From Age to Age is proud to announce our selection as a headlining choral ensemble in the inaugural year of the Northern Voice Festival. This newly-formed festival is the brainchild of executive and artistic directors from The National Lutheran Choir, The Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, The Singers, and The Minnesota Chorale. From Age to Age is extremely proud and excited to be selected for this new and what we hope becomes an annual tradition in Minnesota!
The press release for the Northern Voice Festival is below.
Northern Voice Festival Launches
Announces Headliners, Invites More Proposals
Minneapolis, MN – In a move that will celebrate and spotlight Minnesota’s massive singing
culture, the Northern Voice Festival announced today a new monthlong, statewide festival
of singing to run April 10 May 10, 2015 along with Fringelike Festival Days on two
Saturdays, April 11 and 25, 2015. Nine headlining groups were announced for the Festival
Days representing a wide variety of musical styles. The Festival also extended an open
invitation to singing groups (2 or more people, formal and informal, all styles) to propose
programs that will be selected at a public lottery at 7pm on Monday, January 5, 2015 at
Seventh Street Social in St Paul.
Monthlong, statewide Festival
The Northern Voice Festival will promote groups’ selfproduced events from April 10May 10,
2015 online, onair and in print. It is forecast that there will be 120180 events during that
time. To see the dates already listed, go to the Northern Voice Calendar
(www.tinyurl.com/northernvoicefestival). To register your group’s events, email
blake@nlca.com.
“We want to feature groups in all styles. Minnesota’s singing culture extends well beyond the
traditional choir which blossomed over the last 150 years as a result of training singers
received in churches and colleges,” noted the Festival’s executive producer, Randall
Davidson. “We are looking for barbershop quartets, jazz vocal ensembles, rock, a capella,
music theater revues, folk singers, gospel choirs, community singalongs, doowop...the list is
as long and wide as Minnesota!”
Festival Days & Headliners
The Festival Days of the Northern Voice Festival will be held on April 11th in Minneapolis and
April 25th in St. Paul. Four venues in Minneapolis will be in and around the University of
Minnesota campus, including Ted Mann Hall; four venues in St. Paul will be downtown and
include the brand new Ordway Concert Hall. All venues are within a 10minute walking
distance. Over six hours each Festival Day, audiences can choose between more than 20
different musical events.
The nine “headliners” responded to a public call for proposals with a midOctober deadline
and are representative of the variety and excellence of singing throughout Minnesota: from St.
Cloud to St. Peter, youth choirs, a program about gender identity, an Americana program with
blue grass band, the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus, a choir formed to raise money and
awareness for social agencies, a brandnew ensemble for young adult singers, and a whole
program dedicated to choir and orchestra music composed by the exciting
NorwegianAmerican, Ola Gjeilo. (see Headliner Descriptions)
Invitation for more proposals
Established groups or amateur pickup singing projects are invited to make proposals for one
of the Festival Days. All singing styles are encouraged because, ”Northern Voice’s mission is
to harmonize singers and communities” said Davidson.The only requirement is that proposals
must include two or more people singing together for at least 30 minutes.”
“We currently have about two dozen proposals from singing groups for the festival days, and
we are expecting 30 to 40 more,” explained Blake Bolan, the Northern Voice Festival’s
Marketing and Communications Director. “We also have a crowdsourced Northern Voice
Calendar, which helps us to promote singing events across the state yearround, and
especially during our Festival Month. We currently have about 25 groups on the calendar, and
we will increase that number to many more singing groups in the state promoting their events
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota
State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage
For more information, visit www.northernvoicefestival.org, email blake@nlca.com, or call
6123869541
About Northern Voice
Northern Voice is a project of the National Lutheran Choir formed as a partnership arising
from years of collaboration between singing groups throughout Minnesota. The founding
members of the Northern Voice partnership are The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists, the
Minnesota Chorale, the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus, VocalEssence and the National
Lutheran Choir. Northern Voice’s mission is to harmonize singers and communities by
building social and economic equity, celebrating artistic excellence and encouraging deeper
engagement among communities of support. Current programs include the crowdsourced
Northern Voice Calendar and the monthlong, statewide Northern Voice Festival.