Vox Renaissance Consort founded by Maestro Radu in 1987, features sixteen to twenty professional singers, with a small ensemble of period instruments, in enchanting, intimate concerts of musical gems from the European High Renaissance.
Enjoy as have audiences in Venice, Vienna, Salzburg, New York, Washington, Philadelphia and throughout the Delaware Valley Italian madrigals, English fa-la-las, languid love ballads, hauntingly beautiful sacred motets and jaunty dance-based songs. Each singer is costumed in lush High Renaissance attire. Perfect for intimate performance venues, Vox Renaissance Consort's high caliber singers perform both a capella and accompanied by instruments. Delightful and ethereal vocal works are interspersed with mood-setting instrumental interludes.
Ama Deus Ensemble
Ama Deus Ensemble
Ama Deus Ensemble (established in 1991) is formed by the union of our vocal and instrumental ensembles. The group generally performs the "larger" works, both orchestral and vocal-symphonic. Often appearing in the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the ensemble offers repertoire which includes Baroque masterworks such as Handel's Messiah and Judas Maccabæus; Bach's B Minor Mass and Passions; fully-staged Baroque and Classical operas such as Acis and Galatea and Dido and Aeneas; and choral and chamber orchestra gems by Vivaldi, such as Gloria and Magnificat. From the genius of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Verdi comes a brilliant array of Classical and early Romantic vocal-symphonic works, symphonies and concertos: Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, 9th Symphony and Emperor Concerto; Mozart's Requiem, Coronation Mass, Symphonies #40 and #41, and Piano Concerto #20; Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem; and Verdi's Requiem. Ama Deus Ensemble concerts always feature professional vocal and/or instrumental solo artists, each possessing international credentials. Our orchestra is sized to match that of historical common practice at the time. The chorus, which consists of choristers drawn from both top professional and community singers, is likewise of a similar complement to that used by the composer. Many Ama Deus Ensemble performances are available on compact disc via the Vox website's store at www.voxamadeus.org. The Ama Deus Ensemble currently records exclusively for VAD Classics label. Earlier recordings on Sony Classic, Polygram, Newport Classic, Helicon, Lyrichord and Vox Classics are also available.
Camerata Ama Deus
Camerata Ama Deus
Camerata Ama Deus is our chamber orchestra established in 2007. “Camerata” is an Italian word for “room” or “chamber,” and signifies an orchestra that is much smaller than the 90+/- musician symphony orchestras which began to develop in the mid-1800s. A chamber orchestra is the appropriate type of ensemble to perform the instrumental music of the Baroque and Classical periods (ca. 1650 to 1790). The name is also derived from the venues in which so much of this music was first presented in the sitting rooms of aristocratic manors and palaces.
Camerata Ama Deus consists of fifteen to twenty-five professional orchestral musicians who perform on authentic period instruments...both actual ancient instruments and others which are recreations of originals preserved in museums. The brilliant soloists featured throughout each concert are drawn from the orchestra, each of whom is a knowledgeable expert in the performance practice style of the period. Camerata’s repertoire draws upon the deep wellspring of energetic and sublime works from the pens of both famed composers (such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Telemann, Corelli, Haydn and Mozart), and inspired artists of equally glorious music but with lesser name recognition today (among them Albinoni, Marcello, Pachelbel and Scarlatti).
An engaging facet of each Camerata Ama Deus concert is the interaction among the audience, the conductor and the orchestra members. Maestro Radu introduces each work on the program with unscripted "live notes" that set the composer and the musical piece in their historic, social and musical contexts. Members of the orchestra are often invited to describe for the audience their unique period instruments.
Maestro and Guests
Maestro and Guests
Valentin Radu has led numerous orchestras and vocal ensembles in Europe and the U.S. He is the founder and conductor of Vox Renaissance Consort, the Ama Deus Ensemble, and Camerata Ama Deus. Maestro Radu holds doctoral and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Bucharest Academy of Music. In 1976 he founded and conducted Juvenes Musici chamber orchestra (under the auspices of the Bucharest Philharmonic). In 1980 he founded The Juilliard Bach Players chamber orchestra and the Bach at Juilliard concert series at New York’s Lincoln Center. Maestro Radu was awarded the Golden Apple by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1997 and the Romanian Music Critics’ Association’s “Musician of the Year” prize in 1999. He was bestowed the title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Bucharest in 2003, and in 2005 was knighted by the President of his native Romania.
“The orchestra played with style and passion, all under Radu’s demanding baton.” Michael Caruso, Chestnut Hill Local
