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Celebrating the Power of Women’s Choral Voices
For the fifth year, the School of Music proudly will host the Women’s Chorus Festival, filling a local void for women’s choruses to perform together. This year, ten choirs totaling about 400 singers will come together on Wednesday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m. for a shared concert in Libby Gardner Concert Hall.
The event has grown significantly since 2008, when U of U Women's Chorus Director Jessica Napoles planned and hosted the first concert with three other local choirs, including Murray High School Women's Choir and Salt Lake Choral Artists Women's Chorus, both of which will perform again this year, along with seven other high school, college and community choirs.
All of the choirs will send a women-only ensemble, which makes this ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) event a unique and exciting opportunity for participants and the audience to celebrate the power of women in song. Festival director Jessica Nápoles said, "Many schools include a hierarchy that has their mixed choruses – men and women – as their top auditioned chorus, and the women's chorus is not always given the same performance opportunities. I strongly believe that women's choruses need to be celebrated."
Each individual choir will perform two pieces, with the concert concluding in a grand finale sung by the combined choirs, directed by Jessica Napoles. The U of U Women’s Chorus will perform “Sylvie” by Leadbelly and “Sous le Dome Epais” (duet from the opera “Lakme”) by Leo Delibes. The final group piece will be the upbeat “Holy is the Lord” by Jeffrey Ames.
This year's choirs will come from across the state, including groups from Nebo, Murray,
Box Elder, Wasatch and Granite school districts. "It is very exciting to have that
many women up on stage, expressing themselves, and participating in something larger
than their individual groups," Nápoles emphasized. "I like that it is not a competitive
festival, that everyone comes out a winner, and that these young women feel empowered
to share their art."
Admission is free and all are welcomed to attend.
Along with the U of U Women’s Chorus, the festival will include the following choirs:
High Schools:
Kearns High School, David Martin, conductor
Maple Mountain High School, Cory Mendenhall, conductor
Salem Hills High School, Justin Bills, conductor
Wasatch High School, Stephen Reynolds, conductor
Murray High School, Alan Scott, conductor
Box Elder High School, Claudia Bigler, conductor
Community Group:
Salt Lake Choral Artists Women, Jane Fjeldsted, conductor
Universities:
Utah Valley University, Cherilyn Worthen, conductor
Utah State University, Michael Huff, conductor