Friday Afternoon Concert Block
Here’s a report from the first concert block at the Sister Singers Festival on Friday afternoon, June 16, 2006.
Juneau Pride Chorus traveled all the way from Alaska to be here – a chorus of mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers, and singers. Seven members dressed in colorful tops, 5 sopranos, one alto, and a pianist. The director just gave birth to twins.
Their set started with Love puts the Sweetness in Life – a funny piece with hip gyrations by Susan Warner (who was in the audience.) Clear Horizon was totally different – a round with nice clarion calls that conjured the landscape of Alaska. Very funny was Why Don’t You Sing in the chorus, that started with a litany of bitter verses about not getting solos, and being relegated to the stage with the assurance that “you might not be a star, but sing where you are – you’ll find lots of friends in the chorus.” In the attitude had switched with that refrain was the announcing the jubilant revelation that being in the chorus is better than being a soloist. Gravity Blues brought the house down with the chorus of “older women” singing “my skin has fallen and it can’t get up.
Columbus Women’s Chorus
Our own Karin was their guest accompanist! She played with them for the first time with them during their tech rehearsal and she transformed their performance. She was fantastic – doing jazzy and bluesy pop accompaniments for a group of nine women (out of 60) from our southerly neighbor of Columbus. They started with a very nice Ysaye Barnwell piece, Wanting Memories, with tough close harmonies. The verse starts with a lament “Since you’ve gone and left me there’s been so little beauty—I’ve seen it all through your eyes,” and ends with a reflection that it is better to learn to “see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.” A very poignant arrangements of Just a Housewife held in it a tiny glimmer of bitterness in its observation that about how “women’s lib says it’s OK to be what you choose” when really people don’t treat housewives with the same kind of respect as a professional. By contrast, their finale Womanspirit Rising was uplifting urging “ I am woman hear my voice, hear my music.”
Charlottseville Women’s Choir was a group of 12 in colorful garb who sang mostly a capella (the exception was “Colors of the Wind” by the same composer as Wicked, Stephen Scwartz.) They ended with “Faces” – a sobering contemplation on how the U.S. addresses the needs of the needy, opening with “We are the one who says we are one nation under God then let goodness and mercy pour from us,” and observing that “All the faces are so haunting, but they have nothing that we’re wanting.” Their bit included Ruth Huber’s Set Her Free (which we have sung!) Nana Was A Suffragette remembers a recently deceased fictional grandmother who used to say, “Vote for women in just the beginning, you haven’t seen anything yet.” Wait til they hear about all our historical women in our set!
Sistrum, from Lansing, Michigan made their high point a wow ending, Las Amarillas all in Spanish was filled jubilant yipping, hip slapping, clicking, and clapping in opposing rhythms. Before they got to that, they sang Peace Is reminding us that “life is the chance we take when we make this earth our home.” They sang a really interesting rendition of How Can I Keep from Singing, which inserted Amazing Grace in counterpoint with the verse written about the McCarthy era – cool. I Will Be Earth was introduced as from a poem that could be interpreted either as a very sexy love song or as a skit for a 6th grade ecology class. If you don’t remember this choir from their unusual repertoire, their matching blue oxford shirts all have Sistrum embroidered on it.
Our concert is tomorrow afternoon between 1:00 and 3:00. Stay tuned!
Juneau Pride Chorus traveled all the way from Alaska to be here – a chorus of mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers, and singers. Seven members dressed in colorful tops, 5 sopranos, one alto, and a pianist. The director just gave birth to twins.
Their set started with Love puts the Sweetness in Life – a funny piece with hip gyrations by Susan Warner (who was in the audience.) Clear Horizon was totally different – a round with nice clarion calls that conjured the landscape of Alaska. Very funny was Why Don’t You Sing in the chorus, that started with a litany of bitter verses about not getting solos, and being relegated to the stage with the assurance that “you might not be a star, but sing where you are – you’ll find lots of friends in the chorus.” In the attitude had switched with that refrain was the announcing the jubilant revelation that being in the chorus is better than being a soloist. Gravity Blues brought the house down with the chorus of “older women” singing “my skin has fallen and it can’t get up.
Columbus Women’s Chorus
Our own Karin was their guest accompanist! She played with them for the first time with them during their tech rehearsal and she transformed their performance. She was fantastic – doing jazzy and bluesy pop accompaniments for a group of nine women (out of 60) from our southerly neighbor of Columbus. They started with a very nice Ysaye Barnwell piece, Wanting Memories, with tough close harmonies. The verse starts with a lament “Since you’ve gone and left me there’s been so little beauty—I’ve seen it all through your eyes,” and ends with a reflection that it is better to learn to “see the beauty in the world through my own eyes.” A very poignant arrangements of Just a Housewife held in it a tiny glimmer of bitterness in its observation that about how “women’s lib says it’s OK to be what you choose” when really people don’t treat housewives with the same kind of respect as a professional. By contrast, their finale Womanspirit Rising was uplifting urging “ I am woman hear my voice, hear my music.”
Charlottseville Women’s Choir was a group of 12 in colorful garb who sang mostly a capella (the exception was “Colors of the Wind” by the same composer as Wicked, Stephen Scwartz.) They ended with “Faces” – a sobering contemplation on how the U.S. addresses the needs of the needy, opening with “We are the one who says we are one nation under God then let goodness and mercy pour from us,” and observing that “All the faces are so haunting, but they have nothing that we’re wanting.” Their bit included Ruth Huber’s Set Her Free (which we have sung!) Nana Was A Suffragette remembers a recently deceased fictional grandmother who used to say, “Vote for women in just the beginning, you haven’t seen anything yet.” Wait til they hear about all our historical women in our set!
Sistrum, from Lansing, Michigan made their high point a wow ending, Las Amarillas all in Spanish was filled jubilant yipping, hip slapping, clicking, and clapping in opposing rhythms. Before they got to that, they sang Peace Is reminding us that “life is the chance we take when we make this earth our home.” They sang a really interesting rendition of How Can I Keep from Singing, which inserted Amazing Grace in counterpoint with the verse written about the McCarthy era – cool. I Will Be Earth was introduced as from a poem that could be interpreted either as a very sexy love song or as a skit for a 6th grade ecology class. If you don’t remember this choir from their unusual repertoire, their matching blue oxford shirts all have Sistrum embroidered on it.
Our concert is tomorrow afternoon between 1:00 and 3:00. Stay tuned!
posted by Pod Learning @ 7:33 PM
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