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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Since its founding in 2003 by Krista Lang Blackwood, Octarium has proven itself to be a special group of musicians that epitomizes the idea of ensemble. What started out as a collection of vocal section leaders at a midtown church has blossomed into a nationally recognized chamber vocal ensemble leader. Now, as the group concludes their sixth season, Octarium is poised to continue building on their past successes into one of the metropolis' - and indeed, the nation's - premiere professional music organizations.

According to Dr. Blackwood, Octarium's genesis was truly an accident. Her approach in giving artistic direction for the group revolves around treating her members as chamber musicians first and choral singers second, always striving to push the limits of the group's trademark musical synergy. Whenever they take the stage, the octet becomes one singular voice, becoming so connected that they think and sing as one. This powerful musical aesthetic is what led Blackwood to name the group Octarium, which in Latin means "Eight As One."

The group has not appeared onstage in Kansas City as much recently as they have in previous seasons. As Dr. Blackwood explains, "We are not a group who meets weekly for rehearsals anymore. We have singers who live in Boston, Seattle, and Springfield, Missouri. We have married singers with kids. We have singers in graduate school. They are all busy people and getting eight of us together in the same room for rehearsals gets increasingly difficult as our situations change. When we left our church residency, I traded weekly rehearsals and constant availability for better singers with less availability. Though we can't be out and about as much, the quality of the music and performance is much better with the singers around whose schedules we now work."

This weekend, Octarium will present two concerts called "Should Have Been Choral." Blackwood has been working with these innovative arrangements for a few seasons, and the group has incorporated this into one of their touring programs. The concert is a collection of a cappella arrangements of secular songs originally composed as orchestral symphonies, operatic overtures, music from Broadway shows and popular songs. "The over-arching idea behind the concert is to have the audience members rethink choral music AND the music they hear on the radio every day. Everything COULD be choral and, we think, the pieces we've chosen for this concert SHOULD have been choral," Blackwood said.

In a concert like this one, good arrangements are difficult to find. Octarium performs as an unaccompanied ensemble, and most contemporary pop and vocal jazz arrangements use piano and a variety of other instrumentations. Some of the arrangements that have passed the test have come from the University of Northern Colorado jazz catalog and others have even been arranged by the talented musicians in the group.

Looking forward to next year's season, Octarium has bold plans. They are planning a new recording, tentatively entitled "Modern Masters." The concept behind the recording comes from Blackwood's interaction with living composers, asking them which of their pieces have been under-performed and  therefore deserve to be given some attention. She has lined up a venerable list of composers for the project including Morten Lauridsen, Libby Larsen, John Corigliano, Steven Stucky, James Mulholland, Stephen Hatfield and opera composer Mark Adamo. The CD will be promoted with a series of concerts that will also feature the winning composition of their inaugural international composition contest.

Octarium currently has three recordings available through their own private label: their self-titled debut (2006), Hodie (2007) and Essentials (2008.) Their music is available on iTunes and other online outlets.

For Blackwood and Octarium, education has always been at the center of their overarching mission. They actively seek to cultivate the love and appreciation of choral music in young people through an active outreach program, which includes master classes, concerts, workshops and lecture demonstrations. Dr. Blackwood is currently planning an Octarium Vocal Music Camp that will debut in the summer of 2010. She is still working on the specifics for this exciting new element to Octarium's offerings.

Octarium
Should Have Been Choral
Saturday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m.
KCYA Auditorium, St. Theresa's Academy
5600 Main Street, Kansas City, MO

Sunday, May 17 at 2:30 pm
Swarthout Recital Hall, University of Kansas
1530 Naismith Drive, Lawrence, KS
For tickets or more information visit www.octarium.org.

By R. Douglas Helvering

Classical and Vocal Contributor (Past writer)