Watch for photos of our Twelfth Night concert
Richard Marcus, who recorded our performances at Overbrook Presbyterian Church, and the Fleisher Art Memorial, also took some wonderful pictures. His eye for architectural details is especially apparent in the pictures from our performance at Fleisher. View photos

Save the date of our next concert: March 22, 24, and 26, 2006
For this concert, we return to St. Luke's in Glenside, and the Fleisher Art Memorial. We are excited to be performing for the first time at the First Presbyterian Church at 21st and Walnut Streets. Our online system is now ready to take your ticket orders for this concert. For details of the repertoire for this concert look on our website.

A message from Artistic Director Robert A.M. Ross
My thanks to all of you—singers, players, and listeners alike—for making this year’s 12th Night program one of our best ever! It was such a delight to see and hear such obvious enjoyment from everyone involved, and especially to see such wonderful attendance! Rest assured that these programs will be an annual event for many years to come!

It is now time to turn to our next program coming up at the end of March. This program has been some 15 years in the making: it had been originally slated for our very first season, but, at that time, we simply didn’t have the necessary resources for presentation, so it has had to wait until now (and our thanks to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund for helping to make it possible!).

The repertoire for this next program will largely represent choral music of the mid-20th century—all but two of the works on this program date from somewhere between 1940 and 1970. All the more interesting, we believe, in light of the fact that it was during this era that concert music (the so-called "important, cutting edge" music of the day) was at its most esoteric and listener-un-friendly in the whole of the 20th century. This was the era of Milton Babbitt, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Arnold Schoenberg, John Cage and his circle, among many others—and it was the era of chance music, very tightly controlled serial music, the dawn of the electronic music age along with innovations in recording techniques and the manipulation of recorded sound—stuff that, regrettably, it must be said, turned audiences off to the notion of listening to new music for several generations. And yet, here, from that same era, is music for voices that is the polar opposite of the above situation: music that moves us, exhilarates us, makes us chuckle or laugh out loud—in short, makes us feel in a very human way—precisely what the other musical movement assiduously tried to avoid!

And this concert will also present a world premiere work by yours truly in a new and unique way. More on that next time…

This month’s featured singer: Jodie Nieman, alto
Alto Jodi Nieman has performed with Voces Novae et Antiquae since moving to the Philadelphia area in 1995.  Jodi graduated from the University of Ottawa in 1987 with a B.Music (Hons.) in piano and voice.  She studied piano with Andrew Tunis and voice with Ingemar Korjus and was a member of and soloist with the University of Ottawa Choir.  During this period, she taught private piano and music theory and enjoyed accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists alike. 

After receiving her undergraduate degree, Jodi obtained a law degree from the University of Ottawa.  Following graduation, she practiced intellectual property law in Toronto with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, one of Canada’s largest law firms. 

In addition to practicing law, Jodi spent five seasons from 1990-1995 performing with Toronto’s Tafelmusik, the critically-acclaimed Baroque orchestra and chamber choir.  It is with Tafelmusik that her interest in and love for early music grew.  During this period, Tafelmusik made a number of highly regarded live and studio recordings for the Sony Classical label and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (“CBC”), including the CBC Record’s recording of Purcell’s “Dido & Aeneas” on which she is featured.

In addition to singing with VNA, Jodi has sung with both the renowned Princeton Singers and the Ama Deus Ensemble, and is active with the Haddonfield First Presbyterian Church Chancel and Oratorio choirs.  Jodi regularly appears as a guest soloist at Susquehanna University’s Department of Music annual faculty recital.  Most recently she was featured on an Italian Renaissance program, together with Trevor Stephenson on 17th Century Italian harpsichord and sopranos Julianne Long and Nina Tober.

Jodi resides in Haddonfield, New Jersey with her husband and two daughters.

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