and Swiss International Radio.
In 2003-04, Volti inaugurated the Choral Arts Laboratory. Over the program’s 15-year history, 16 young American composers enjoyed the opportunity to work with Volti’s professional vocalists as they prepare a new work for performance. The program is currently on hiatus.
In addition to the commissions and premieres of the concert season, Volti continues its commitment to education by producing the annual Choral Institute for High School Singers. This innovative program, developed by Robert Geary, provides concentrated training and performance opportunities for multiple choirs numbering up to 200 students over the course of an intensive weekend schedule. Volti’s professional singers serve as the resident choir and faculty and, along with Bob, lead rehearsals and teach voice lessons, classes, and seminars. These sessions are designed to give a focused and concentrated training experience to high school singers in an atmosphere that encourages, inspires and supports emotional and intellectual growth in a highly structured and creative musical environment. We hope to be able to resume this program in Fall 2022, pandemic conditions permitting.
Listen
Here are a collection of Volti’s recent recordings, available on Spotify and Apple Music
Shawn Crouch: The Tracery of Lights (2023)
In 2023 Volti combined forces with Essential Voices USA and Seraphic Fire to record the works of Shawn Crouch
The Color of There Seen from Here (2019)
On this recording, hear new works by 5 American composers, 4 of them commissioned by Volti. First up is Forrest Pierce’s Gratitude Sutra, setting Gary Snyder’s poem “A Prayer to the Great Family.” From Tonia Ko comes From Ivory Depths, inspired by the writings of Virginia Woolf. Robin Estrada melds Western forms with Southeast Asian musical styles in Cæli Enarrant, written as a reflection on the current conflict-filled socio-political climate. Mark Winges, who has been Volti’s resident composer since 1990, contributes All Night, and the disc ends with The Blue of Distance, by Lithuanian-born composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė. The textless, atmospheric work was inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s book A Field Guide to Getting Lost, which also provided the title of this recording.
“In each case I have returned to the album several times after having written about it. Since each album tends to involve a different collection of composers adding to the Volti repertoire, I feel as if I am “growing a new mindset” with each new album.”
The Rehearsal Studio review of Volti‘s “the color of there seen from here”
This Is What Happened
More New Directions in American Choral Music (2017)
On This Is What Happened, released January 20, 2017 on the innova label, we invited five of our favorite composers to write something for us, and — this is what happened. All music on this CD was commissioned and premiered by Volti.
Opening the album is Robin Estrada’s Paghahandog, an explosion of sound from a bold and innovative Filipino-American composer who focuses on contemporary art music influenced by Asian indigenous traditions. Next, Stacy Garrop‘s Songs of Lowly Life sets four poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first African-American poet and novelist to gain national and international attention, writing around the turn of the 20th century.
Volti’s resident composer, Mark Winges, contributes Canticles of Rumi, settings of five poems by the 13th-century poet and founder of Sufism. In … is knowing …, Seattle-based composer John Muehleisen creates a musical analogy to Gertrude Stein’s use of language as a literary expression of what the Cubist painters were doing.
The album finishes with Shawn Crouch’s Paradise. Originally commissioned by Chanticleer in 2009, the piece was substantially revised for Volti in 2013. Paradise is based on the poems of American poet Brian Turner, an Iraq War veteran, whose moving accounts of the war are set alongside the poetry of the 12th Century Persian poet Hafez.
House of Voices (2012)
On House of Voices, we introduce six 21st-century works from American composers of dazzling range and diversity. These are all first-time recordings of new music by Yu-Hui Chang, Donald Crockett, Ted Hearne, Eric Moe, Wayne Peterson and Mark Winges. All music on this CD was premiered by Volti.
The program opens with Yu-Hui Chang’s Being: Two Collins Songs, wherein the composer sets two very different poems by former US poet laureate Billy Collins. The playful Shoveling Snow with Buddha contrasts with the meditative The Night House, from whose text the album draws its name. Next is Ted Hearne’s privilege, a 5-movement rumination on the inequities of contemporary life which weaves together his own texts, portions of a Bill Moyers interview of David Simon (creator of HBO’s The Wire) and a South African anti-Apartheid protest song. Hearne composed privilege for us under our Choral Arts Laboratory program for young American composers. Donald Crockett then takes us to the vast expanses of Tuva (near Mongolia) for a sonic portrait of the nomadic tribes still living much as their ancestors have for centuries in the haunting Daglarym/My Mountains.
Eric Moe sets Matthea Harvey’s strange and wonderful prose poem The Crowds Cheered as Gloom Galloped Away, in which we are introduced to a world where mail-order antidepressant medication comes packaged with six tiny ponies who are tasked with trotting away with your sadness. San Francisco Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wayne Peterson contributes the lovely Two Poems of Delmore Schwartz, and the disc finishes with a major new work by Volti’s resident composer Mark Winges, Luna, Nova Luna. Co-commissioned by Volti and the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, this remarkable piece was part of a multi-year cycle of commissioning works for professional chamber choir and high-level children’s choir.
Volti, San Francisco’s 20-voice professional chamber choir, has achieved national recognition as pioneers in new vocal music: they were the first chorus to win ASCAP/Chorus America’s Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music Award six times. This disc shows what the buzz is all about, with works by eight contemporary American composers, five of them commissioned and premiered by Volti, under its founder and artistic director Robert Geary.
Opening the disc is the first recording of all four movements of Aaron Jay Kernis’ stunning and hypnotic Ecstatic Meditations, named by the National Endowment for the Arts as an American Masterpiece of Choral Music. Also featured is the first recording of a major new work by Volti’s resident composer Mark Winges, Open the Book of What Happened (2005). Other never-before-recorded Volti commissions include Kurt Rohde’s Endless, a six-part setting of luminous, elliptical poetry by Jakob Stein (2007); Gabriela Lena Frank’s startling, rhythmic Ccollanan Maria!, a multicultural mix of traditional Catholic imagery with ancient Incan ritual (2004); two of Stacy Garrop’s Sonnets of Beauty and Music, part of her project to set 23 sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay (2006); and Eric Moe’s O the Flesh is Hot but the Heart is Cold (2005) – about which all we can say is that any piece of music based on a poem titled “Baked Alaska: a Theory of” just begs to be tasted.
Rounding out the generous collection of over 75 minutes of music are Ronald Caltabiano’s Metaphor (1994) (settings of three short poems – one each by Blake, Donne and Whitman – in playful comparisons of the behavior of insects to that of humans) and the “ancient,” by Volti’s standards, Two Motets of William Hawley (written way back in 1981, but too gorgeous not to be included here).
“Within the choral music world this recording might be considered crazy, heady stuff, but to these ears it is first and foremost inspiring, magnificently performed music. Virtuosic? Absolutely. If this recording doesn’t make every composer who listens to it crave to write choral music, and in particular for Volti, I don’t know what will.”
Turn the page: New directions in american choral music (2010)
“The performances here are buoyant and transparent enough to let the texts and contrapuntal workings of the music shine through, yet they boast a weighty charge that speaks of serious attention to the task at hand.”
PHOTOS
Volti singers at Gualala Arts Center, January 2019
Volti, “Path of Miracles” with ODC/Dance, Grace Cathedral, February 2018.
“Path of Miracles,” movement 3, February 2018 Volti singers in the gallery of Grace Cathedral; ODC Dancers in the labyrinth below with Robert Geary, conductor.
“Path of Miracles,” Movement 4, Grace Cathedral, February 2018 Volti singer Sidney Chen being carried by ODC Dancers
“Path of Miracles,” Grace Cathedral, February 2018 Movement 2, Volti singers and ODC Dancers
“Path of Miracles,” Grace Cathedral, February 2018 Movement 2, Volti singers and ODC Dancers
“Path of Miracles,” Grace Cathedral, February 2018 Movement 4, Volti singers and ODC dancers
“Path of Miracles,” Grace Cathedral, February 2018 Movement 4, Volti singers and ODC dancers
Death With Interruptions - Left Coast Chamber Ensemble with cellist, Leighton Fong and baritone, Daniel Cilli, November 2017
Robert Geary and the singers of Volti, 2016
On The Way to 40: Volti kicks off its 40th Anniversary fund drive at a gala party hosted by Ann and Gordon Getty, November 2016
Rehearsing Terry Riley's "Sun Rings" with the Kronos Quartet, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, 2016
Rehearsing Terry Riley's "Sun Rings" with the Kronos Quartet, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, 2016
Volti singers take a bow after performing Berio's "Sinfonia" with the UC Davis Symphony. Cecilia Lam, Sharmila Guha Lash, Yuhi Aizawa Combatti, Celeste Winant, Jeff Bennett, Sidney Chen, Jeff Wang and Julian Kusnadi, January 2015
"Pandora's Gift" by Mark Winges, Volti singers, staging by Erika Chong Shuch, May 2015
Bob Geary consults with composer Zibuokle Martinaityte, while recording her "The Blue of Distance" at St. Ignatius Church, San Francisco, March 2017
Bob Geary and Mark Winges, New Year's Day 2018, after breakfast in Gualala
Robert Geary and the Singers of Volti, 2011
Volti’s 30th Anniversary Celebration, 2009
Robert Geary and the singers of Volti, 2014
Robert Geary and the singers of Volti
Robert Geary and the singers of Volti, 2011
Women of Volti, Chorus America Conference, June 2011
Women of Volti, Chorus America Conference, June 2011
Volti sings at the Chorus America Conference, June 2011
Volti performs at the Chorus America Conference, June 2011, at the SF Conservatory of Music concert hall
After singing Berio's demanding "Sinfonia," Volti singers goof off with Maestro Christian Baldini at UC Davis Mondavi Center, January 2015
Volti sopranos Yuhi Aizawa Combatti and Cecilia Lam, getting ready to sing Berio's "Sinfonia" with the UC Davis Symphony, January 2015
Volti singers relax after a recording session.
Past Repertoire
SEASON 45 – 2023-24
July, 2024
Festival Napa Valley
Gordon Getty The Old Man Trilogy
May, 2024
Jens Ibsen De Profundis (Volti Commission)
Aaron Jay Kernis Effortlessly, Love Flows
Richard Festinger Worlds Apart (World Premiere)
(a collaboration with San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eric Dudley, Conductor)
February, 2024
Ingrid Stölzel Into Being
Emma O’Halloran Natural History
Hildegard von Bingen (arr. Victoria Fraser) O virtus Sapientiae
Forrest Pierce The Sohbet of the Rare Small Bird
Joanna Marsh All Shall Be Well (US premiere)
Jens Ibsen De Profundis (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Jens Ibsen How god comes to the soul
Aaron Jay Kernis Ecstatic Meditations
November, 2023
Marcos Balter Livro das Cores (Book of Colors) (World Premiere of Movement 4)
Yu-Hui Chang Being: Two Collins Songs (Volti Commission)
L J White a carol called love
Emily Koh nanuniku
Mark Winges Words Cast Shadows (Volti Commission)
SEASON 44 – 2022-23
July, 2023
Festival Napa Valley
Lera Auerbach Symphony #6, Vessels of Light
Gordon Getty Joan and the Bells
Gordon Getty Annie Laurie
May, 2023
Trevor Weston Given Sound
Mark Winges Words Cast Shadows (Volti Commission)
Caroline Shaw Hematite (from Ochre)
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė Aletheia (US Premiere)
Eric Tuan In the Rain Shadow (Volti Commission, World Premiere of the Complete Version)
February, 2023
Joby Talbot Path of Miracles (a collaboration with ODC/Dance, KT Nelson, choreographer), in Grace Cathedral
November, 2022
Pamela Z Ink (Volti Commission, premiere of live performance version)
Caroline Shaw Ochre (World Premiere, commissioned for Volti, The Crossing (Philadelphia),
Cantori New York and Notre Dame Vocale with funding from the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music)
SEASON 43 – 2021-22
June, 2022
Eric Tuan In the Rain Shadow (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Aftab Darvishi And the world stopped, lacking you
Jens Ibsen How god comes to the soul
Tania Léon Rezos (Prayers)
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate Visions of a Child
April, 2022
Michael Gilbertson Denial (World Premiere)
(a collaboration with San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Ben Simon, Conductor)
Frank Ticheli Earth Song
Diana Woolner The Fire Cycle
October, 2021
Huang Ruo Angel Island Oratorio (World Premiere)
(a collaboration with Del Sol Quartet)
SEASON 42 – 2020-21
“Virtual Volti” Season: All Online!
April, 2021
Pamela Z Ink (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
February, 2021
Joel Chapman Interdependence (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
December, 2020
Danny Clay Singing Puzzles (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
November, 2020
Anne Hege it sounds like all my dreams (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
SEASON 41 – 2019-20
February, 2020
Mark Winges Tomorrow’s Dream Not the Same (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Tonia Ko Starting Places (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė Chant des Voyelles (Incantation of Vowels) (Volti Commission)
Danny Clay Playbook Choruses (Volti Commission)
October / November, 2019
Joby Talbot Path of Miracles (a collaboration with ODC/Dance, KT Nelson, choreographer), at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco and on tour to the Del Webb Center for the Arts in Wickenburg, Arizona
SEASON 40 – 2018-19
July, 2019
Festival Napa Valley
Gordon Getty The Old Man in the Night
Gustav Holst Neptune (from The Planets)
May, 2019
Innova Inn-Fest – Center for New Music, San Francisco
Mark Winges So Let Us (Volti Commission)
Tonia Ko Tuesday (from From Ivory Depths) (Volti Commission)
Forrest Pierce Gratitude Sutra (Commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition for the BBC Singers, the Latvian Radio Choir, and Volti)
May, 2019
40th Anniversary Gala
Mark Winges So Let Us (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Tonia Ko Tuesday (from From Ivory Depths) (Volti Commission)
Forrest Pierce Gratitude Sutra (Commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition
for the BBC Singers, the Latvian Radio Choir, and Volti)
Robin Estrada Paghahandog (Volti Commission)
Kirke Mechem The Caged Bird (co-commissioned by the San Francisco Chamber Singers)
Gordon Getty (arr) Shenandoah (trad)
March, 2019
Joby Talbot Path of Miracles (a collaboration with ODC/Dance, KT Nelson, choreographer), in Grace Cathedral
January, 2019
Joby Talbot Path of Miracles in concert, Gualala Arts Center
November, 2018
Laurie San Martin Witches Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and Volti commission, World Premiere
Gregory Spears The Tower and the Garden, with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (West Coast Premiere, commissioned by Volti, Cantori New York, The Crossing, and Notre Dame Vocale, with funding provided by the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music)
SEASON 39 – 2017-18
May, 2018
Robin Estrada Caeli enarrant (Volti Commission)
Henry Cowell The Morning Cometh
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė Chant des Voyelles (Incantation of Vowels) (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Danny Clay Playbook Choruses (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Henry Cowell Psalm 121
Terry Riley Mexico City Blues
April, 2018
John Luther Adams Become Desert (with the Seattle Symphony, presented by CAL Performances)
April, 2018
Bard Music West: In Search of American Music
Henry Cowell The Morning Cometh
Ruth Crawford Seeger Three Chants
William Billings Modern Music
Henry Cowell Psalm 121
William Walker Sweet Prospect
William Billings David’s Lamentation
February, 2018
Joby Talbot Path of Miracles (a collaboration with OCD/dance, KT Nelson, choreographer), in Grace Cathedral
November, 2017
Kurt Rohde Death With Interruptions (a chamber opera adapted by Thomas Laqueur from the novel by José Saramago, presented in collaboration with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble)
SEASON 38 – 2016-17
May, 2017
Tonia Ko From Ivory Depths (Volti Commission)
Per Nørgård Wie ein Kind
Ted Hearne Consent
Jack Hughes like a strange sigh (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Joby Talbot Santiago (from “Path of Miracles”)
March, 2017
Ingrid Stölzel into being
Robin Estrada Caeli enarrant (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė The Blue of Distance
György Ligeti Lux aeterna
Joby Talbot Roncesvalles (from “Path of Miracles”)
October, 2016 – with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
Onur Türkman but you alone (Left Coast Ensemble and Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Leoš Janáček String Quartet #2 “Intimate Letters”
David Lang a father’s love (from “battle hymns”)
Mark Winges Letters (Volti and Left Coast Ensemble Commission, World Premiere)
SEASON 37 – 2015-16
May, 2016
John Muehleisen . . .is knowing. . . (Volti Commission)
Olli Kortekangas Ikikaiku (Eternal Echo) (sung by The Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir Ensemble)
Paolo Longo Quare fremuerunt gentes
Eric Banks The Paths of Peace (from “Twelve Qur’anic Visions”)
Tonia Ko From Ivory Depths (Volti CAL Commission, World Premiere)
Kui Dong Painted Lights (with the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir Ensemble – Co-commissioned by Volti and Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir)
March, 2016
Robert Paterson Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep (from “Eternal Reflections” – Volti Commission)
Mark Winges Canticles of Rumi (Volti Commission)
Robert Paterson Infinite Oceans and Love and Kisses (from “The Essence of Gravity” – Volti Commission)
David Lang again (after Ecclesiastes)
Ingrid Stölzel Into Being (West Coast Premiere)
Robert Paterson Graffiti Canons (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
November, 2015
Amy Beth Kirsten In the Black (Volti Commission)
Amy Beth Kirsten It is possible these things do not exist: (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Žibuoklé Martinaityté The Blue of Distance
Stacy Garrop Songs of Lowly Life (Volti Commission)
Forrest Pierce Gratitude Sutra (Commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition for the BBC Singers, the Latvian Radio Choir, and Volti)
SEASON 36 – 2014-15
July, 2015 (Golden Gate Children’s Choir Festival)
Mark Winges Pandora’s Gift (with the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir; Volti Commission, World Premiere, Made possible by a grant from the Gerbode-Hewlett Foundations Music Commissioning Awards Initiative)
May, 2015
LJ White Digression on No. 1, 1948 (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Ryan Brown Bone (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Mark Winges Pandora’s Gift (with the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir; Volti Commission, World Premiere, Made possible by a grant from the Gerbode-Hewlett Foundations Music Commissioning Awards Initiative)
March, 2015
Kurt Rohde Death With Interruptions (a chamber opera adapted by Thomas Laqueur from the novel by José Saramago, presented in collaboration with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble; World Premiere)
January, 2015 (New Music Gathering)
Huck Hodge in lumine
Aaron Jay Kernis Effortlessly, Love Flows from “Ecstatic Meditations”
Mark Winges Dawn from “Pandora’s Gift” (Volti Commission)
Gabriela Lena Frank ¡Chicanofóbia! from “Jalapeño Blues”
November, 2014
Stacy Garrop Sonnets of Desire, Longing, and Whimsy (Volti Commission)
Carl Schimmel Want Me (World Premiere)
Carl Schimmel Allergy (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Gabriela Lena Frank A Poem About Brandon Dever and ¡Chicanofóbia! from “Jalapeño Blues”
Huck Hodge in lumine
Mark Winges Dawn from “Pandora’s Gift” (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Aaron Jay Kernis Effortlessly, Love Flows and I Cannot Dance, O Lord from “Ecstatic Meditations”
SEASON 35 – 2013-14
May, 2014
Ted Hearne Sound From the Bench (Volti Co-Commission with The Crossing, World Premiere)
Melissa Dunphy The Oath of Allegiance (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Kirke Mechem We can sing that!
Kirke Mechem Winging Wildly (Co-commissioned by Volti, The Music Group of Philadelphia, and The Lancaster (Ohio) Chorale)
March, 2014
Melissa Dunphy What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?
David Smooke *A*R**T ACT (World Premiere)
Shawn Crouch Paradise (World Premiere of the Revised Version)
Ted Hearne Ripple
Forrest Pierce Gratitude Sutra (US Premiere – Commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition for the BBC Singers, the Latvian Radio Choir, and Volti)
November, 2013
Mark Winges All Night (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Benjamin Britten Sacred and Profane
Forrest Pierce Monument
Sarah Kirkland Snider Scenes from “Unremembered” (World Premiere of Chamber Chorus version)
SEASON 34 – 2012-13
April, 2013
David Lang battle hymns (West Coast Premiere)
(with The San Francisco Choral Society, The Leah Stein Dance Company, The Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir)
March, 2013
Huang Ruo Without Words
Kirsten Broberg Breathturn
Harold Meltzer Pacific Beach (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Dan Visconti Wear Flowers in Your Hair (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Mark Winges Canticles of Rumi (Volti Commission)
December, 2012
Stacy Garrop Songs of Lowly Life (Volti Commission)
Armando Bayolo Cancionero Amoroso (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Charles Halka Dipukų Rauda (West Coast Premiere)
David Shapiro It is Time
Shawn Crouch The Garden of Paradise
SEASON 33 – 2011-12
May, 2012
Ken Ueno A lettrist, bottle, a fountain of everything I’ve ever intended to say, may it reach you on your desert island, that we might start anew (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Eric Tuan Song-Gatherings (sung by Ancora)
Tom Flaherty Delusional Paths (Volti Commission)
Tamar Diesendruck Other Floods (Volti Commission)
Francisco Cortés-Álvarez Galope (sung by Ancora)
Francisco Cortés-Álvarez The day on which the World didn’t end (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
March, 2012
John Muehleisen . . . is knowing . . . (Volti Commission, World Premiere), made possible by a generous gift from Pamela Langston-Cox and Thomas Cox
Reena Esmail White Key
Huang Ruo Without Words
David Conte The Homecoming
Robin Estrada Paghahandog (Volti Commission)
December, 2011
Stacy Garrop Songs of Lowly Life (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Mark Winges Canticles of Rumi (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Ian Freebairn-Smith Season (World Premiere)
Shawn Crouch The Garden of Paradise
SEASON 32 – 2010-11
May, 2011
Ruby Fulton the ballad of james parry (Volti Commission)
Matthew Barnson Genesis (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Frank Ferko O ignis Spirtus Paracliti
Yu-Hui Chang Being: Two Collins Songs (Volti Commission)
Elliott Gyger voice (and nothing more) (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
March, 2011
Tamar Diesendruck Other Floods (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
David Lang after stephen foster (West Coast Premiere)
Kui Dong Painted Lights (Commissioned by Volti and Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, World Premiere)
Mark Winges Magic Strings (sung by Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir)
Ted Hearne privilege (Volti Commission)
November 2010
Frank Stemper A Brief Message from Makanda, Illinois
Tom Flaherty Delusional Paths (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
David Lipten Time’s Dream
Kirke Mechem Five Centuries of Spring
Louis Andriessen Flora Tristan
SEASON 31 – 2009-10
Nocturnes: May 2010
Donald Crockett Daglarym / My Mountains (Volti Commission)
Robin Estrada Paghahandog (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Ted Hearne privilege (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Morten Lauridsen O Magnum Mysterium
Morten Lauridsen Nocturnes
Asian and Latin Influences: February 2010
Felipe Pérez Santiago Pronto Desaparaceremos
György Ligeti Két kánon (sung by Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir)
Yu-Hui Chang Being: Two Collins Songs (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Jean Ahn Zêteô (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Orlando Jacinto Garcia el sonido dulce de tu voz
Olli Kortekangas Ikikaiku (Eternal Echo) (sung by Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir)
Mark Winges Luna, Nova Luna (Co-Commissioned by Volti and the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, World Premiere)
Poetry, Proverbs and Music: November 2009
Mark Winges Where Everything Is Music (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Wayne Peterson Two Poems by Delmore Schwartz
Joshua Fishbein The Poetry of Earth (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Mark Zuckerman Proverbs for Four at Fifty
William Hawley Two Motets
Eric Moe The Crowds Cheered as Gloom Galloped Away (Volti Commission)
Stacy Garrop Sonnets of Beauty and Music (Volti Commission)
SEASON 30 – 2008-09
Ecstatically Impromptu: May 2009
Donald Crockett Daglarym / My Mountains (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Sungji Hong Emendemus in melius
Kirke Mechem Three Madrigals
Robert Paterson On the Day the World Ends (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Aaron Jay Kernis Ecstatic Meditations
Dancing in the Wind: February 2009
Frank Ferko Two Hildegard Motets
Mark Winges The Assembling Landscape (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Ruby Fulton The Ballad of James Parry (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Pekka Kostiainen Jaakobin pojat (sung by Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir)
Pekka Kostiainen Revontulet (sung by Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir)
Elliott Gyger Dancing in the Wind (III) (Co-Commissioned by Volti and the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, World Premiere)
Eric Moe The Crowds Cheered As Gloom Galloped Away (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
SEASON 29 – 2007-08
Past, Present and Future Adventures: May 2008
Steven Stucky Cradle Songs
George Lam Words Become Unlatched (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Eric Moe O the Flesh Is Hot but the Heart is Cold (Volti Commission)
William Hawley Two Motets
Ronald Caltabiano Metaphor
Aaron Jay Kernis Effortlessly (from Ecstatic Meditations)
Aaron Jay Kernis I Cannot Dance (from Ecstatic Meditations)
Adventures in Earth, Wind & Fire: March 2008 – with the Piedmont Choir
Mark Winges Give Us (Piedmont Choir)
Eric Tuan (arranger) He’s Gone Away (Piedmont Choir)
Elliott Gyger Dancing in the Wind (Combined Volti & Piedmont Choir Commission, World Premiere)
Robert Paterson Infinite Ocean (Volti Commission)
Robert Paterson Love and Kisses (Volti Commission)
Elliott Gyger Fire in the Heavens (Piedmont Choir)
Eric Tuan (arranger) Shenandoah (Piedmont Choir)
Kurt Rohde Endless (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Gabriela Lena Frank Ccolllanan Maria (Volti Commission)
Adventures in Life, Love and Longing: November 2007
Howard Hersh Let Evening Come (World Premiere)
Richard Festinger The Locust Tree (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Wayne Peterson Two Poems of Delmore Schwartz (World Premiere)
Stacy Garrop Sonnets of Beauty and Music (Volti Commission, made possible by a generous gift from Chuck and Joan Grant; World Premiere)
Alan Fletcher Two Yeats Choruses (Volti Commission)
Morten Lauridsen Madrigali
SEASON 28 – 2006-07
San Francisco Experience: May 2007 (with the Piedmont Choir)
Mark Winges A Cricket Needs a Queen (World Premiere)
Kui Dong Frogs and Crickets Carry On
Kui Dong Shui Diao Ge Tou / Song
Nexus: VOLTI March 2007
Cindy Cox Only one great thing (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Martha Sullivan Shakespeare Songs
N. Lincoln Hanks Driftwood
Elliot Gyger Qumi ‘ori
Toon Vandevorst Phoenix Songs, Op. 28 (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Elliot Gyger Rezo di san Iñigo de Loyola
Kevin Raftery Ribblesdale
Amy Beth Kirsten In the Black (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Mark Winges Open the Book of What Happened (Volti Commission)
Baltic Traditions Now: November 2006
Pekka Kostianen Harvoin yhtehen hymme
Pekka Kostianen Siitä Päivän Kiini Saapi
Olli Kortekangas Shadows
Arvo Pärt . . . which was the son of . . .
Veljo Tormis Helletused (Childhood Memory)
Einojuhani Rautavaara Suite de Lorca
Per Nørgård Wie ein Kind
SEASON 27 – 2005-06
Collaboration: May 2006
Andrew Imbrie On the Beach at Night
Mark Winges Open the Book of What Happened (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Benjamin Britten Lachrymae
Andrew Imbrie To a Traveler
Benjamin Britten Cantata Misericordium
Experimentation: February 2006
Jacob Avshalomov Blessings (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Eric Lindsay Sound Explanations (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Irving Fine The Hour-Glass
Eric Moe O the Flesh Is Hot But the Heart Is Colde(Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Commitment: November 2005
Alan Fletcher No More to Hide (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Wayne Peterson an e e cummings tryptich
Donald Crockett Broken Charms
Stacy Garrop Sonnets of Desire, Longing & Whimsey (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Alvin Singleton Gospel (West Coast Premiere)
SEASON 26 – 2004-05
Copland’s American Landscape: May 2005
Aaron Copland In the Beginning
Aaron Copland Lark
Irving Fine The Hour-Glass
Ronald Caltabiano Metaphor
Virgil Thomson (arr. Daniel Pinkham) Seven Choruses from the Medea of Euripides
Robert Paterson The Essence of Gravity (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Left Turn @ Albuquerque: March 2005
Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez Subandi (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Gabriela Lena Frank Ccolllanan Maria (Volti Commission)
Miguel Matamoros Son de la Loma
Carlos Chavez Arbolucu, Te Sequeste
Jose Rincon Bullerengue
Beatriz Corona Corazon, Coraza
Alberto Ginastera Lamentations of Jeremiah
Roberto Camaaño Salmo VI
Roberto Sierra Lux Aeterna
New American Directions: November 2004
Alan Fletcher The Fiddler of Dooney (Volti Commission)
Stacy Garrop Sonnets of War & Mankind (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Phillip Schroeder Lux Aeterna (West Coast Premiere)
Lansing McCloskey Burning Chariots (West Coast Premiere)
Jason Bahr Psaume I (West Coast Premiere)
Lincoln Hanks Tota Pulchra (West Coast Premiere)
Felicia Sandler The Waking (West Coast Premiere)
David Heuser Clouds (West Coast Premiere)
SEASON 25 – 2003-04
A Great, Wild, Garden of Voices: April 2004
Mark Winges Image & Motion: A Choral Symphony (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Kirke Mechem Winging Wildly
Alexander Post This is the Garden
Choral Arts Laboratory: February 2004
Peter Knell Tautology (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Paul Chihara Songs of Love and Loss (World Premiere, revised version)
Paul Chihara Magnificat
Bobby McFerrin Psalm 23
Carol Barnett The Last Invocation
Tamar Diesendruck The Mystery (Volti Commission)
John Cage Ear for EAR
Mysteries of the Spirit: December 2003
Jacob Avshalomov When Summer Shines (Volti Commission)
Alan Fletcher Two Yeats Choruses (Volti Commission)
Charles Loeffler Angelus
William Albright Chichester Mass
Morten Lauridsen O Magnum Mysterium
Wayne Peterson Carol
Mark Winges Yoolis Night (Volti Commission)
Our America is Singing: November 2003
Kirke Mechem American Trio (World Premiere)
Mark Winges (arr.) American Shape-Note Tunes (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Alan Fletcher Two Yeats Choruses (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Jacob Avshalomov When Summer Shines (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Charles Loeffler Angelus
William Albright Chichester Mass
Celebrating 10 Years of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts – October 2003
Miya Masaoka While I was walking, I heard a sound… (World Premiere)
SEASON 24 – 2002-03
Bang on Anything: June 2003
Kui Dong Shui diao ge tou (song) (World Premiere)
Mark Winges Songs for Dancing (Volti Commission; World Premiere)
Lojze Lebic Iz Kamna v vodi
Ligeti: Under the Influence: March 2003
Görgy Ligeti Éjszaka
Görgy Ligeti Reggel
Görgy Ligeti Lux Aeterna
Zoltan Kodály Öregek, the Aged/
Arne Mellnäs Sweet Spring
Roberto Sierra Lux Aeterna
Carlo Gesualdo Beltá, poi che t’assenti
Béla Bartók Bánat
György Kurtág Klarisók
György Kurtág Már csak azt a jövő időt kivánom
VOLTI with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players: February 2003
(guest appearance)
Melissa Hui San Rocco
A California State of Mind: November 2002
Tamar Diesendruck The Mystery (Volti Commission, World Premiere)
Wayne Peterson A Robert Herrick Motley (first complete performance)
Allen Shearer Fables
Trevor Weston The Gentlest Thing