Helena makes music that’s not about the men

Arts lovers could be forgiven for thinking of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” when the name Helena is mentioned.

But Orlando’s all-woman vocal group Helena has nothing to do with mischievous fairies.

“People often think it’s because of Shakespeare, but it’s not,” says Helena member Sarah Purser. “It’s tied into our core values.”

The clue to those values can be found in the allwoman aspect of the vocal collective.

“We want the music we sing to reflect the female experience,” Purser says.

Helena’s next performance will be an Aug. 30 online livestream, presented by Timucua Arts Foundation.

The name Helena was chosen by the six women who make up the collective because they wanted to “illuminate” women’s stories and the role of women in classical music, where men traditionally command the attention. The name Helena means “light” or “torch.” There was another, more practical, reason for choosing Helena: “None of us knew anyone named Helena, so it didn’t have any negative connotations,” Purser says with a laugh.

Joining Purser in the collective — the “sisters,” as they say — are Anna Eschbach, Katie Pinder Brown, Lizzy Ariza and actual siblings Samantha Barnes Daniel and Sara Barnes.

“We’re a collective so there’s no director per se,” says Purser, though she and Eschbach choose a lot of the group’s repertoire.

Male composers can

make the cut: “We don’t discount the beautiful music written by men that we perform,” Purser says. “We infuse our femininity into that music.”

But the collective likes to find female creators — especially contemporary composers or lesser-known names from long ago.

“That’s why we think this group is so important,” Purser says. “We try to find music you don’t always hear, the hidden gems.”

On the Timucua program will be work by Hildegard von Bingen, who was writing music in the 12th century.

“She’s one of the earliest composers,” says Purser. “She was a mystic, and she’s also a Catholic saint.”

Religion, of course, was vital to the development of the art form.

“We love the liturgical music,” Purser says. “That’s the heart of choral music.”

Most Helena members sing at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe, in Lake Buena Vista. The women, all friends, met there or attended the University of Central Florida together, or performed together with Orlando Opera.

Their collective formed because “we just wanted to be singing more and doing more,” Purser says. Helena kicked into high gear for a concert with the 2016 Accidental Music Festival. Since then, the group also has sung for Orange County Public Schools programs, at the Orlando Fringe Festival, in the Swamp Sistas La La music festival and in church concert series.

Helena performs “6 of VIII: The Six Wives of Henry.” Music from the show will be included in the group’s upcoming concert.

The Helena collective of female vocalists will perform a concert for Timucua Arts Foundation. Sarah Purser, third from left, says the group wants to illuminate the female experience with its music.

For the 2019 Fringe, Helena teamed with Opera Orlando to present “6 of VIII,” a musical meditation

on the six wives of England’s King Henry VIII. The production was named best musical in the festival’s

Critics’ Choice Awards.

Music from “6 of VIII” will feature on the Timucua program, as well as the

premiere of “Anti-Suffragist Reasons” by British composer Paul Ayres and a series of pieces that revolve around motherhood — a topic that five of the six group members know a thing or two about.

“In the past five years, we’ve almost all had babies,” Purser says. “We’re climbing out of the ‘Oh, I have an infant’ phase.”

To protect against COVID-19, the women have been rehearsing for the Aug. 30 concert in Purser’s backyard — providing a soundtrack for her Orlando neighborhood.

“My neighbors are used to it,” says Purser, whose husband is a jazz bassist. “They’re used to hearing crazy stuff coming from our house.”