• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Ecco Vocal Ensemble was founded in 2008 from a core group of singers who felt the need for a Lexington ensemble rooted in the rich choral music of the Renaissance.

Most of the core group were alumni of Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. Having sung in Asbury’s Collegium Musicum Vocal Ensemble (a selective, audition-only student group) as undergraduates, they briefly rejoined the ensemble for a choral tour of Italy in the summer of 2007. The group visited and sang in G. P. da Palestrina’s home church in Palestrina, as well as Roman churches St. Paul’s Within the Walls, Santa Maria Maggiore, St. Ignatius, and St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City. In Florence, the group also sang at the basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore, and in the church of San Gaetano.

Ecco Vocal Ensemble was born shortly thereafter out of the desire to continue singing together (known to the singers afterwards as the PITS — Post Italy Trip Syndrome).

Since 2008, Ecco has been featured on various concert series throughout central Kentucky. Regular venues include Lexington churches such as the Cathedral of Christ the King and Christ Church Cathedral, St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, and Asbury University in Wilmore, and has provided evensong music for Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and St. James the Less Episcopal Church in Ashland, Virginia.

In addition to directing the Collegium Musicum Vocal Ensemble, Dr. Vicki Bell was instrumental in establishing Ecco, and has directed the ensemble ever since. Dr. Bell is professor of music theory at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, and director of the Asbury University Chorale.