Événement

Resonance Women's Chorus: The Light on the Land

Resonance Womens Chorus spring concert, The Light on the Land, is an immersion in the nourishing beauty of the natural world. We say that Resonance Womens Chorus sings songs of social awareness. All of our concerts are variations on the theme of paying attention. They are our response to now, said Resonance Artistic Director Sue Coffee. We take a lot of time learning the music, living with it, and talking about it. Im grateful to this particular concert for the way it has been replenishing me. One singer shared that this concert has been shoring her up as an activist, and I have felt the same way. We turn to the beauty of nature in search of organic sanity and in support of visionary activism.

This concert has been inspired by the writing of Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass. She offers an inspiring re-framing of the relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world as founded in gift exchange and reciprocity. We also ground this concert in the poetry of Mary Oliver: ...Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

Two works on the program were written specifically for Resonance. Boulder composer Gary Grundeis intimate setting of Carl Sandburgs Under the Harvest Moon is ingeniously based on musical material from J.S. Bachs Goldberg Variations. Marjan Helms quietly ecstatic Salmon Run is about, in the composers words, living and dying with faith in the goodness of both...faith so strong youre willing to swim against the currentand race toward what calls to you as home.

The program includes music by brilliant contemporary choral composers including Craig Hella Johnson, Joan Szymko, Jake Runestad, David Brunner, and Ola Gjeilo, as well as singer-songwriters Jane Siberry and Susan Crowe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and more, with settings of poetry and text by Mary Oliver, Elizabeth Bishop, Wendell Berry, Carl Sandburg, Susan B. Anthony, and Dorothy Walters.

Resonance Womens Chorus is a 125-voice womens community chorus singing contemporary choral music with an emphasis on messages of social awareness. Resonance is directed by Sue Coffee and is based in Boulder, Colorado.