PRESS REVIEWS

"...beautiful and resonant..."

ON "EXULTET TERRA"

"The music connects well to its inspiration and makes for a rather engrossing half hour of truly gorgeous choral music with a deeply moving final movement."

-  Cinemusical full review

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"...material by von Bingen and Tann is equally marked by a gracefulness and lyricism that's amplified by Cappella Clausura's performances..."

- TEXTURA full review

ON PAST CONCERTS

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…[B]eautiful readings from Cappella Clausura, whose sensitivity to each musical nuance...[brought] the texts to life …Brava to... its terrific and tireless conductor Amelia Le Clair, without whom Sunday’s audience would have never heard this delightful, often deeply moving music.”     

-  Boston Musical Intelligencer          

" [P]ersonal and inviting, extravagant and intimate."

-  Boston Globe

"The 12 vocalists’ execution shone clean, pure and intelligent...The four-person instrumental ensemble was superb, often sounding as if there must be several more people playing.”   more...

Boston Musical Intelligencer, Jan, 2016

An inspired and gifted choral leader, LeClair creates programs in which composers and their pieces speak to and reflect on one another: the chant composed by Hildegard ended up as the inspiration for the music on the second half, Hillary Tann’s beautiful Exultet Terra." 

      Boston Musical Intelligencer, May, 2015

"There was not a poor choice on the program, in which chant and its descendants ranged from austere and troubled to rich and resplendent. The newest works were as rewarding as the oldest; the works by women composers more than held their own. And the singers, six men and six women, delivered pain and sorrow and love in full measure. Nothing plain about it." 

       Boston Globe, February, 2015

"Last April, Cappella Clausura offered “chant in context,” in which female singers costumed as nuns presented the sacred hours from a single liturgical book whose illuminated scenes were enlarged and hung in surrounding the space. Samples of food and drink of the era gave us a further taste of the daily life inside a convent.

In contrast, last Saturday’s “Soundings” invited us to “sit inside the chant” —less as historical recreation than as an immersion (surrounded from all sides) in a buffet of spiritual music drawn from or referencing Christian tradition in fresh ways. Director Amy LeClair and her ensemble (12 voices and several instruments) brought the chant to life with variety and spontaneity; the cumulative effect was inspiring and exhilarating."  

      Boston Musical Intelligencer, February, 2015

"The voices in the chapel were beautiful and resonant. We followed their sound. Angels' voices. The voices came from a place far different from the secular city whose streets we enjoyed walking in the spring evening -- the "world" these voices had given up. In the Gothic chapel cloistered women were singing the hours." more...       

         Robert Knox's Prosegarden: blog on "Illuminations"

"(Cappella Clausura's) heavenly voices...exhibit impeccable unison tuning, liquid dexterity,and an ensemble tone color which, forgive the cliché, is pure gold. "      

Classical Voice New England, December, 2009

"...eavesdrop on paradise... personal and inviting, extravagant and intimate."    

Boston Globe, December, 2012

   "...the cadences of each phrase and each piece were nothing short of exquisite. There were many divine moments of perfect sonority..."     

Boston Musical Intelligencer, February, 2011

Re: Ordo Virtutum, 2010:

"...LeClair attacked...with knowledgeable insight, and came up with a minimal, but effective, accompaniment of medieval harp, hurdy-gurdy, and veille (a medieval fiddle). (Laura) Betinis sang with beautifully pure tone, and while the chorus of virtues was a bit uneven in spots, their diction was always impeccable, and there were at least two fine solos, from Kimberly Sizer and Daniela Tosic, as well as a ringing one from Leah Hungerford."

more:  The Hub Review