The VEK's first commercially available double-CD! One disc contains religious music including the world recording premiere of Kentaro Sato's Missa Trinitas. The second disc is secular with works from various styles and time periods.

André Hilkens of professional recording studio Red Button Recordings made the beautiful and sensitve recordings.

VEKsclusief costs € 15,90 en is available from

• Drukkerij Deurenberg, Marktstraat 23, Kerkrade
• Chocolaterie Bruns, Veldhofstraat 41, Eygelshoven
• Traiteur Tossaint, Kerkstraat 16a, Landgraaf
• Cd-shop Paul Smeets, Akerstraat 5, Heerlen

Of course you may also order the CD via our website. Please refer to the Contact page for contact details.

In October 2011 the biweekly ZING magazine published the following review of VEKsclusief::

"Beautiful selection of music for women's ensemble

Director Louise Deal of women's ensemble Vocaal Ensemble Kerkrade (VEK) has a fantastic job: "Working with VEK is as if I'm a jockey on a thoroughbred race horse."

Her thoroughbred singers give it their all in the newly released double CD VEKSclusief which includes a number of world premiere recordings. One can hear that each member of the choir has exceptional quality and knows precisely how to mix her sound. The result is a beautifully balanced and homogenous choral cound, finely tuned octaves, exceptional diction, strong lower notes and pearl-like high notes.

Each CD has its own angle, one religioius and one secular, and they offer a nice sampling of the highlights from the VEK's repertoire list. The religious CD demonstrates clearly that this choir does not follow the beaten track: lesser-known composers like Kentaro Sato and Ola Gjeilo are combined with Vic Nees and Jacobus Gallus. They are centuries apart but it all fits together beautifully and is finely tuned. The secular CD has a slightly less interesting choice of repertoire but is equally well finished. One might wish for a bit more obvious enjoyment of the sound.

With this double CD Vocaal Ensemble Kerkrade demonstrates that it can play with its sound: from the purist of unisonos to the richest of harmonies and back again to the quietest of depths.

Laura Tammeling, ZING magazine (October 2011)
 

CD recorded to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dutch National Choir Organisation, Limburg province - and proud winner of no less than three prizes awarded by an expert jury and the audience.

In 2011 the VNK Limburg celebrated its 50th anniversary with a CD competition. Choirs from the whole province were invited to record CDs and compete for various prizes. The VEK participated with 59 other choirs. The Gala Awards Ceremony took place on Friday 15 April 2011 in Celebration Hall De Binger in Meijel. The event was sold out. Among the available prizes were an Audience Prize and several prizes awarded by the expert jury.

Vocal Ensemble Kerkrade produced the CD Kopstukken and won no less than three prizes: the Best Programme Award, the Audience Prize and the second prize overall.

The jury stated that "The programme presented by Vocal Ensemble Kerkrade reveals careful consideration. It demonstrates inspiration and balance. We also noticed that the repertoire was carefully chosen to present the ensemble's singing at its vocal best". The second prize came with the following recommendation from the expert jury: "The ensemble strives for perfection and, even though this praiseworthy ideal cannot always be achieved, the VEK comes surprisingly close: there are moments of almost heavenly perfection. A spectacular ensemble that plays with the music."

Kopstukken is not commercially available.