Welcome to the Suffrage Cantata Concert! 

 

I am Michelle Gehrz, Artistic Director of Bella Lumina Choir, or “The Bellas” as we refer to ourselves!

 

Thank you so much for being here today and HAPPY 50th ANNIVERSARY to International Women’s Day being on March 8th!

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Let’s take care of some logistics first… if there are any open seats in the middle of your section, could you quietly make a quick shift to fill those in so that the seats on the aisles are the remaining ones open. Because this concert has SOLD OUT, which is a wonderful problem to have, we are selling a few more tickets for standing room as well as setting up chairs in the entrance area. Thank you all so much for your support of this concert!

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As I started planning this concert over a year ago, I knew that I wanted some young Gen Z singers to join with Bella Lumina for the telling of this important historical story – that is the story of how women fought for over 70 years to gain the right to vote in this country. I wanted to make sure that we were passing on this story to the next generation. When I started studying Suffrage history while preparing this work, I realized that I had been taught very little about this topic in school, and the Bellas agree that this was their experience as well.

 

I didn’t know that the Suffrage movement spanned more than seven decades and saw hundreds of women jailed and abused for protesting and working toward the goal of the 19th Amendment, which WAS finally passed and ratified in 1920. 

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I didn’t know the names of the hundreds of suffragists who were passionate, dedicated, and determined women such as Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Burns, and Susan B. Anthony. 

 

I didn’t know that even though many of the white women suffragists supported the abolition of slavery, they were still not very open to black women joining in the suffrage movement, yet somehow, together they seemed to forge the pathway forward.

 

This amazing work that we will perform today was written by Andrea Ramsey, a composer/conductor who currently lives in Kansas City. She would have loved to have been here today but was booked with an event in New York. She did, however, send her well-wishes to all the performers today and is thrilled that we are performing her work. Andrea researched, planned, and wrote for more than a year to create this beautiful five-movement work. She describes this work as “more of a choral documentary than an extended musical work.” 

 

All of the music is original, meaning it is composed by her, except for a bit of an old-fashioned “march” that you will hear in MVT 3. The march was likely performed at the original Women’s March on Washington in 1913. The texts for this cantata are about 95% from historical documents and texts, with a couple portions of MVTs 1 and 3 containing some original texts written by the composer.  

 

Andrea describes the five-movement work as “a rough palindrome” meaning MVTs 1 and 5 have similarities, MVTs 2 and 4 have similarities, and MVT 3 is a stand-alone in the middle. One of my favorite "palindromy-type-spots" that she created is that of the main melody in MVT 1 being used again in MVT 5. Have a listen to Karen singing the  MVT 1 melody:“one day the women got tired… got tired enough to move.” Then in MVT 5 , she takes the same melody, this time set to the words of Suffragist, Mary Church Terrell, tweaking it a bit at the end: “Lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, strug’ling and striving and hoping, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance.” Thank you Karen Lutgen, for your lovely singing. 

 

A couple more things before we begin…

 

Today we are enhancing our concert with projection slides that were curated for the Carnegie Hall premiere of the Suffrage Cantata in April 2022. Twenty of the Bella Lumina singers were part of that magnificent event and worked with the composer while there.

 

Note ... besides the choirs and amazing instrumentalists, a narrator and soloist, are also very important parts of telling this suffrage story. Please keep your program handy as there is a lot of text that will wash over you from the choir, narrator, and soloist. The program will help! 

 

For any multi-movement work, please refrain from applauding between movements, instead allow those transitions to sit in silence. Please hold your applause until the very end of the cantata.

 

I would like to extend a VERY special thank you to Phillip Shoultz, the Director of Music and Worship here at Westwood Lutheran Church. He has worked tirelessly to help us get the space ready for today’s performance. Thank you for your time and support, Phillip!

 

I want you all to know how very proud I am of the three high school choirs that are joining us today.  They have worked hard to learn this music on top of their other music that they are working on with their school choirs. These are wonderful kids! The future is bright because of these talented, caring, passionate, and intelligent young people. How many of you are here to support your singer from Minnehaha Academy? Minnetonka High School? How about from Mound Westonka? Parents, thank you for the extra efforts to have them involved in this special event and to their choir directors for saying YES to this project!  

 

Finally… may this story bring all of us renewed vigor and passion to keep marching and working toward justice and equality for all. “Forward into Light, Lifting as We Climb!”