Event
Artemisia Vocal Trio Presents 'She Was'
Sunday, May 14, 2023
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Petty Auditorium
This performance "sings to life" past and little-known stories of women, and celebrates the storytellers among us today who are keeping their legacies and influences alive.
In addition to music arranged or composed music by Artemisia, She Was includes five commissioned works by living female composers: Kyong Mee Choi, Hope Littwin, Rochelle Rice, Jess Godwin, and Jori Pilcher.
The power of the voice and of the storyteller is highlighted with elements of sound design using recorded interviews, archival footage, and devised writing, including closed captioning and animations that provide a visceral inquiry into our past, present, and future.
About Artemisia: Chicago-based vocal theater ensemble Artemisia (Diana Lawrence, Alexandra Olsavsky, Kaitlin Foley) harnesses the power of the female voice to tell stories through the vocal traditions of the world.
Praised for “sincerity, wit, and mind-blowing technique” (Vocal Arts Chicago) and for encouraging audiences to "celebrate the eternal feminine" (Robert McBride, All Classical Public Media), Artemisia brings diversity and accessibility to their programming. Not your typical stand-and-sing ensemble, Artemisia draws from a vast repertoire of vocal styles--from Appalachian folk, Tushetian highlander cries, Cuban dance music, and everything in-between--to take audiences on a journey of sound and spirit with every performance.
Artemisia commissions and performs newly composed works by living female composers. The 2020-21 season included composition residencies with the Chicago Composers Consortium, which featured six premieres by Kyong Mee Choi, KC Ginther, Martha C. Horst, Timothy Johnson, Laura Schwendinger, and Elizabeth Start. Artemisia held a virtual residency at Amherst College, where they workshopped and premiered six student compositions. In addition to new commissions, all three members of Artemisia regularly compose for the group internally, frequently adding new arrangements and original compositions of their own to their programs.
In addition to performing, Artemisia provides educational programming to community and youth ensembles on subjects such as cultural literacy through singing, improvisational songwriting, and female empowerment.