Listen closely. You will hear her past, her present, and her future. You will hear her joy, her fear, her love, her pain, and her hope. With Voca Lyrica, you will hear dedicated women, powerful advocates ,and faithful friends—the voices of women singing. From humble yet dedicated beginnings, Voca Lyrica has grown to include 45 singers for this concert. We are a diverse group—young and old, mothers
and daughters, old friends and new friends, formally trained, naturally gifted—all joined together in a sisterhood, with the common bond of sharing our love for vocal music with our community. The goal of two concerts per year has expanded with the size of the choir. As we mark this significant note in our musical journey, we are grateful to those who have joined us in concert: Traverse City Central HS Vocal Majority, The United Voices of Detroit, Con Brio Voce Brass Quintet, The Lakewood Choral Society, The Tyner Chorale, The MSU Women’s Ensemble, The OSU Women’s Choir, The CMU Women’s Chorus, Trillium, Carillon, The Oakland Singers, The U of M Women’s Glee Club, and Tuba Bach. Voca Lyrica has sung its way around the world from New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to the world famous Sydney Opera House. A 2011 trip found Voca Lyrica in Europe, singing in the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany. In 2014, the ladies toured the British Isles, visiting and singing in Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland. More recently, we toured Eastern Europe, singing along in the Danube River in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary, with additional stops in Croatia and Slovenia . In 2018, we sang at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and in 2019, we look forward to our residency with Sandra Snow at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. During all of this time, our founding artistic director has continued to stretch our abilities and expand our range. We have sung in multiple additional languages: Latin, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Iroquois. We have learned a jazz mass, spirituals, gospel, sea chanties, Christmas carols, show tunes, the list goes on and on. We have sung in traditional concert format, and we have produced three cabarets complete with dinner and entertainment. Our fourth Cabaret is scheduled for April 6, 2019. As proud as we are of all these accomplishments, two other efforts take center stage for us, both involving the younger generation. One is our provision of an annual scholarship to a deserving high school student who wishes to further his or her vocal training. Our endowed scholarship fund with the Mecosta County Community Foundation now ensures this will continue. And our incubation of the Treblemakers Youth Choir demonstrates our commitment to vocal music opportunities for youth of our community. What does the future hold for Voca Lyrica? Certainly, the promise of more musical explorations here and abroad. Ask any member of Voca Lyrica why she joined, and the answers will differ. But at the roots of all responses will be the idea that music matters, that it is part of our individual and collective soul.
“We sing because music is an integral part of who each of us is, whether our musical roots are in church choir singing or our musical life was awakened and nurtured at our mother or father’s knee. We sing of our faith, our hope, and our love for God and for one another. We sing our sisterhood with all women, celebrating our strength and resilience, and rejoicing in the essential roles that women play in our ever-changing world. We sing our motherhood and the role that women play in the circle of life. Can you imagine a life without music? Neither can we. We sing because we are.”
