Voces8 Sings in Honolulu
In a column for insanityblog.online, a former parishioner reports that the British vocal ensemble VOCES8 performed a concert titled “Devotions” at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu on an afternoon.
VOCES8 is described as the 2026 Opus Klassik winner, a 2023 Grammy-nominated British vocal ensemble, and the world’s top-streaming classical vocal group, touring globally with an extensive repertory and a performance and education ethos focused on versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression shared both online and in person. Before stopping in Hawaii, the group toured through the U.S. mainland and headed next to Asia.
An a Cappella Program of Sacred Works
The concert featured entirely sacred a cappella choral music, including pieces by Orlando Gibbons, Benjamin Britten, Thomas Tallis, Arvo Pärt, Stephen Paulus, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Felix Mendelssohn, Caroline Shaw, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Kate Rusby, David Blackwell, and Gustav Holst.
The specific works performed included “O clap your hands” by Orlando Gibbons, “A hymn to the virgin” by Benjamin Britten, “God, grant with grace” by Thomas Tallis, “The Deer’s Cry” by Arvo Pärt, “Pilgrim’s Hymn” by Stephen Paulus, “Bogoroditse devo” by Sergei Rachmaninoff, “Richte mich, Gott” by Felix Mendelssohn, “and the swallow” by American composer Caroline Shaw, “Regina Caeli” by Tomás Luis de Victoria, “Underneath the stars” by Kate Rusby, “Steal Away” (a spiritual arranged by David Blackwell), and “Nunc dimittis” by Gustav Holst.
The author writes that she was deeply impressed by the singers’ physical stillness, noting that nobody waved hands to conduct and that the singers simply stood close to each other, breathing and cutting off in unison, alongside their vocal balance. “Not one singer stuck out when they were singing together, every voice was evenly balanced,” she writes in the column.
The Author Recalls Previous VOCES8 Performances
The performance marked the author’s third live experience hearing VOCES8, following previous concerts in England—where she attended a performance in 2019 during a week visiting Port Isaac, the filming location of the television show “Doc Martin,” a couple of days before visiting “Portwenn”—and last July at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester with Bill Potter, where the group sang music by American and British composers in a completely different repertoire.
She recalls a 2019 conversation with director Barnaby Smith at Cadogan Hall after attending a concert with Joan Ishibashi, where he noted that the group’s primary demographic consisted of women over 60, and where she expressed her hope that the ensemble would one day perform in Hawaii.
Due to a scheduling conflict, the author had to leave before the final piece to play the Vigil Mass at St. Mark’s, but she notes that the audience received an encore performance of “Fly me to the moon.”
