Las Cantantes, the only collegiate women's choir in the State of New Mexico, since 2007, is directed by Dr. Maxine Thévenot. This group is comprised of approximately 20 singers who are selected via audition. This ensemble studies, rehearses and performs the finest literature written for treble voices. The ensemble is, at times, accompanied by other instruments such as the harp, percussion, piano, and pipe organ.
Las Cantantes was founded by Professor Bradley Ellingboe in 1994, and during his fourteen-year tenure as its director, the group collaborated with such important musical figures as Libby Larsen and Dave Brubeck, and enjoyed masterclasses by such eminent musicians as Alice Parker and Moses Hogan. Also during Prof. Ellingboe's tenure, the choir toured regionally and participated in the American Choral Directors Association Regional Convention. In addition to two compact disc recordings with Prof. Ellingboe, their holiday special Enchantment at Chimayo, made in conjunction with UNM Chamber Orchestra, has been heard on NPR stations across the country.
Under the direction of Dr. Thévenot, Las Cantantes recorded a third CD, My Dancing Day, in May 2008. It features several premiere recordings of works for the Christmas season by New Mexico composers Bradley Ellngboe and Frederick Frahm, in addition to the major work for choir and harp by John Rutter: Dancing Day Carols. It was released internationally in December 2008. To rave reviews by New York audience members, in May 2009 Las Cantantes completed the first ever East-coast tour of any UNM choir to NYC. They also recorded a second CD for Raven Records titled Dream a Little Dream, which features both sacred and secular favorites and a number of premiere recordings of Canadian and American choral works.
In May 2010 Las Cantantes recorded their fifth recording with musicians Douglas Cardwell, Stu MacAskie, Michael Glynn, organist, pianist and director, Maxine Thévenot. It will be released in 2012, in time for their second tour to New York City (June 7-11, 2012) where they will be singing concerts in Manhattan at Trinity Wall Street, St. Michael's and All Angels Episcopal Church, in addition to services at Madison Avenue Presbyterian and St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church.
Las Cantantes, and Dr. Thévenot - organist, perform Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Missa Brevis in D by Benjamin Britten.
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Congratulations to Las Cantantes for this wonderful review of My Dancing Day in the November/December 2010 issue of A
tribute not just to the spirit of Christmas but to the spirited brand
of music-making going on at the University of New Mexico. Las
Cantantes, the University's 20-voice women's chamber choir, does the
Alma Mater proud with sensitive, heartfelt singing in such
spiritually-charged works as Jean Langlais's exquisite 'Ave Mundi
Gloria', the jaunty 'Personent Hodie' from John Rutter's cycle of carols
called Dancing Day, and the handsome 'Magnificat' for voices, marimba
and oboe composed by Bradley Ellingboe, Director of Choral Activities at
UNM's Department of Music. You'll hear some strain in Rutter's 'Virgin
Most Pure' (also from Dancing Day) as the verses are passed between
different soloists and choral subdivisions with less than unanimous
results. But on the whole, the choir sounds just fine under the baton
of Dr. Maxine Thevenot, an organist-conductor trained at the Manhattan
School. The instrumentalists on loan from the New Mexico Symphony,
Santa Fe's ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and Albuquerque's Cathedral
Church of St.John (organist Iain Quinn) are first-rate. From the sound
of things, the University of New Mexico would be a wonderful place not
only to share the melodies of Christmas but to study and perform music
year-round. *Philip Greenfield* |
