VOXFIRE BIO
Voxfire began as a professional female vocal trio of sopranos, each coming from a traditional, classical background. They loved the small ensemble idea and enjoyed turning their audiences on to fresh, new and rarely heard music. From the beginning, the trio had a passion for exploring eclectic genres, whether it was chant and part songs from the Middle Ages and Renaissance or compositions newly written for them.
From their highly acclaimed concerts, crafted for a variety of festivals and series, such as the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, the Arcosanti Foundation Concert Series, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Pasadena Conservatory of Music Mansions & Music series, to their virtuosic performances of such works as Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and Steve Reich’s Tehillim, Voxfire has appeared widely in the Western United States and beyond.
After having performed for years — either unaccompanied or with instruments appropriate for the ancient and modern repertoire — they wanted to branch out, and thought it would be compelling to blend the old with the new.
Why not perform ancient music with modern instruments and harmonies?
When they were offered the opportunity to do a concert highlighting songs from 14th-century Spain, they began to realize this goal by working with some players of Middle Eastern instruments, and had uniquely expanding experiences merging these songs with oud, Turkish clarinet and hand drums.
Entering the realm of improvisation was different and exciting.
The next step in their musical evolution was to look for even more of a contemporary flair — both in the instrumentation and the level of improvisation. They wanted to continue with the 14th-century songs they’d just performed, because of the interesting era from which the songs come — a time of relative religious tolerance, mixing of cultures and flourishing of the arts.
They found two amazingly talented, imaginative composer/arranger players, got together to jam on ideas for arrangements, and were all ecstatic about what they were collectively coming up with: extending their vocal arrangements, while adding piano, harmonica, trombone, sax, percussion, layers of computer-generated riffs on their early music vocals…a lot of jazz, a dash of rock, a hint of experimental and who knows what else…in short, decisively non-14th century, absolutely genre defying!
A perfect combination of ideas and effort for arriving at the album, Fontis!
Susan Judy – Christen Herman – Samela Aird Beasom
Nick DePinna - Ross Garren
