WorCon logoSquare (30K)Vocal Canvas
is now a project of Working In Concert


VOCAL CANVAS CONCERTS

"Hear the painting and see the song!
Paintings, poetry, projection, and song:
"Putting everything together like this, it was just Fabulous! I was blown away. —I don't know what to call it, but it was great."

We call this Vocal Canvas.

"What I witnessed that day [Inspired by Frida], the fusion of music, video and art is simply one of the most astonishing, impactful and amazing performances I have ever witnessed as an art consumer, an art patron and an art gallerist." Michael Ramstedt, Art of Gallery

A "Chautauqua-like entertainment that scintillates and enriches our appreciation of what music, poetry and visual arts can do in our lives" Michiana blogger Dan Johnson continues, "The program was eclectic but leaning toward art songs and original works, with lighter moments from Broadway, Gabriel Fauré é, Ned Rorem and the Parisian repertoire... "Elizabeth Doyle contributed compositions that were transporting and elevating. Together with Claudia Hommel—the globe-trotting chanteuse who has made something of a specialty of bringing cabaret to galleries and museums—the musical collaboration wove a tapestry which, for an evening, wrapped the audience in the arms of creativity."
Read also our Herald-Palladium interview here.
Favorite Vocal Canvas concerts
  • Village Arts Associates presents "Picasso and Matisse Go to the Music Hall" May 2022
  • Return engagement December 2021 to the West Suburban Art Society with premiere of "Inspired by Frida Kahlo"
  • Return engagement to the Frick Pittsburgh (March 30, 2019)
  • Moline Library celebrates French Moderns at the Figge (Quad Cities)
  • Chamber Music at the Scarab Club (Detroit)
  • The Beverly Arts Center (Chicago)
  • Our Vocal Canvas film is selected for CIMMFest (The Chicago International Music and Movie Festival) for "Classical Music" night
  • Antioch College with New Hampshire poet laureate Alice B. Fogel

Gifts of the Blackbird, followed by audience interviews and the playlist from Mayne Stage (August 2014)

WINTER 2015: VOCAL CANVAS became its own cinema*

Ovations for a Wise Man and a Fool: an art film of two songs, Elizabeth Doyle's Like a Tree followed by Bravo pour le clown (beginning at 5:52).

*We thank the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for the $5000 grant and our many fans who helped us raise an additional $5500 to film an hour-long concert before a live audience on August 19, 2014, and to create this film. The DVD is now available in limited edition to presenters, venues and schools.
  • Click here to view some of the artwork featured in the concert and to purchase an Elaine Wagner photo in support of our project.
  • Audio recording with images of our live performance of Bravo pour le clown for the Detroit Institute of Arts, January 2013. Elizabeth Doyle at the piano, Carl Cafagna on drums and winds. Jordan Schug on bass.

    • Let us create a Vocal Canvas concert for your venue!

    • For museums and curated arts events to complement a current exhibit.
    • For arts collectives, artists' guilds and studios: to collaborate with artists on songs inspired by their work, and artwork inspired by our songs.
    • For libraries, theatres, private and special events: to create a show around your chosen theme, artist or period: the possibilities are endless.
    Vocal Canvas experiences:
    • Frida Kahlo: Fire y Fuego,
      for the West Suburban Art Society. Enriched by singers Sonia Oyola, Sean Harris, Elizabeth Doyle and Claudia Hommel, pianist Peter Storms
    • Picasso and Matisse go to the Music Hall,
      in conjunction with the Kelingrove traveling exhibit "From Millet to Matisse" at the Frick Art Museum of Pittsburgh; and a variation for the Detroit Institute of Arts' exhibition of Matisse and Picasso works on paper.
    • Picasso Goes to the Music Hall
      accompanies masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris, while at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art
    • The Jazz Fauré Project
      A magnificent return engagement at the Frick Art Museum of Pittsburgh brings the 6-member Jazz Fauré ensemble to accompany "The Road to Impressionism" exhibit.
    • Impressionism in Song,
      a recital for a "Pennsylvania Impressionists" exhibit at the James A. Michener Museum of Art, Doylestown, PA
    • Portraits and Landscapes,
      a collaboration with Box Factory for the Arts members in which we matched songs with individual paintings, composed original songs, used guild members' writings and poetry, and even improvised a song to the art.
    • Postcards from a Trip Abroad,
      sung by Espresso Chicago:4 Voices, for Des Plaines Library, a show on 5 continents and 8 languages, displayed dozens of imagined postcards and wished-for travels.
    • Paris in the Jazz Age comes to West Lafayette High School. The images are projected all around us in the Common Area— drawings of Josephine Baker dancing and wearing almost nothing, mon dieu!
    		 GiftsBlackbird_0682 (145K)
    MatissePlumedHat (134K)Weatherston6 (64K)
    Renoir_0514
    John Owen

    Our repertoire is as eclectic as the artwork we accompany: from 19th to 21st century art songs, Great American Songbook, theatre music and chanson, plus new songs composed by Elizabeth Doyle and other collaborators.

    Unfurl a Vocal Canvas for your audience!