Volti
Volti is an award-winning 16- to 24-person professional vocal ensemble based in San Francisco, focused on the commissioning and performance of new music. In 2018, Volti became the first vocal group ever to have been awarded the Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming seven times. Volti has released four CDs on the innova label: "Turn the Page," "House of Voices," "This is what happened," and "the color of there seen from here," released April 26, 2019. Volti also appears with the Kronos Quartet on their Grammy Award winning recording of Sun Rings by American minimalist composer Terry Riley.
Founded by Robert Geary in 1979 as the San Francisco Chamber Singers, the group quickly developed a mission: "to foster and showcase contemporary American music and composers, and to introduce contemporary vocal music from around the world to local audiences." When the group turned 25 in 2003-2004, it changed its name to Volti, a reference to the Italian musical instruction "volti subito" meaning "turn quickly." 2019 marks the ensemble's 40th anniversary.
Volti performs two to three concert series each season in venues throughout the Bay Area. Volti has appeared at the Switchboard and SoundWave festivals of new music, has collaborated with many Bay Area new music groups including the Kronos Quartet, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and ODC/Dance, and has supported major orchestras in the performance of new music, including the Seattle Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Volti also sponsors the Choral Arts Laboratory, a commissioning and residency program for American composers under age 35, and the Choral Institute for high school students.
Outreach
Choral Institute
Volti's Choral Institute program brings together high school choir singers from around the Bay Area for weekend-long workshops at the CYO-McGucken Center in Occidental. The high school singers work with Volti singers, Volti conductor Robert Geary, and their own conductors to improve upon their choral technique and to prepare pieces for performance as a massed choir. The Choral Institute is offered twice during the school year; once for mixed choirs in October, and once for treble choirs in January. In 2009-10, Volti added a resident composer to the Choral Institute program. worked with the students for the weekend intensive, and returned in May 2010 to play the piano accompaniment to his "Nocturnes" song cycle, sung by the massed choir of 120 voices. Other composers in residence have included Kirke Mechem, Stacy Garrop, Eric Tuan, Melissa Dunphy and LJ White.Choral Arts Laboratory
Started in 2003, Volti's Choral Arts Laboratory is a commissioning and residency program aimed at composers under 35. Each year, the composer selected for the program takes part in workshops to develop a piece, then works directly with the Volti singers in rehearsal, hearing how the piece sounds and getting feedback the singers. The composer may then consult with Robert Geary and Mark Winges throughout the year as they finish perfecting the piece, which is then premiered at a Volti concert during the regular season.World Premieres
2016
It is possible these things do not exist - Amy Beth KirstenGraffiti Canons - Robert Paterson
From Ivory Depths - Tonia Ko
2015
Death With Interruptions - Kurt RohdePandora's Gift - Mark Winges Made possible by a grant from the Gerbode-Hewlett Foundations Music Commissioning Awards Initiative
Bone - Ryan White
Digression on No. 1, 1948 - LJ White
2014
Scenes from “Unremembered” - Sarah Kirkland SniderAll Night - Mark Winges
Gratitude Sutra - Forrest Pierce
Paradise - Shawn Crouch
A*R**T ACT - David Smooke
The Oath of Allegiance - Melissa Dunphy
Sound From the Bench - Ted Hearne
2013
Cancionero Amoroso - Armando BayoloWear Flowers in Your Hair - Dan Visconti
Pacific Beach - Harold Meltzer
battle hymns - David Lang
2012
Canticles of Rumi - Mark WingesSongs of Lowly Life - Stacy Garrop
... is knowing... - John Muehleisen
The day on which the World didn’t end - Francisco Cortés-Álvarez
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 - Ken Ueno
2011
Delusional Paths - Tom FlahertyPainted Lights - Kui Dong
after stephen foster - David Lang
Other Floods - Tamar Diesendruck
voice - Elliott Gyger
Genesis - Matthew Barnson
2010
Where Everything is Music - Mark WingesThe Poetry of Earth -
Zeteo - Jean Ahn
Being - Yu-Hui Chang
Luna, Nova Luna - Mark Winges
Paghahandog - Robin Estrada
privilege - Ted Hearne
2009
The Assembling Landscape - Mark WingesThe Ballad of James Parry - Ruby Fulton
Daglarym / My Mountains - Donald Crockett
On the Day the World Ends - Robert Paterson
2008
Dancing in the Wind - Elliott GygerEndless - Kurt Rohde
Words Become Unlatched - George Lam
2007
A Cricket Needs a Queen - Mark WingesIn the Black - Amy Beth Kirsten
Let Evening Come - Howard Hersh
The Locust Tree - Richard Festinger
Only one great thing - Cindy Cox
Phoenix Songs, Op. 28 - Toon Vandevorst
Sonnets of Beauty and Music - Stacy Garrop
Two Poems of Delmore Schwartz - Wayne Peterson
2006
Blessings - Jacob AvshalomovO the Flesh Is Hot But the Heart Is Cold - Eric Moe
Open the Book of What Happened - Mark Winges
Sound Explanations - Eric Lindsay
2005
Ccollanan María - Gabriela Lena FrankThe Essence of Gravity - Robert Paterson
No More to Hide - Alan Fletcher
Sonnets of Desire, Longing & Whimsey - Stacy Garrop
Subandi - Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
2004
Image & Motion: A Choral Symphony - Mark WingesSongs of Love and Loss - Paul Chihara
Sonnets of War & Mankind - Stacy Garrop
Tautology - Peter Knell
2003
American Shape-Note Tunes - Arr. Mark WingesAmerican Trio - Kirke Mechem
Shui Diao Ge Tou / Song - Kui Dong
Songs for Dancing - Mark Winges
Two Yeats Choruses - Alan Fletcher
When Summer Shines - Jacob Avshalomov
While I was walking, I heard a sound - Miya Masaoka