“beautiful use of vocal colours and texture”—Glasgow Herald
“a most beguiling yet subtly dissonant language”—MusicWeb International
“Such is the nature of epiphanies.”—Los Angeles Times
BIOGRAPHY
The music of Joanne Metcalf, critically acclaimed as “music of great beauty” (Klassik-Heute) and “extraordinarily beautiful” (International Record Review), is known for its evocative lyricism, rhythmic extravagance, and “beautiful use of vocal colours and texture” (Glasgow Herald). Drawing inspiration from medieval and Renaissance polyphony, ancient Georgian folksinging, and contemporary extended vocal techniques, Ms. Metcalf has forged a compelling musical voice that “evoke[s] earlier musical forms” (The Globe and Mail, Montreal) yet is “unmistakably contemporary” (Glasgow Herald). Her vocal, chamber, and orchestral compositions have been commissioned, performed, and recorded by leading ensembles and soloists throughout the world.
Ms. Metcalf’s longtime artistic collaborators, Singer Pur, recorded Among Dark Whirlwinds and Gold and Thorns, Fire and Ice on Among Whirlwinds, winner of the 2022 Opus Klassik Recording of the Year and the 2021 BR Klassik Album of the Year. Other recent recordings include Michael Mizrahi’s performance of The Undreaming on Dreamspace, Variant 6’s release of The Sea’s Wash in the Hollow of the Heart on New Suns, and It Is Enough on Singer Pur’s Horizons. The legendary Gothic Voices recorded Music for the Star of the Sea and Il nome del bel fior on the group’s resplendent CD of early and contemporary music, Mary Star of the Sea. The ensemble, known for its pure unaccompanied harmonies, have sung Ms. Metcalf’s compositions at the Three Choirs Festival, Cadogan Hall, and the Spitalfields Winter Festival.
Other notable works include Immortall Beautie, commissioned by Germany’s amarcord; You Are the Light of the Stars, an ACDA Women’s Choir Consortium Commission; Emerald Sleep for Vocális Chamber Choir; and Bright Voyage for the Queen’s College Treble Choir, Aaron Copland School of Music. The widely-performed Ego dilecto meo, which Klassik called “a delicately woven composition in bittersweet shades,” was released on Singer Pur’s Das Hohelied der Liebe. Shining Light, commissioned by Canty, Scotland’s premiere female vocal quartet, was premiered at St. Machar’s Cathedral in Aberdeen and recorded on the Carmina Celtica album.
Jointly commissioned by Singer Pur and the renowned Hilliard Ensemble, Il nome del bel fior has received one hundred fifty performances worldwide. Neue Zeitschrift für Musik noted the composition’s “melismatic invocations”; the Mittelbayerische Zeitung described it as a “highly sophisticated polyphonic latticework” and lauded the ten-part finale as “a crowning conclusion of exquisite harmony.” The work has seen performances at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Schwetzinger Festspiele, the Hannover Bienniale, and Beethovenfest Bonn.
Longtime advocates of Ms. Metcalf’s music, the Hilliard Ensemble recorded Music for the Star of the Sea on their all-contemporary A Hilliard Songbook. Of the Hilliards’ performance the Los Angeles Times wrote “Fragmented notes and syllables, and airy half-step dissonances, slowly cohere into a complete statement, with fleeting moments of resolution amid the searching. Such is the nature of epiphanies.” Other important choral ensembles that have performed her works include Scotland’s Cappella Nova and The Crossing, led by Donald Nally.
Other notable performers of Ms. Metcalf’s music include Christopher Lyndon-Gee, Franz Vitzthum, Joseph Connor, Sarah Plum, John Potter, and the Ciompi Quartet. Ms. Metcalf’s compositions have been heard at Europa Cantat, International Festival for Vocal Music “a cappella,” Ravenna Festival, Munich’s Prinzregententheater, National Sawdust, NUNC!3 at Northwestern University, Festival of New American Music at CSU Sacramento, European Choir Games, Cheltenham International Festival of Music, York Festival of New Music, Washington National Cathedral, Glasgow Cathedral, and the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.
Joanne Metcalf has received awards and fellowships from MacDowell, Copland House, North Carolina Arts Council, the Netherland-America Foundation, and the International Association of Women in Music. She studied composition with Scott Lindroth and Stephen Jaffe at Duke University and with Louis Andriessen as a Fulbright Fellow at the Royal Conservatory of Music, The Hague. She holds a Ph.D. from Duke University. Her compositions are recorded on the Linn Records, Oehms Classics, ECM New Series, and Sono Luminus labels.