How Can I Keep From Singing?

This Saturday, April 18 at 7:00 pm, will be my fourth concert directing Songweavers, my amazing women’s chorus. Well over a hundred

women show up every week, sometimes twice a week, to sing, make music together and be in the company of like-minded women who love what we create together. What we create is so much more than music. Music is the vehicle. Community is the result. We come every week for the sustenance of both.

Musically, the women have learned and memorized sixteen songs, all by ear – from me and from a practice CD that I record. They learn by repetition. The concert is our annual opportunity to get our brains to put all the details in the proper order, to focus, and to expand our pre-conceived limits – both individually and for the chorus as a whole.

I am thrilled by how much better the women are singing than last year. The goal is not perfection. It is learning, growing and stretching, starting from each woman’s experience level. The chorus is big with a wide range of musical skills. They are tolerant, helpful and supportive of each other. They are full of great suggestions. Diversity is welcome.

Recently, a Songweaver lost her son. Seventeen women came together on the first sunny Sunday this spring to sing at the memorial service. They drove from as close as ten minutes and from as far as ninety minutes away in order to support our Songweaver “sister.” She was deeply touched. We were, too.

In the weeks leading up to this concert, I have watched the women make time to practice, listen to their CDs, and memorize the words and their parts. They are working hard. Their commitment is heart-warming. The concert is not the over-riding goal. The process of singing and growing together are the on-going goals. Songweavers is all about the journey. We laugh. We learn. We love. The concert wraps up our musical year with a big colorful bow and gives us a public way to celebrate – by singing and sharing.

This year’s title is “How Can I Keep From Singing?” Obviously, we can’t. We sing because it makes us happy. We sing to belong, to hope, to grieve, to share and to listen. We sing to protest, praise, inspire, transition. We sing for support in times of struggle, for consolation in times of loss and to communicate who we are and what we believe. We sing to find ourselves and our place in the universe. We sing to commemorate the joys and sorrows of life. We sing for friendship, camaraderie and love.

As Meridel Le Sueur wrote in the poem for our opening song;

Good mothers, go into the world –

                        Go into the world and blossom.

                        As long as there’s singing, there’s hope.

 

Songweavers in Concert: How Can I Keep From Singing

April 18, 2015, 7:00 pm

 

South Congregational Church

27 Pleasant St., Concord, NH

For tickets, call 603-228-1196 or www.ccmusicschool.org