Honoring Women
Flossmoor concert features Grande Prairie Singers program that honors Women’s History Month
Grande Prairie Singers is doing something different for its second show of the 2022-23 season by celebrating Women’s History Month in March.
The community chorus presents A Celebration of Women Composers: Past & Present March 26 at St. Veronica Parish (formerly known as Infant Jesus of Prague, St. Irenaeus and St. Lawrence O’Toole) in Flossmoor.
“For the last couple of years you’ve been starting to see more and more orchestras and choral groups and things making an attempt to be more diverse in their programming and to include music of women and composers of color,” said Sue Myers, artistic director of Grande Prairie Singers.
“I’d started to see that. Even in my professional organizations’ conferencesthere’sbeenmoreofa push to include music from female composers and it’s a great thing.
“Traditionally a lot of our concerts (feature pieces by) mostly male composers. This is an opportunity to exclusively focus on music of women composers. It’s my way of helping the community become more aware of the great music that’s been written by women composers over the centuries.”
A Celebration of Women Composers includes Italian madrigals by Vittoria Aleotti and Maddalena Casulana; pieces by Amy Beach, Fanny Hensel (nee Mendelssohn) and Hildegard von Bingen; “Freight Train” by Elizabeth Cotten, arranged by Gwyneth Walker; and “Let the River Run” by Carly Simon.
“I really like ‘To Sit and Dream.’ The text is beautiful and her arrangement of it. There’s a jazz influence. There’s some jazz harmonies. It’s a beautiful piece,” said Myers about the composition by Rosephanye Powell with text by Langston Hughes.
“Clara Schumann’s ‘Gondoliera’ is a beautiful piece. We’re singing it in German. It’s about these two lovers going down the river in a gondola. It’s lovely so I like that one too. I love them all. I only sing music I like.
“Elaine Hagenberg wrote a lovely piece. The text of ‘There Was a Time’ is beautiful. It’s William Wordsworth. She does beautiful stuff. I love singing her music.”
The choral concert features soloists including Dale Barnes of Peotone on “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell and Warren Jernegan on “Money (That’s What I Want)” by Janie Bradford and Berry Gordy.
Grande Prairie Singers, which rehearses on Tuesday evenings at Shir Tikvah in Homewood, has approximately 32 members including Flossmoor, Frankfort, Orland Park, Park Forest and Tinley Park residents.
“We’re a group in the south suburbs, southwest suburbs that consistently tries to perform quality music of all styles and genres — classical music all the way to pop music — for the community, and we do it with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of heart and a lot of musicianship too,” said Myers of Frankfort.
“Ifyoulovetosingandyoulove to sing good music and have enjoyable rehearsals doing it, you’re welcome to join us. We’re always looking for new members.”
Grande Prairie Singers, which began its season with Songs of Comfort & Joy in December at Flossmoor Community Church, concludes its three-concert slate with Beauty All Around Us: Songs Inspired by Nature at 3 p.m. June 3 at Peace Memorial Church, 10300 W. 131st St., Palos Park.