VoXX to open “Music for the New Year” with Lewiston concert Jan. 11

LEWISTON — The midcoast a cappella vocal ensemble VoXX: Voice of Twenty will celebrate the arrival of 2015 with its annual Music for the New Year concert in January. The featured works are Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia and three of Carlo Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday. Other selections include works by Monteverdi, Palestrina, Bruckner and more.

The repertoire covers a broad spectrum of time and style, from medieval chant and early polyphony, through Renaissance chorale and contemporary harmony.

VoXX will presenta performance at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, 122 Ash Street. Donations will benefit the basilica’s organ restoration fund.

Other concerts will be presented in Belfast, Rockport and Phippsburg.

Admission is $10, tickets available at the door.

Now in its second decade, VoXX has sung up and down the Maine coast, and generally performs two scheduled concert sets per year, in January and mid-summer. VoXX enjoys the challenges of unusual vocal music, yet more familiar works by such renowned composers as Britten, Byrd, Dufay, Holst, Josquin, Lauridsen, Vaughan Williams, and Whitacre, and Anonymous are also central to the repertoire.

VoXX mainly performs a cappella, but appropriate instrumentation (recorders, percussion, strings) is occasionally added.

VoXX is unusual in that it is a collectively run, all-volunteer organization. Membership is by audition (the group is currently seeking new members, see the group’s website for details), and singers come from all walks of life: teachers and students, professionals and retirees.

Members who want to can share in the responsibility of bringing music selections to the group and may take turns teaching and leading if they so choose. The group has built a strong following and is well known for its efforts to inform audiences through extensive program notes.

The group recently released its first CD,

: “Favorites Old and New.” Visit www.voiceoftwenty.com or email info@voiceoftwenty.com for more information.