WILLIAMSBURG— Famed British a capella group Voces8 will bring classic holiday music to life during a stop in Williamsburg Dec. 17.
The group, made up of sopranos MaryRuth Miller and Eleonora Poignant, altos Barnaby Smith and Katie Jeffries-Harris, tenors Monty Charles and Euan Williamson, and baritones Christopher Moore and Dominic Carver, is known around the world for its unique sound.
Smith, the founder of the ensemble, sat down with WYDaily to talk about the upcoming performance.
“We’ll be singing a program of Christmas music which is really nice. We’ll be bringing this sort of European tradition with us, singing everything from pieces over 1,000 years old to contemporary compositions. We’ll also venture into some of the more American swing-style so there will be something for everybody,” Smith said.
“We sing just with our voices. We have no instrumental accompaniment. For me, one of the very powerful things about that, is that when we sing, it’s just us as a human, there is nothing mechanical or technical. You get a real sense of human-to-human interaction, which is a very special thing,” Smith continued.
Well known around Europe for its unique sound, the group has performed in some of the most famous venues in the world, including Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin Philharmonie, Cité de la Musique Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus, Tokyo Opera City, NCPA Beijing, Sydney Opera House, Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, Victoria Concert Hall Singapore, and Palacio de Bellas Artes Mexico City.
When the group visits Williamsburg, it will perform at St. Bede Catholic Church.
“Performing in a church provides a different acoustic sound. When you are in a church, you get that wonderful wash of sound, where in a theater, the sound is much more immediate, so you can really grab people. We love doing both in the group because of our broad range of repertoire. We’re well-suited to sing between both those two spaces,” Smith said.
For Smith and all of Voces8, Christmastime is a special time.
“Christmas is a great time to be a singer because there is so much music that we have grown up with all of our lives, and it’s just such a joy to be able to bring that to people,” Smith said.
Voces8 is also touring to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025.
“It all started as a group of friends doing some singing, and by accident we ended up being asked to enter a singing competition, which we won. People started offering us concerts, and it kind of snowballed from there. To have the opportunity to do choral music as my living was something I was very, very pleased with,” Smith said.
Voces8 will also make stops in Norfolk on Dec. 16 and Richmond on Dec. 18. Tickets for all three shows are on sale through the Virginia Arts Festival’s website.