WomenSing is holding auditions on June 11, 2012 and by appointment for experienced singers. All voice parts are welcome. Get a better feel for the chorus by attending one of our upcoming concerts on June 3 and 6. We’re happy to provide complimentary tickets to prospective singers. Contact us by email at audition@womensing.org, call our voice mail at 925-974-9169, or view our Audition web page for more information.

Scholarships are available for qualified singers.

The panel will share the key components of the YIY model, including resources for identifying gifted young poets and composers, establishing guidelines for the teaching artist-young composer mentoring relationship, and maximizing financial and non-financial resources to ensure the success of the program. Panelists will also reflect on the impact of the program on the organization’s presence locally, nationally, and internationally; the modifications made to the project since its launch; the criteria used to evaluate the program; and the lessons learned.

If you’re lucky enough to attend the conference, please join this fascinating conversation about choral outreach and collaboration.

Fans will be mesmerized by Australian Sarah Hopkins’ Past Life Melodies, a work that has taken the choral world by storm with its indigenous primal drones inspired by aboriginal overtone singing. The concert will include the world premiere of the women’s chorus version of Shawn Kirchner’s Bright Morning Stars are Rising to celebrate Martín Benvenuto’s tenth anniversary as Artistic Director of WomenSing. Acalanes High School’s Bella Voce and the Contra Costa Children’s Chorus Honors Ensemble will join WomenSing in unveiling our fourth-year Youth Inspiring Youth commissions by Anastasia Pahos (Australia) and Dale Trumbore (U.S.), both writing a setting of the beautiful River of Words poem Reflections. The audience is invited to arrive a half hour early to hear our composers at the pre-concert talk.

Tickets may be purchased at the door or up to 24 hours in advance online. Tickets are priced at $25 for premium seats, $20 for general admission, $18 for seniors, and $10 for students/youth 18 and under.

WomenSing continues to receive support from New Music USA’s MetLife Creative Connections program for our Youth Inspiring Youth (YIY) project. This year, Dale Trumbore‘s public activities related to the premiere of her work Reflections will be funded in part by MetLife. The activities will include her participation in WomenSing’s Youth Inspiring Youth Composers Workshop, to be held at the Lafayette Event Center on April 28, 2012, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend the workshop as WomenSing and Ms. Trumbore work together to bring her new composition to life. Ms. Trumbore will also present a preconcert discussion of her work at WomenSing’s Full Circle concerts in June, where audiences will have the chance to hear the premiere performance of the piece. WomenSing’s concerts will take place on Sunday, June 3, 2012 at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley and on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at the Lafayette Orinda Presbyterian Church.

MetLife Creative Connections provides funds to support U.S. composers as they participate in public activities related to specific performance of their original music, with the goal to educate the public about new American composers and to enhance the creative artist’s role in society. New Music USA offers increased opportunities to composers and musicians by supporting the creation and dissemination of new American music.

The first takes place on Friday, April 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the Hagerty Lounge at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. The Words Into Music Symposium will be an interactive dialogue on and demonstration of choral music composition, exploring the dynamic relationship between melody and verse. The Symposium will feature a panel discussion among internationally acclaimed composers Libby Larsen and Sandra Milliken, Youth Inspiring Youth composer Dale Trumbore, poet Francisco Alarcón and Martín Benvenuto, WomenSing’s Artistic Director. The event is co-sponsored by St. Mary’s College’s Center of Environmental Literacy, home of WomenSing’s artistic partner, River of Words. Participants will have the opportunity for 15-minute private “buttonhole” conversations with the panelists. Coffee and other beverages will be served at 9:30 a.m. A complimentary “light” lunch following the Symposium can be reserved. Guests should RSVP by email to info@womensing.org. Those wishing to reserve a place at the luncheon and/or conversation time with the panel should RSVP no later than Wednesday, April 25.

A composers Workshop will be held on Saturday, April 28, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Lafayette Events Center, located at 3780 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette. Guests will get a fascinating glimpse into the process of choral composition, and be a part of the creative collaboration of the choir and the composers. Libby Larsen and Sandra Milliken will work with our 2012 commissioned composers Dale Trumbore and Anastasia Pahos throughout this open rehearsal. Coffee and light refreshments will be served before and during the Workshop. Guests should RSVP by email at info@womensing.org no later than Wednesday, April 25.

The workshop is funded in part by the New Music USA’s MetLife Creative Connections program. Following these links for more information about the Words into Music Symposium and the Composers Workshop.

Check out this video to see interviews with Martín Benvenuto of WomenSing, mentor Libby Larsen, and 2010 composers Elizabeth Lim and Joshua Fishbein. The video also shows clips from the 2010 workshop with Libby Larsen, the composers, and WomenSing, giving you an interesting look at the collaborative process.

Josh pulls inspiration from a variety of musical traditions, including Jewish music, American spirituals, folk music, and Renaissance motets. “This helps to create new repertoire that builds upon preexisting musical lineages.” He also likes to “combine seemingly different musical traditions into a single work.” Martin Benvenuto, Artistic Director of WomenSing, says of Josh, “I have enjoyed following the development of Josh’s style in his choral works. It is well-rooted in his choral experience, so he honors vocal counterpoint as well as provides an interesting palette of harmonic colors that interprets text in subtle ways.”

Josh began college at Carnegie Mellon University as a psychology major with a minor in music composition, intending to become a music psychologist. The required music classes for the music minor left him hungry for more, so in the end he graduated with degrees in both subjects. Along the way he decided he preferred writing music and hearing it performed to doing research and writing journal articles, a lucky decision for those of us privileged to sing his music.

Also a singer, Josh was employed while still a high school student to sing with Cantor Avi Albrecht in the Men’s Choir at Beth Tfiloh Congregation of Baltimore. He has since sung baritone with professional choral ensembles Volti, the Artists’ Vocal Ensemble, and the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys. Asked whether singing or composing is his first love, he says, “Definitely singing! But composing is a close second.” A love of music starts early, but Josh says “the music from my childhood is a bit fuzzy in my memory. I remember singing in my synagogue choir and I remember hearing my father improvise on the piano while I fell asleep.” His father didn’t get far in piano lessons, so he usually only played the white notes.

Josh earned his Master of Music Degree in Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Marina, while working on a PhD in Music Composition at UCLA. He’s also setting excerpts from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience for the Hollywood Master Chorale as part of their “Voices of LA” project, a new two-year commissioning program funded by the LA County Arts Commission. In his rare spare time, Josh enjoys movies, walks near the water in Santa Monica, and serving as sous-chef to Marina, whose specialty is Russian food.

WomenSing is proud to include Unseen Secrets on its next CD, Songs of the New and Old World, to be released in the late fall of 2012.

2011-2012 GUILD OF TEMPLE MUSICIANS YOUNG COMPOSER’S AWARD

http://www.joshuafishbeinmusic.com/

The concert will feature WomenSing, performing A Precious Pearl, written by Lauren McLaren as part of WomenSing’s Youth Inspiring Youth project, and Eric Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs, a set of troubadour songs for piano, violin and women’s chorus written in honor of his wife and poet Hila Plitmann. Artistic Director, Martín Benvenuto, will sing two German lieder with different outlooks on love, one by Franz Schubert and the other by Hugo Wolf. Pianist Paul Caccamo will be joined by violinist Andrew Davies in performing the first movement from Johannes Brahms’ violin and piano Sonata No. 1 in G Major. Finally, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, WomenSing will offer its rendition of the traditional Irish tune, Danny Boy.

So join WomenSing for “A Sparkling Jewel.” Ticket donation is $75 and can be obtained from the WomenSing website. For further information visit the Sparkling Jewel event page on our website, email info@womensing.org or call 925-974-9169.

Reflections

Sometimes,
when the mountains
reflect on rivers,
you can find out things
you never knew before.
There are flowers up there,
rocks like clouds,
a little snow becomes a creek
and grows into a river.

— Lindsay Ryder

The foundation of this year’s YIY project is Lindsay Ryder’s poem Reflections, which expresses her love for nature. According to Ryder, “Some people like the ocean, some like the desert, I am in love with the mountains — they take my breath away. I find peace and connect with God the strongest when I am surrounded by nature.” Considering that Ryder grew up in Bend, Oregon, it’s no surprise that she finds spiritual peace and inspiration in the mountains (see the photo above): ”I think it is a beautiful thing how the world takes care of itself — the snow on the mountains becomes the rivers and streams that support our lives.”

In light of Ryder’s comments, it’s perhaps no coincidence that Dale Trumbore’s SSA composition, Reflections, places a clear emphasis on the last two lines of the poem: “A little snow becomes a creek and grows into a river.” During the creative process, Trumbore and WomenSing’s director Martín Benvento had an interesting email exchange regarding the music at the end of the piece. Benvenuto writes: “[I] wonder if being anticlimactic here would work dramatically, i.e. resist the more obvious “grows into a river” image, and let it all gradually trickle down, reflecting more the organic flow of things that the poem describes.“ In response Trumbore writes: “I’d been debating what to do with the ending…; I very much like your suggestion … which will likely serve the piece better than a big, climactic chord at that moment.” In the end, Trumbore followed her instinct and concluded the piece with a beautiful, but understated piano solo.

While Anastasia Pahos uses the text of the poem Reflections throughout her piece, she renamed the composition Isle of the Bless’d. This name distinguishes her composition from Trumbore’s and piques our curiosity about the decision. When asked about the new title, Pahos mentions “heavenly souls/celestial beings which dwell in (or haunt) a beautiful valley,” perhaps encouraging a more mythological interpretation of the poem. Written for four treble voices (SSAA) as well as two soloists, the piece often divides further into six voices for the chorus, resulting in a texture that Benvenuto described to singers as “highly imaginative” and “tricky, but cool.” Pahos herself describes the piece as a “cross between Gregorian chant, requiem, cultural dance and film.” During the first rehearsals singers also noticed an interesting technique Pahos uses with the lyrics, giving one voice the first syllable of a word to sing and a different voice the second syllable.

Throughout the rehearsal process, the singers are sure to develop a better understanding and appreciation for the different musical and artistic choices Trumbore and Pahos made. Will there be a favorite? Will one piece more clearly reflect the original inspiration of the poem? Will this choice be completely dependent on the musical taste of the listener or the singer? Decide for yourself by attending the composer workshop on April 28 with Libby Larsen and Sandra Milliken and the spring concert, Full Circle, on June 3 and 6 where WomenSing will present the world premieres of both pieces.

In its 46th year, WomenSing’s 2011-12 season Songlines continues to explore the world and its connections through both traditional and unexpected music. In early June we will come Full Circle, featuring Sarah Hopkin’s Past Life Melodies, along with music by Mechem, Brahms, featured Australian composer Sandra Milliken’s Fanfare of Praise, and a world premiere to celebrate Martín Benvenuto’s 10th anniversary as artistic director of WomenSing! Acalanes High School Bella Voce and the Contra Costa Children’s Chorus Honors Ensemble will join us in unveiling our fourth-year Youth Inspiring Youth commissions. Scholarships are available for qualified singers.

WomenSing is holding auditions on January 10, 2012 and by appointment for experienced singers. All voice parts are welcome. Contact us by email at audition@womensing.org, call our voice mail 925.974.9169, or read the Audition page for more information.

Check out our new Singer Spotlight feature to learn more about the women who enjoy singing with WomenSing.