In our choir, the voices of men and women have been beautifully balanced for 35 years. That the voice of women is heard, however, was not always a matter of course - and unfortunately it still is not everywhere. But even if it takes time, her flow will not be contained, and forms the stone bedding to her will. This is why we pay tribute to the power of women.
We embraced female wisdom: songs by Hildegard von Bingen and Tadeja Vulc on this theme formed the opening and closing of the concert. We celebrated women who wrote music in times when composing was considered men's work. And yet the patron saint of music is a woman: St. Cecilia. She inspired Benjamin Britten, in the middle of World War II, to write a hymn that we are performing. During that same war, women in a Japanese internment camp found their strength in singing together. Based on their memories of the Largo from Antonín Dvořák's "From the New World," two British women created an arrangement for female voices that still moves today.
In honor of our seventh anniversary, we treated our audience to an interlude by the powerful women of the professional Leiden collective DansBlok. They danced part of their new performance Ballen los, an ode to female strength and vulnerability.
The highlight of our concert was a new composition commissioned by Frieda Gustavs for the Leiden Chamber Choir: ZAN. The text of the composition was written by choir member and writer Heidi Aalbrecht. She has beautifully woven together various elements surrounding the power of women.The title is taken from the freedom slogan Zan, zendegi, azadi of Iranian women demonstrating against the regime. The result was wonderful and will have its world premiere at our concert.
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