Women’s Chorus of Dallas Presents ‘Travelin’ Voices
The Women’s Chorus of Dallas will present the sixth annual Voices of Women concert, Travelin’ Voices, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 5 at Moody Performance Hall.
In conjunction with Women’s History Month, this celebratory concert features two female conductors, Melinda Imthurn and Joni Jensen, directing 200+ young and adult women singing music by women composers. This multi-generational collaboration will showcase the transformative power of women singing together. Alongside choirs from Texas Woman’s University and Dallas Independent School District, TWCD will welcome featured composer and lauded performer Moira Smiley leading vocal quintet VOCO, named the No. 1 a cappella group in the U.S. in 2007.
Moira Smiley + VOCO combine the energy of street singing and the elegance of a string quartet. Together, they have been called “fascinating and multi-lingual” by the LA Times, “persuasive, near perfect musicians” by the Herald Times, and “gritty and ethereal, banjo to Bartók” by the Village Voice. This concert will see them use voices and bodies in harmony to sing songs from their current tour, The Voice is a Traveler, to tell stories of home and exile through folk songs, percussive movement, and original polyphony. TWCD and student singers will learn from and perform with these multitalented voices music steeped in overlapping vocal traditions and the wild, unusual colors and rhythms from Eastern Europe, Ireland, and the Appalachians.
New to Voices of Women 2020 is a poetry contest judged by local poet Edyka Chilomé. Dallas-area poets were invited to write and submit poems inspired by a TWCD rehearsal, with winners in student and adult categories to be announced during a preconcert poetry reading in the lobby of Moody Performance Hall. Edyka is an internationally-praised queer Salvadorian/Mexican American cultural worker. Her newest collection, “El Poemario del Colibrí,” is an intimate look at joy and healing as political resistance.
“I believe it is women‘s voices and creativity that heal the world,” said Edyka. “There is a sacred and healing truth that lives in music and poetry, and I am honored to invite the women of Dallas to live into that truth by finding it in themselves.”
Voices of Women VI is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, Dallas Arts District Foundation, and Texas Woman’s University. Tickets are $15-45 at www.twcd.org, with student and senior discounts available. TWCD also provides free tickets to community partner agencies and discount tickets for friends and family of participating Dallas ISD schools. For more information, contact twcdoffice@twcd.org or call (214) 520-7828.
