Excerpts from Christmas With True Concord
Artists: True Concord Voices & Orchestra, Eric Holtan (conductor), Cait Frizzell (soprano)
Album: Christmas With True Concord: Carols in the American Voice
Label: FRESH! From Reference Recordings (FR-734)
Coming November 1, 2019 - Order: https://referencerecordings.com/?p=14440

Holiday Musical Treasures – Newly Imagined

Eric Holtan, founder and conductor of True Concord Voices and Orchestra states: “Every December, True Concord presents its popular Lessons and Carols by Candlelight concerts in the Tucson area. Unique in the local milieu of seasonal offerings, the focus is on sacred Christmas carols. Even in their simplest form, carols evoke emotionally powerful memories of personal and family experiences that enrich and enliven annual holiday celebrations. With this album, I wanted to capture the essence of our much­loved concerts with the mostly familiar carols presented here, but in musical settings by American composers that are new or not widely known. With the kind assistance of advisor Dale Warland — who set the standard of excellence with several cherished Christmas recordings over the years by The Dale Warland Singers — True Concord offers these holiday treasures, most of which are receiving their world premiere recordings. This is Christmas With True Concord — Carols in the American Voice.”

Christmas with True Concord: Carols in the American Voice

See the Album

Christmas With True Concord (Sampler)

We at RR believe that how a recording sounds is as important as the music itself. "Prof." Keith O. Johnson, our chief engineer and Technical Director, is a true audio legend, having designed and patented many innovative products in the professional and consumer fields. The RR Sound comes from his singular methods and equipment, hand-built or extensively modified by him. Microphone techniques range from single-point Blumlein to spaced omnis to complex studio mixes, depending on the musical forces and the performing space involved. Our goal is to recreate the sound of real musicians making music in real space.

True Concord Voices & Orchestra, founded by music director Eric Holtan in 2004 as Tucson Chamber Artists, draws on the first rank of choral and instrumental musicians from Arizona and the United States. True Concord’s artistic mission is to enrich lives through the transformational power of classical music. It accomplishes this primarily through the performance of masterworks and the diverse music of the United States, making its New York City debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with Mozart's Requiem and Stephen Paulus’s Prayers and Remembrances in September 2015, and its international debut with Far in the Heavens: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus on the Reference Recordings label. 

True Concord’s expanding repertoire includes Bach’s St. John Passion and Mass in B-Minor, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C-Minor, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, and Haydn’s The Creation. It has commissioned new works from Stephen Paulus, Gerald Near, Ola Gjeilo, Paul Crabtree, and others. 

On the adoption of their new name, Eric Holtan explains, “The original, early 14th century meaning of concord was ‘hearts together.’ Shakespeare later described the emotional impact of music as ‘true concord’ — something we strive to achieve in our music making between composer, performer and listener.” With their new album, True Concord seeks to bring together hearts from Tucson with those from around the world, through the power of music by one of America’s greatest and most beloved composers, Stephen Paulus.

More information about True Concord can be found at our website:
www.TrueConcord.org