Season

Events

22 November 2008 | DIVINE SECRETS OF THE LA-LA SISTERHOOD!

Sometimes a seed is planted that outlives its gardener, continues to grow, feeds many hungry souls along the way, and gives root to other ideas. Twenty-five years ago, a seed of community was planted by two women who loved music and who had experienced the power of choral singing. Having moved to Durham, North Carolina, from Kansas and Minnesota, respectively, Nancy Agnew and Barbara Anderson, both avid choral singers, sought to bring together women to form a chorus. They didn’t know one another but, as fate would have it, the seeds of their ideas were planted at exactly the same time in the form of ads each placed in The Newsletter, a Triangle feminist publication. The ads reached out to other women interested in a choral group and resulted in Nancy and Barbara contacting one another and meeting with about a dozen interested women on the steps of the Durham YMCA in 1983. From these initial efforts, the Common Woman Chorus grew from the seed of an idea into a community of women.

In the fall of 2008, the Common Woman Chorus will celebrate the legacy of this growth, honoring the planters of the first idea, the founding mothers who nurtured it and brought it to life, and the gardeners who tend it today. The Chorus is different than its first seedling, yet growing from the same root stock. We continue to sing about the diversity of women’s lives. We seek, as always, to address injustice, to highlight triumphs over adversity, to diminish the power of prejudice by laughing at its absurdity. Change is also evidence, however. Emphasis on the feminist ideals of the early 1980s has evolved into woman-positive language and values. The political activism of the earlier chorus has given way to more polished performances that serve to address social issues through the message in the music. It is not your mother’s chorus, but a fine daughter growing up.

The seed of community is mature and thriving. 1983–2008: A quarter century of women’s voices rising in unison. Come celebrate with us!

When and Where:
The festivities begin at 7 pm on Saturday, 22 November 2008, in the sanctuary of Eno River UU Fellowship. A post-concert reception will follow in the Fellowship Hall.

 

27 September 2008 | NC PRIDE

The Chorus performed at NC Pride (Durham NC).

10 May 2008 | IDENTITY CAFÉ

Identity. Milan Kundera wrote the novel. John Cusack starred in the film. Web 2.0 sites encourage us to describe ours in succinct acronyms.

SLs seeking same, musicians seeking a tribe, and all others seeking progressive entertainment were welcomed at the Chorus’s Identity Café, where we celebrated our differences and commonality as interpreted through the universal language of music.

26–27 October 2007

The chorus opened Neither Model Nor Muse: Women and Artistic Expression, the third biennial symposium of Duke University’s Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, with inspirational music culled from the archives, then offered an expanded version of this concert to the general public. The symposium explored the ways in which women have expressed themselves through three centuries and many art forms, including choral music.

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Ticket Information

Advance Ticket Purchases for Divine Secrets of the La-La Sisterhood! will be available at the following outlets on Saturday, 11 October 2008:

Price: $25 GENERAL ADMISSION. • $15 STUDENTS. This price includes admission to the concert and the reception, plus a $5 discount on the Chorus's commemorative CD.

You may also purchase your tickets now via PayPal. Your concert tickets will be reserved in your name at "will call."

GENERAL ADMISSION:

STUDENTS: STUDENT TICKET PURCHASERS MUST PRESENT VALID STUDENT ID AT PICK UP

 

Spring 2009 (upcoming)

Price: $15 GENERAL ADMISSION • $10 STUDENTS.

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