Hello, my name is Dennis Van Koevering (pronounced Van Coovering) and my 20 year old daughter's name is Leigh (pronounced Lee). We are a father and daughter singing duo from Midland, Michigan who have sung together professionally for about 6 years. I am a lyric/dramatic tenor who studied under scholarship at Western Michigan University and now serve as the music director at St. John's Episcopal Church of Midland, Michigan.
My daughter Leigh is a lyric coloratura soprano who has been studying voice privately since the 8th grade beginning with the late Gwendolyn Pike who was Cheryl Studer's (famous opera singer) and Nancy LaMott's (famous Cabaret singer) 1st voice teacher. Leigh studied with me almost daily since 8th grade and also with a previous voice teacher of mine (Elsie Inselman of Detroit) about twice a month. She now a vocal performance major at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Please give us a listen and see if you don't agree that we have something very special to share. I think you will be pleasantly surprised... after all, people have to come from somewhere... why not mid-Michigan! Below is a review of our debut album entitled 'Breaking New Ground' (a beautiful collection of sacred solos and duets). We sincerely hope you enjoy our music!
Album So Moving It Brought Tears to My Eyes
by Gerrit Kroeze Rating: 10
The Van Koeverings made available on their own website a few samples of their CD (go and visit their site - you won't regret it)!Give Me Jesus (Leigh solo), Ombra Mai Fu (Dennis solo), Pie Jesu (Dennis and Leigh duet). On listening to those samples, I decided it would be worthwhile to purchase the album (even though I live in the Netherlands). And within a week, it arrived!
And it just about blew me away. This is truly a remarkable album. Dennis and Leigh are both blessed with powerful and moving voices. Both have a remarkable ability of sustaining pitch.
On this album, they sing duets and also perform solo. When they perform solo, I find myself yearning for them singing duet. And in their duets, I find myself wanting to listen to each separately. Solo, they sound beautifully. Dennis has an extraordinary rich and warm voice; listening to him singing solo (for instance in "Panis Angelicus") is an exceptional experience. Leigh's solo performances are really impressive and moving indeed, as is evidenced by a beautiful rendition of "The Holy City".
Their duets are something special indeed. To me, the absolute highlight is "Pie Jesu". When they started singing this, I turned up the volume as high as I could. (And I must say, when I did that - I started to worry about the speakers in my system. Luckily they survived. So beware - if you do the same as I did, maybe your system can't handle it - and what about the neighbours ;).)
Pie Jesu has always been one of my favorite songs - and Dennis and Leigh's interpretation left me almost breathless. On their own site, they have an mp3 available which does sound very good. It does no justice, however, to the sound that comes from your system when you play the CD-version. When you have two people singing together, and both have powerful voices, chances are that in a duet one person dominates. Or that they both distract from each other's skills. Not so on this album. Dennis and Leigh complement each other really well. The track "I waited for the Lord" exemplifies this quite clearly. It starts with Dennis singing solo. The suddenly, Leigh joins in. And, when you sit between the two speakers, their sound really comes from different sides and is clearly distinct.
I have no regrets about purchasing this CD. If you like the repertoire, I can only but warmly recommend you purchasing it. This has been one album so moving, it brought tears to my eyes ...
Gerrit
Track List:
1. Give Me Jesus - arr. Moses Hogan
2. The Lord is my Shepherd - Henry Smart
3. Panis Angelicus - C.A. Franck
4. The Holy City - S.A. Adams
5. Ombra Mai Fu (Handel's Largo) - G.F. Handel
6. I Waited for the Lord - F. Mendelssohn
7. Ave Maria - F. Schubert
8. Precious Lord, Take my Hand - T. Dorsey
9. The Lord's Prayer - A.H. Malotte
10. Sancta Maria - P. Mascagni, arr. S. Mercurio
11. Pie Jesu - Andrew Llyod Webber
12. Deep Waters - Pepper Choplin
Other Genres:
My daughter Leigh is a lyric coloratura soprano who has been studying voice privately since the 8th grade beginning with the late Gwendolyn Pike who was Cheryl Studer's (famous opera singer) and Nancy LaMott's (famous Cabaret singer) 1st voice teacher. Leigh studied with me almost daily since 8th grade and also with a previous voice teacher of mine (Elsie Inselman of Detroit) about twice a month. She now a vocal performance major at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Please give us a listen and see if you don't agree that we have something very special to share. I think you will be pleasantly surprised... after all, people have to come from somewhere... why not mid-Michigan! Below is a review of our debut album entitled 'Breaking New Ground' (a beautiful collection of sacred solos and duets). We sincerely hope you enjoy our music!
Album So Moving It Brought Tears to My Eyes
by Gerrit Kroeze Rating: 10
The Van Koeverings made available on their own website a few samples of their CD (go and visit their site - you won't regret it)!Give Me Jesus (Leigh solo), Ombra Mai Fu (Dennis solo), Pie Jesu (Dennis and Leigh duet). On listening to those samples, I decided it would be worthwhile to purchase the album (even though I live in the Netherlands). And within a week, it arrived!
And it just about blew me away. This is truly a remarkable album. Dennis and Leigh are both blessed with powerful and moving voices. Both have a remarkable ability of sustaining pitch.
On this album, they sing duets and also perform solo. When they perform solo, I find myself yearning for them singing duet. And in their duets, I find myself wanting to listen to each separately. Solo, they sound beautifully. Dennis has an extraordinary rich and warm voice; listening to him singing solo (for instance in "Panis Angelicus") is an exceptional experience. Leigh's solo performances are really impressive and moving indeed, as is evidenced by a beautiful rendition of "The Holy City".
Their duets are something special indeed. To me, the absolute highlight is "Pie Jesu". When they started singing this, I turned up the volume as high as I could. (And I must say, when I did that - I started to worry about the speakers in my system. Luckily they survived. So beware - if you do the same as I did, maybe your system can't handle it - and what about the neighbours ;).)
Pie Jesu has always been one of my favorite songs - and Dennis and Leigh's interpretation left me almost breathless. On their own site, they have an mp3 available which does sound very good. It does no justice, however, to the sound that comes from your system when you play the CD-version. When you have two people singing together, and both have powerful voices, chances are that in a duet one person dominates. Or that they both distract from each other's skills. Not so on this album. Dennis and Leigh complement each other really well. The track "I waited for the Lord" exemplifies this quite clearly. It starts with Dennis singing solo. The suddenly, Leigh joins in. And, when you sit between the two speakers, their sound really comes from different sides and is clearly distinct.
I have no regrets about purchasing this CD. If you like the repertoire, I can only but warmly recommend you purchasing it. This has been one album so moving, it brought tears to my eyes ...
Gerrit
Track List:
1. Give Me Jesus - arr. Moses Hogan
2. The Lord is my Shepherd - Henry Smart
3. Panis Angelicus - C.A. Franck
4. The Holy City - S.A. Adams
5. Ombra Mai Fu (Handel's Largo) - G.F. Handel
6. I Waited for the Lord - F. Mendelssohn
7. Ave Maria - F. Schubert
8. Precious Lord, Take my Hand - T. Dorsey
9. The Lord's Prayer - A.H. Malotte
10. Sancta Maria - P. Mascagni, arr. S. Mercurio
11. Pie Jesu - Andrew Llyod Webber
12. Deep Waters - Pepper Choplin
Other Genres: