The Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham was founded in 1996 by Rodney Wynkoop to provide superior choral performance opportunities for outstanding singers in North Carolina’s Triangle region (Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh). Its 32 members are selected mainly from among musicians who have sung in other choral groups under Dr. Wynkoop’s direction. In their professional lives, these singers are engaged in a variety of occupations, including music teacher, church musician, doctor, attorney, accountant, scientist, writer, and student.

VAE’s mostly a cappella repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to the present and has included such diverse and challenging works as Tallis’s Spem in alium, Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden, Martin’s Messe, Penderecki’s Agnus Dei, and MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados. In addition to presenting its own concerts, VAE has performed regularly as part of Duke University’s Summer Festival of the Arts. The choir also has performed with Durham’s Mallarmé Chamber Players, on the WUNC-FM Composers-in-Context Series, and at Hinshaw Music’s annual Celebration. Their first CD recording, entitled My Spirit Sang All Day, was released in 2004 on the Arsis label (www.arsisaudio.com).

VAE was greatly honored by being one of the choirs chosen to perform at the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association, in February 2005 in Los Angeles. Having previously been chosen to perform at ACDA Southern Division Conventions in 2000 (Orlando) and 2004 (Nashville), and having appeared at the NC-ACDA Fall Conference in Greensboro in 2002, they have now also been invited to perform at the ACDA Southern Convention in Louisville, KY, in March 2008.

You can view the entire repertoire since VAE's inception here.