Concert serves as a response to current events

The city’s premier women’s chorus, VOX Femina, opens its 2017 season with She Persisted, a timely call to action through song, on Saturday, Nov. 18, at Zipper Concert Hall.

The concert will feature a new work commissioned by VOX for women’s voices, The Journey of Harriet Tubman, which follows Tubman’s courageous life using her own words in conjunction with some of the most important and recognizable spirituals in the repertoire. Dr. Ron Kean, emeritus professor of music at Bakersfield College, composed the piece.

The title role in The Journey of Harriet Tubman will be performed by soprano Caroline McKenzie, a VOX alumna who has been praised by the Los Angeles Times for her “rich timbres and stratospheric range.” The Culver City Middle School Voicestra Choir will join the VOX Femina chorus on stage.

The entirety of She Persisted will take audience members on an emotional journey through music that serves as a response to current events.

“VOX’s vision is to give women voice, and together, we are the voice of our communities,” says Dr. Iris S. Levine, founder and artistic director of VOX Femina. “The political and social climate of the past year has given us an opportunity to dig deep, find our voice, and sing out beautifully and strong. Through our voices, we rise, resist, and build community through music.”

She Persisted features works that evoke the importance of persistence in the face of adversity. They include composer Dale Trumbore’s moving composition “Breathe in Hope,” which began as posts on social media inspired by the tragic deaths of two black men killed by police officers; “And Ain’t I a Woman!” by Susan Borwick, set to an excerpt of abolitionist Sojourner Truth’s speech to the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851; and “Malala,” composed by Joan Syzmko and inspired by young Pakistani activist Malala Youafzai’s address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2013.

For tickets, please go to http://www.voxfemina.org or call 323-922-0025.