MUSE will give the Midwest premiere of "Weave and Spin"--a tapestry of women's lives written by Miriam Davidson and Kiya Heartwood (WC). The six-movement suite reflects the mission of MUSE as illustrated in their introduction:

"Our lives as women are crafted by our experiences as daughters, mothers, lovers, leaders, activists, adventurers and dreamers. Women who have made great contributions, who we have admired, become essential pieces in the quilts of our lives."

The movements each tell a passionate tale. "Weave and Spin" introduces us to a symphony of women who have gone before us, part of the patchwork of our daily lives. "Wide Sky" involves a blend of Appalachian and South African A Cappella singing styles, and reflects the act of transformation through mothering. "Beautiful Soul" is a flamenco-pop love song. "Copernicus" is about survival and thriving against the odds. "Adagio" is about taking a stand against injustice and the insanity of war, and "Higher Ground," is a rousing, gospel, call-to-action.

Following intermission, MUSE will sing some of our favorite bold love songs, songs which helped to create our fan-base of open-minded, open-hearted people. Reminisce as we sing "Simply Love," and "Perfect Night" by Holly Near, and "Miss Celie's Blues," from The Color Purple, or celebrated risk-taking adventure songs like "Marie", "Annie" and "Wanderlust."

Seating is limited with only two performances so get your tickets now as MUSE celebrates women's music - past and present.

Tickets

About Wishing Chair

Since 1995, Kentucky based, multi-instrumentalist Miriam Davidson and songwriter Kiya Heartwood have made an art of inspiring performances and award winning songs. With a passionate mix of intelligent lyrics, spell-binding storytelling and breathtaking harmony, this gifted duo seduces the listener with soulful confessions, political broadside, and a wicked groove over a full folk and roll sound. Heartwood's percussive guitar work and wide open vocals compliments Davidson's tasteful use of a myriad of instruments including piano, accordion, banjo, hand drums and bouzouki.

http://www.wishingchair.com

MUSE is motivated in our 25th Anniversary season to connect our audience to grassroots activities. MUSE has created a new Writings segment on our website to keep you up to date with fascinating people, rousing activities and opportunities to learn about what is going on in the world of music and social justice. When you sign up for our E-News Updates (News>Mailing List), you will receive your MUSE News and updates through the web, saving paper, and connecting to the community all at the same time.

Browse our store, where we've made buying and donating to MUSE easy (you can now use Discover and AMEX!) You can even purchase sliding scale tickets online. Listen to the "Song of the Month" and clips of every song MUSE has recorded, in Ogg format. The MUSE website supports the Free Software/Open Source computing initiative. In fact, the entire website was created using free software. Learn about socially responsible websites on About>Website.

MUSE has also made it fun to keep up to date with the most current MUSE events. Whether it's promoting social justice in song, sponsoring a Sweet Honey in the Rock concert, or a Fair-Trade shopping day to benefit MUSE, it's all there under Season>Schedule.

We're excited about the new website and we hope you are too. Let us know the features you love by using the contact form under Contact, and keep in touch with MUSE. We love our audiences and want you to keep up with all MUSE does. See you on the web!

The fall concert, "Rapt in Love" could be billed as "bringing it all back home"; a concert to honor our lesbian and feminist roots in the women's [choral] music movement.

In April, '08, we step out for our 12th New Spirituals Project, "Hope Come True". We collaborate with the Central State University Chorus in performances both at Central State and at the House of Joy (the home of New Spirituals for as many years). In this momentous year, we have commissioned Dr. Rosephanye Powell, an accomplished composer who hails from Auburn, Alabama, and as always, we welcome Linda Tillery to join us for these inspiring new works in the Spiritual tradition.

June of 2008 will be a hot one, musically, as we form an Alumnae Chorus with some of the 200+ singers that have been part of MUSE over the last 25 years. Festivities begin on that Friday night with a potluck and rehearsal together(former singers will receive a letter and schedule), and concerts will feature newly commissioned works by our favorite influential musicians, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Holly Near, Joan Szymko and others. Performances are on Saturday night, June 14, and Sunday afternoon, June 15 (for those with children or who love a matinee).

The year concludes with an opening-night performance at the National Women's Studies Association National Convention, held in Cincinnati June 19-22. And, in July, we hope you will wish us a "Bon Voyage" as we sing a pre-GALA, farewell concert with the Cincinnati Men's Chorus, before setting out for the 8th quadrennial GALA Festival in Miami, Florida.

See you out there!

Imagine the year is 1972: there are no cell phones, no internet, no voicemail or answering machines. Yet, a network of women across the nation hooked up via sheer will. Women wanting to sing their lives, women writing lyrics expressing the emotion and experience of their everyday lives, women performing for one another, producing concerts (doing all skilled and technical jobs including lights and sound), recording, learning to play instruments usually considered unfeminine (traps, trumpet, bass, electric guitar, saxophone, etc) all coalesced around this thing call Women's Music.

This heady period made-known influential musicians such as Cris Williamson, Meg Christian, Margie Adam, Holly Near, Sweet Honey, June Millington, Therese Edell, Maxine Feldman, and the late, Kay Gardner. The publications "Paid My Dues" and "Hot Wire" produced more networking, and recording companies cropped up (Olivia, Redwood, Sea Friends, Pleiades, Flying Fish, to name only a few) that supported the movement.

In 1974, I started Anna Crusis Women's Choir (a "play on words" of the musical term "Ana Crusis", meaning upbeat) in Madison, Wisconsin, followed by Anna Crusis Philadephia in 1975. Anna was the first feminist women's choir, and during the 1970's, many women's choirs began; mostly grass-roots choirs in the Midwest, but Anna Crusis (Philadelphia) and the LA Women's Community Chorus provided the impetus on the coasts.

When women's choirs began, their repertoire drew from their solo singers, and arrangements were commissioned to suit the needs of the choir. Women's choirs and glee clubs were popular in colleges and universities, but it was rare to find community women's choirs with any frequency. The selection of repertoire was limited, and the range did not challenge or enhance the sound of the women singing.

This new women's choral movement encouraged arrangements to include the full range of our voices, including the rich lower ranges. Many works which were written for women's voices before this new wave of feminism were frequently arranged for 3-part women's voices, lacked significant texts, and were especially deficient in low parts. These missing features, once added, highlighted the richness of the mature woman's voice.

Throughout the period, over 80 women's choirs blossomed across the USA, North America, and Europe, and in the early 1980s, the Sister Singers Network started up in the Midwest, and GALA Choruses began.

I believe that women's music is alive and well. You can more easily find women in every area of musical technology and production, more women conductors can be found in choral and instrumental positions, and women instrumentalists are no longer an anomaly. However, we cannot be lulled into believing there is equality across the board in all music-matters. The women's choral music still strives to be truly diverse and inclusive.

Last night I experienced a concert of women's music (including interviews with the artists) as I watched Light of Change--A Concert with Carrie Newcomer (new to me), Bernice Johnson Reagon and Holly Near. I recommend this concert for all to witness how musical artists unite deep activist cultural work. Their perceptive words highlight our connections as women; leading and creating a women's music that challenges us to act, and wake up to the light of change through justice with love.

Because many venues do not have any and/or suitable keyboard instrument, MUSE needs to purchase an 88-key digital piano that is "portable" enough to be taken to various venues and set up for concerts. The keyboard will come with a bench and stand, and we will also need to purchase an amplifier to be sure that we have the correct balance between the venue and the voices. We will then be able to accept more invitations and feel comfortable knowing the instrument our accompanist will play.

We need your help! To purchase this keyboard and all of the ancillary equipment, MUSE needs $2500.00.

Let the "paying" begin...

88 Keys Please! For $30, you can "buy a key" and help fund the keyboard purchase. With 88 "players" paying $30 each - we will have our keyboard!

It's easy, too! To donate a "key" you can call the MUSE office at 513-221-1118, or visit the 88 keys link on our website.

Your generous donation may be tax deductible!

Plans for this exciting weekend begin with a reception for former MUSEs on Friday, June 13th, from 7-8 p.m. at St. John's Unitarian church, followed by a rehearsal of the Alumnae choir from 8-10 p.m., in preparation for the Weekend's concerts. The Alumnae choir will join MUSE in singing a piece commissioned for our Anniversary Spring Concert, as well as several other MUSE standards - Saturday, June 14th at 3 pm & 8 pm, NKU's Greaves Hall.

On Sunday, the 16th, a relaxing brunch will be offered; a time for old friends to reunite, and for new connections to be made. Current singing members and staff will open up their homes to out-of-town guests, and a block of rooms will be reserved at Vernon Manor Hotel in Cincinnati's historic uptown district.

MUSE looks forward to reconnecting with its "her"story, and its beloved members throughout this weekend. If any of our Friends of MUSE are interested in assisting in planning this exciting weekend or hosting home-stays for former members, please contact the MUSE office at muse@musechoir.org.

MUSE: How long have you been in MUSE?

RW: I am a founding member of MUSE (1983)

MUSE: What prompted you to audition?

RW: I auditioned because I was looking for a creative outlet for my beliefs and concerns about the world, i.e. peace, racism, sexism, homophobia, justice issues, cross-cultural work, etc...I was also interested in finding a group of women to work with around these things. And I wanted to sing again since I enjoyed making music with other people. MUSE has met those three needs of mine for all these years. It is why I continue to be in MUSE.

MUSE: In addition to singing, what role/duties have you performed?
RW: I have participated for most of the years in the Dreamers, Eaters, and Philosophers group, helping to decide which music we sing, how to put the songs together into a meaningful way, and how to plan the music of the concerts and the other singing events. I have also been a Music Section Leader in the Sop. II's for most of the years. For last year and this year I have helped as Music Section Leader in the Alto II's, since I have been moved to that section. I have also performed in a few of the small vocal groups and have performed (with other MUSEs) a few of the choreography dances of some of the earlier pieces. Those were fun.

MUSE: What has been your favorite MUSE event?

RW: I don't know if I have a favorite MUSE event. Many have been highlights and I have many fond memories of lots of good or meaningful or fun events we have done.

MUSE: What is your best source for your MUSE blue?

RW: I hate to confess it but most of my "MUSE blue" articles have been found at second hand stores or found by chance in my things or at stores when I am least looking for them or given to me by friends or family.

MUSE: Besides music, what are three things you always bring to rehearsal?

RW: The three things (besides music) that I always bring to MUSE are: water, pencil, and probably my pager since I have been on call for women in potential labor so often during rehearsal. I guess I can add my eyeglasses in that list in the last ten years.

MUSE: What is your favorite song MUSE has sung?

RW: I don't know if I have a favorite song. There are many that I love and for many different reasons. There are some songs that would bring tears to my eyes (and to many other eyes, as well) for the first few times we would try to rehearse the song until we could finally get slightly numb to the meaning and begin to concentrate on the music and singing. I still love those pieces, i.e. Let Us Now Hold Hands, Emma, Testimony, Music In My Mother's House - to name a few of them. Then there are the songs that are satirical or funny and I enjoy singing them because I feel like laughing, watching the audience's reactions, i.e. Putting on the Blitz, Doing The Fundamental, How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away, My Computer's Down, - to name a few from this category. Then there are the just wonderful songs that are classical or magnificent or bluesy, or from other cultures.

MUSE: What do you do before rehearsal?

RW: Right before practice at this time in my life, I work late on Mondays so I am scrambling to finish my charting, then grabbing some leftover I brought for my supper which I eat in the car on my way to rehearsal, then I park quickly and run in so I am not any later.

MUSE: What do you do after rehearsal?

RW: On my way home from practice I find myself singing some part or all of a song that gets stuck in my mind from the rehearsal, whether or not I want to or even like the song that much. Sometimes it is because I love the song and sometimes it is because I can't get it out of my head.

MUSE: What do you listen to in the car?

RW: I listen to all types of music in my car - I love folk songs, I enjoy cultural music, especially music from Latin America or from Africa. I love classical music, and rock music, and music from the 60's. I like Enya and I also have learned to like the music from the present day from having children grow up in the last 2-3 decades. I like most kinds of music, minus a few. :-)

WCET originally planned to air the documentary on June 23rd, at the unusual timeslot of 12 am. Many of you wrote, emailed and called the station to express your dissatisfaction at this gem of a documentary not receiving the proper attention it deserved. The chance to be shown to as many people as possible in the tri-state area was paramount to our fans, and WCET responded to your call. Additional time slots were added in both HD and regular broadcast, and two webcasts with Catherine Roma (MUSE) and Patrick Coyle (CMC) about the documentary, and challenges that socially-conscious choirs face, also aired on cetconnect.org.

Prior to the June, Pride Month television airing, some of you attended the Cincinnati World Cinema/ MUSE/ OUTReels - sponsored, Midwest Premier. It was a lovely, April day at the Cincinnati Art Museum and the version of "Why We Sing" shown there also featured the Cincinnati Men's Chorus and its Director, Patrick Coyle.

We know that Cincinnatians shared in the pride as they watched their local choirs on WCET, and gained a better understanding of why we do sing; learning about the GLBT choral movement worldwide as an added benefit. We know we couldn't have done it without you.

DVDs of "Why We Sing" can be found on the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus website at: www.sfgmc.org

Top Row from Left: Brenda Wolfersberger (SII), Stephanie Spanja (SII), Danae Davis (SII), Sarah Kellner (SI), Candi Murdico (SII)

Bottom Row from Left: Krysta December (SII), Jennie Toner (SI), Katie Johnson (SII), Cicely Tutson (AI), Katie E. Johnson (SI)

These women chose to take the challenge and become a part of MUSE, and we the members of MUSE are honored to have their talents to add to our numbers.

!!! WELCOME !!!