Sisters Singing in Illinois

Peggy Safford, Bread and Roses Director, sang next to Janna

It’s hard to convey the incredible feeling of good fortune that has been with us the last ten months as we travel from place to place finding treasures and unexpected delights at each new venue. The Sister Singers Network Choral Festival, on our calendar since January, was another such pleasure. We were two of over five hundred women who spent four days participating in choral music performance, both as singers and audience members. The event was held at the beautiful Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne. These feminist singers were truly our sisters: women who loved to sing, who love music that expresses deeply-held social, political and philosophical beliefs, and who cheerfully embrace you because you are there and a sister singer. All of that plus they know all the songs we know! 

The performances included choral presentations from seventeen feminist choruses from around the country with repertoire and music crafted by many of the women present. Each of the choruses performed several songs and all of the attendees also sang in one of two “mass choirs.” As part of our assigned “Prairie Choir,” we learned and performed five pieces, each conducted by a different, highly talented, woman director. We loved the rehearsals where everyone knew the music and cheerfully responded to the changes and nuances called out by the conductor. Thanks to her activist mother, Liz has been belting out social justice songs for over 60 years and both of us sang with the Anchorage W

Can you find us in the front row of the Prairie Choir? Janna (L) Liz (R)

omen’s Chorus twenty years ago. That and our more recent experience at San Juan Singers, plus Janna’s singing lessons last year, all contributed to our being able to participate at a reasonably sophisticated level. (Jokes from festival: How many choral directors does it take to change a light bulb? Answer:  No one knows, they weren’t watching. How many altos? Two; one to change it and one to tell her she can’t reach that high. How many sopranos? One; she doesn’t want any other sopranos in the room with her.)

With emma's revolution in front of you, it's hard to keep
 your eyes on the conductor

For us the topping on the cake, and perhaps the tipping point to justify the expense of the weekend, was the opportunity to be up close and personal with Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow who comprise the group:  “emma’s revolution”. We’ve been fans of Pat’s music since 1987 when Karen Carlisle taught us her great organizing song, “Keep on Moving Forward” in response to the Anchorage City Council failing to ratify protections for gay and lesbian workers. We renewed our membership in the fan club when Rhea Miller taught us “Swimming to the Other Side” just a few years ago. Pat and Sandy led off the weekend with a free concert, then a musical keynote the next morning, weaving in stories of social justice activism, mass music theory, and wonderful songs in true sing-along spirit. Pat, incidentally, learned at the knee of master song-leader Pete Seeger when she worked several summers on the Clearwater (Pete’s schooner that sailed the Hudson River urging environmental reforms.) She was one of those gathered at his hospital bed last January and helped sing him into his next existence. Many of us were moved to tears by her story of him and the song she wrote commemorating his work. Pat is truly a gifted songwriter. Check out their website.

In addition to the entertainment and the mass chorus rehearsals, we also attended some great workshops. We loved “Rhythm for Singers”  led by Sue Ford. Anyone who has stumbled onto the famous Friday Night Drumming Circle in Asheville North Carolina’s Perry Park will know of Sue's work which has been happening there for over a decade.  (Unfortunately when in Asheville a few months ago, we were there on the wrong day and were sad to have missed this tremendous cultural tradition.) 

In Urbana we also both attended “Teaching and Singing in the Oral Tradition”, led by Becky Graber, conductor of the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus (Vermont.) Since its inception in 1996 this chorus has learned all its music by rote and hence uses no written music. We found that by listening and echoing, then layering voices together, we are able to hear all of the different parts. This brings a shared experience to the music that is lost when one is focused on only her own part or struggling to read notes from a page.

“Feel the Music with Folk Dance” led by Heather Russell, a music education professor from Cleveland State University was another wonderful workshop. Besides teaching basic folk dance vocabulary, she illustrated how singing words we all know can be the catalyst for coordination for newly taught dance steps.

We didn’t let the huge storm where we were trapped in the parking garage get us down; in fact it added to the fun. The college cafeteria food just made us appreciate our usual organic diet. Other highlights included a songwriting workshop, a workshop learning about Hildegard of Bingen, meeting new friends (Kim and Beth we do hope to see you again) and so much more.  Off to Iowa now. We are truly blessed.