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VIDEO
Vox n Plux performs works by Meltzer, Sondheim, Greenbaum, Anderson and Ives
AUDIO
works by Monteverdi, Anderson/Welch, Pollock/Jeffers, Kern/Gershwin
BIOGRAPHY
Vox n Plux combines guitarists William Anderson and Oren Fader with noted soprano Elizabeth Farnum. Ms. Farnum has been performing and recording with Anderson and Fader for two decades as a guest artist with the two-guitar-based Cygnus Ensemble, founded by Mr. Anderson. As a trio, Vox n Plux has performed on tour in California (most notably at the FENAM festival in Sacramento), on the Ebb and Flow Arts Series in Maui, and in numerous concerts in New York, including performances with the New York Festival of Song and at the Morgan Library, Symphony Space and the Italian Academy.
Vox n Plux recently appeared with the Riverside Symphony in Anthony Korf’s new orchestration of Anderson’s Djuna Barnes settings, originally composed for the trio. Although they specialize in contemporary music, especially the work of American composers, VnP’s repertoire also includes music by the early masters (Monteverdi, Dowland, Bach).
A list of composers who have written works for the three modern music specialists reads like a who’s who of contemporary composers: Babbitt, Brickle, Bond, Davidovsky, Naito, Rakowski, Wuorinen, and many others.
REVIEWS
"Mr. Meltzer’s own “From a Book of Beautiful Monsters,” set to texts by Aracelis Girmay, took the idea of portability one step further by doing away with the piano. Instead, his instrumentation blended the warmth of Oren Fader’s guitar with the silvery twang of William Anderson’s mandolin as a foil for Elizabeth Farnum’s bright soprano. In one instance, the instruments recreated sounds of nature — raindrops, the chirping of crickets — under a darkening vocal line."
-Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, New York Times
Read the entire New York Festival of Song "NYFOS Next" review Here.
“(Ms. Farnum possesses) A honeyed tone that sailed gracefully”
-Allan Kozinn, New York Times
“Anderson and Fader are expert chamber musicians with a perfect sense of timing, virtuosity and a sensitivity to nuance.”
-Guitar Review
“Elizabeth Farnum negotiates the high tessitura with grace, bringing delicate shading
of dynamics to her characteristic pitch-perfect accuracy”
-Christian Carey, CD Review
“His (Milton Babbitt) melodies leap freely around the fretboard, and his rhythms are complex and perilous. Yet Mr. Anderson and Mr. Fader performed the work from memory, and gave an impressive account of it.”
-The New York Times
"Elizabeth Farnum's attractive, agile soprano voice...masters the composer's colossal
challenges with relaxed authority."
-Jed Distler, ClassicsToday
“A highlight of the evening was a performance of Milton Babbitt’s works by guitarists William Anderson and Oren Fader…(The Babbitt is) a major work written for the duo which demands a high level of musical comprehension and virtuosity. These players seem to feel as comfortable playing this music, despite its complexity, as many guitarists are playing the music of Sor and Giuliani.”
-Guitar Review
"The extraordinary Elizabeth Farnum...revealed herself to be a wonderfully expressive
performer, with an impressive control and a crystalline clarity of tone…”
-Fred Volkmer, The Southampton Press
“Anderson and Fader are technically superb and musically
adventurous, able to execute complex rhythms and tonalities with
seeming ease. They treat listeners to the kind of confidence that
gives new music the ballast of tradition and familiar music the
buoyancy that comes from the stretching of possibilities.”
-The Maui News