Today we’d like to introduce you to VAMP Vocals.
Hi VAMP, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
This group was the brainchild of Adrienne Pedrotti Bingamon who in 2020 was in the middle of her masters degree in vocal chamber music and wanted to start a treble vocal ensemble of her own. She started by asking her friend Mary Ashton to join her and once Mary said yes, they together decided who to ask next. They kept going with that pattern, asking people one by one and then all together deciding who the next person would be, until the whole group was formed.
We had our first meeting in March 2020, right before Covid turned off the world, and we worried that we wouldn’t be able to keep up the momentum, but in fact, Covid was kind of a blessing in disguise for our creative process, allowing us to really spend time with the music and hone our sound. We rehearsed in backyards and parking garages and got to know each other as musicians and people, deciding what we really wanted to do together. We all had a lot of experience singing in ensembles directed by male directors and were looking for something that was truly our own; something that centered a women-led perspective and welcomed emotional exploration and vulnerability as part of our artistry.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There are a lot of talented musicians living in Austin, in every genre you can think of. Because the five of us are engaged in lots of other music-making outside of this group, our wide web of fellow musicians really showed up for us. We’ve gotten to collaborate with so many wonderful friends and colleagues like KMFA 89.5, Austin Classical Guitar, Panoramic Voices, Tetractys New Music, and individual composers and artists. These projects created so many beautiful moments of connection and really deepened our reasons for doing this in the first place. We’ve also been totally floored by the support of an incredibly connected classical music audience that exemplifies what it means to be a community. We consider ourselves very lucky to have Austin as our home base.
Of course, we have also had some challenges along the way. Two of our members left the group simply because of life circumstances that prevented them from being able to devote enough time to the music. This was difficult not just because it makes things logistically complicated, but it’s also sad to part ways–a little like a break up. Fortunately, we still have good relationships with former VAMPs and we’re thankful to be able to make music with them in other capacities.
And we can’t forget about basic everyday challenges like work-life balance, money concerns, and demanding day jobs! We also had to do a lot of on-the-spot learning with regard to what it means to be a band. In fact, we recorded an album with basically no prior knowledge about how to do that! While it was very tricky to navigate at the time, it also taught us some super valuable lessons about how to be in a group with other people, how to keep a company afloat, how to solve problems, how to communicate, etc. Such valuable human lessons to learn!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Here is our short biographical statement that we regularly use:
Conceived pre-pandemic and born in March 2020, VAMP is a vocal quintet of formidable female artists touting a motley songbook and a bold red lip. Versatile in style and genre, we are committed to programming and commissioning new work and making classical vocal music relatable for audiences. VAMP seeks to create unconventional musical experiences that embrace vulnerability and emotional intensity and provide audiences with a unique women-led perspective and a renewed sense of connection to their community, themselves, and the world.
Women singers in classical music are often encouraged to mold themselves into whatever the conductor or director wants them to be, and we wanted to control our own experience. That’s also why we launched as an LLC instead of a 501c3, so we wouldn’t be beholden to a Board. We try to make VAMP a space where we can be utterly ourselves. We often set up the stage to make it feel like we’re just gathering with the audience in our living rooms, the same way we would rehearse. We sing whatever genre we feel like, be it medieval chant, an opera chorus, folk music, musical theatre, avant garde new music written just for us, or Lilith Fair pop favorites. We are transparent about our joys and challenges, through our music and the way we talk to the audience. It’s common to hear loud laughter and cheering in the middle of one of our songs, or for people to audibly cry. We want to be free, and we want the audience to be free.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Starting an ensemble in the pandemic initially seemed like terrible luck. And certainly, catching Covid is never a good thing when you’re a singer – we’ve all had to sing while in recovery from Covid or other upper respiratory illnesses and that’s always cruddy. But, much to our surprise, starting a new group when the world is locked down turned out to be a real gift for us. It’s unusual as professional musicians to pause the hustle and have concentrated lab time, to just play/sing/create. We had a lot of time to think about the kind of music we wanted to make, and to sing through a lot of repertoire and hone our sound. One of our members, Laura Mercado-Wright, started composing music for us to sing. Without that extra time, she may not have tried her hand at composing and the world would have missed out on her music. All those rehearsals in parking garages and Adrienne’s backyard weaved some kind of magic between us, and when we finally started to perform live, audiences felt it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vampvocals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vampvocals/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vampvocals
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@vampvocals
- Other: https://vampvocals.bandcamp.com/album/vamp
