By Kaelyn Johnson
London vocal ensemble VOCES8 visited Grant County on Oct. 27 as part of their USA 2025 fall concert tour.
The ensemble performed at Indiana Wesleyan University and sang repertoire from classical, folk and jazz genres.
Master Davy Chinn, chair of the Division of Music & Theatre, said the group is a Grammy-nominated ensemble and the most streamed a cappella choir on the internet.
“I’ve had the privilege of hearing them live and they’re very good online, but live, there’s just something magical in their sound that is hard to describe,” Chinn said.
Chinn said VOCES8 taught a workshop with IWU Chorale members Sunday afternoon.
“One of the really beautiful things about VOCES8 is they’re a part of this big organization, the VOCES8 organization, that is really focused on choral education and development of choral sound, especially in younger singers,” Chinn said. “And so the workshop is something we’re really looking forward to.”
During the performance Sunday night, Chorale members performed Kate Rusby’s “Underneath the Stars” with the VOCES8 ensemble.
IWU Chorale member Chase Dowdy said he thought singing with VOCES8 would help Chorale members improve.
“I think generally we’ll gain a better understanding of listening to each other, understanding each other, because that’s their (VOCES8’s) job, which is not just only to sing, but also to connect with one another,” Dowdy said. “It’s a small group of eight singers that doesn’t have a conductor. They’re standing there viewing, observing each other while they sing. And so I think that we can really lean into the natural part of just moving when we sing and listening to each other. And I think generally that’ll really help our sound, that’ll help our community, that’ll help our understanding of both our conductor and ourselves.”
VOCES8 member Katie Jeffries-Harris said she enjoyed working with the IWU Chorale.
“The chorale are incredibly flexible and the amount, how quickly they can change things on a dime is very, very impressive,” Jeffries-Harris said.
Chinn said this concert holds value for both IWU students and the community of Grant County. He said he wanted community members to feel invited to experience something new or to satisfy a craving that is not satisfied often.
Dowdy said he wanted community members to understand that they have a school that values music.
“I think Grant County really has something special at IWU,” Dowdy said, “and IWU really wants that relationship with Grant County. And so I hope that they really see that they’re invited, they’re welcome here, and that they can come see these things, and they can come be a part of these things.”
Ellie Rinck 
Jayd Hovey