Tapestry Vocal Ensemble Celebrates Women's History Month with "Faces of a Woman"
KEENE, N.H., 2/19/08 - One of the United States most celebrated a cappella vocal ensembles, Tapestry, will make its tri-state debut with a recital, Faces of a Woman, at Keene State College’s Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond.
The performance, which will be held, Wednesday, March 12, at 7:30 p.m., is one of the many events celebrating Women’s History Month at Keene State. Faces of a Woman will be preceded by a 2 p.m. free lecture demonstration by Tapestry at the Redfern.
The performance and the lecture demonstration are made possible through a sponsorship by Kingsbury Foundation with additional support from the New England Foundation for Arts New England States’ Touring Grant.
The four women of Tapestry - Laurie Monahan, Cristi Catt, Daniela Tosic, and Carolann Buff - have enjoyed 12 years together, touring across the United States and abroad to perform concerts, lead workshops, and make recordings. The medieval abbess, mystic, and composer Hildegard von Bingen was their first muse, and her work has appeared in almost all of their programs. However, they made their debut singing Steve Reich’s “Tehilim.” Subsequently, they performed it with Steve Drury at Jordan Hall and later with Marin Alsop and the Colorado Symphony to celebrate Reich’s 70th birthday.
Concert appearances include festivals in Utrecht, Maastricht, Flanders, Regensburg, Hannover, Rome, and Quebec as well as the University of Oregon, Da Camera of Houston series, Cleveland’s Museum Concerts, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Stanford and Harvard Universities, and many others. They have four recordings with Telarc International: Angeli, Celestial Light, Song of Songs, and The Fourth River. Tapestry’s fifth CD, Sapphire Night, with the MDG label, won the Echo Prize. The recording of Faces of a Woman was released in the fall of 2007.
Faces of a Woman will feature music by women composers or music composed about women. Among the works they will perform at the Redfern are von Bingen’s “Quia ergo Feminina.” It is a tribute to the legend of St. Ursala (little bear), who, to von Bingen, was Ecclesia, the female church, a towering figure who renounced everything for her convictions.
Among the other songs from the medieval period are “Non sei como me salv’a” by the King of Portugal, Dom Dinis, and a traditional Portuguese ballad, “Raihana Santa Isabel.” Both songs extol the virtues of the Dom Dinis’s wife, Queen Isabel.
Margaret McAllister’s, “Gráinne,” is a tribute to Grace O’Malley, the famed 15th-century Irish chieftain, trader, and pirate. Largely forgotten by history, her story became the stuff of legend, and she is often seen as a symbol of Mother Ireland and independence. Among the other works on the program are contemporary songs such as Malvina Reynolds’s “If You Love Me” and Robert Kyr’s “Love as Child,” as well as the Appalachian folk song, “Careless Love.”
Tickets are available through the Brickyard Pond box office at 603-358-2168 or on the web at www.keene.edu/racbp. Prices are $17 for the general public, $15 for seniors and KSC faculty and staff, $9 for youth ages 17 and younger, and $5 for KSC students with an ID.
Tickets for all of the Redfern’s Presenting Series events and performances by the departments of Music and Theatre and Dance are also available. Patrons can still purchase 20/20 memberships that enable them to receive a 20% discount for all Presenting Series performances.
