Concert March 2 in memory of UO music professor | Arts & Culture

Vox Resonat, a professional vocal ensemble specializing in music of the Baroque, Renaissance and Middle Ages, will return to Eugene on Friday, March 2, at 8 p.m. at Central Lutheran Church, 18th and Potter, near the University of Oregon Campus.

The concert is being presented in memory of Steve Larson, a beloved UO music professor who passed away last year. Vox Resonat will perform funeral music by the 17th-century composer, Heinrich Schütz, and a Requiem composed in Renaissance style by the Belgian composer, Willem Ceuleers. Also appearing will be the UO Chamber Choir, directed by Sharon Paul, and Mr. Ceuleers himself, who will perform a new work for organ.

Vox Resonat was founded in Germany by Eric Mentzel, a prominent early music specialist and voice professor at the University of Oregon. The Feb. 2 concert is the second Eugene performance of the ensemble in its American incarnation. The works will be performed by between five and eight solo voices, in some cases accompanied by organ and viola da gamba.

Mentzel stresses the uniqueness of the works being sung.

"The Schütz piece is a free meditation on death and eternal life. It is sort of a Lutheran requiem in German--this may be where Brahms got the idea for his German Requiem two centuries later." The Requiem by Ceuleers, on the other hand, was just written last year. "Willem has a great gift for adopting the language of past musical styles and making it his own." According to Mentzel, "His Requiem achieves levels of beauty and sophistication that many actual Renaissance composers only dreamed of. If you didn't know, you would guess that Ceuleers is a top-notch 16th-century master, recently discovered."

Vox Resonat, an ensemble of soloists, is unique as well. Mentzel points out that there is nothing like it in Eugene, and very few similar groups in the Pacific Northwest. "A group like this is necessary to perform large swaths of repertoire written between about 1100 and 1700," says Mentzel. "We are pleased to be making a lot of great music available to the Eugene public for the first time."

In co-production with West German Radio (WDR), Vox Resonat has done a number of recordings, exploring a diverse repertoire that includes medieval Italian laude, English Renaissance carols, and French Baroque liturgical chant. The Vox Resonat recording of laude was released on the Marc Aurel Edition label as "Joculatores Dei: Minstrels of God."

Tickets for the March 2 concert will be available at the door for a suggested donation of $10, $5 for students and senior citizens. More information can be found at facebook.com/voxresonat or by visiting the Vox Resonat website, voxresonat.wordpress.com.