Customer Spotlight: Seattle Women's Chorus

The chorus kicked off their program with "Quiet" followed by other works such as "This Land is Your Land," "Wake Me Up!" arranged by Deke Sharon, and "In Your Hands (Where Do Human Rights Begin?)" with words by Eleanor Roosevelt/Eric Bartlett and music by Abbie Betinis.

After intermission, the Northwest Girlchoir performed a series of songs on their own such as "We Shall Not Give Up the Fight," a South African freedom song, and "One Voice."

Then, something special happened: both choruses performed an arrangement of 15-year-old Isolde Fair's "To All the Little Girls."  

For context, the lyrics to this song were taken directly from Hillary Clinton's concession speech and read as follows:

"And to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams."

Isolde, only 13 at the time of writing this song, felt that the song needed an extra verse so she actually composed her own lyrics inspired by Clinton's speech:

"Never change about who you are, invincible and confident. Leading to a deeper plan, possibilities coming true."

The Seattle Women's Chorus was so inspired by Isolde's music that they not only arranged her piece but flew her to Seattle to perform it live with the chorus. The chorus had anticipated performing this song on their own. But unexpectedly, during SWC's final rehearsal of the piece, the Northwest Girlchoir started singing along. This unplanned sing-along prompted Seattle Women's Chorus to add the Northwest Girlchoir on that piece for the concert. 

"During the performance, the Northwest Girlchoir came down cathedral aisles singing and carrying protest signs from the march," Halie says. "It was a really powerful moment. We did five performances and the audience leapt to their feet every single time!"

Community Outreach & Impact 

Outside of their inspiring performances, the Seattle Women's Chorus participates in a variety of community outreach projects. They partner with a local middle school for six weeks where SWC members volunteer to attend the choir class with the students. This allows the middle school students the opportunity to work with adult singers who help model good rehearsal and practice etiquette. At the end of the six weeks, the students perform together with SWC on stage at the opera house for an annual children's concert.

Last year, Seattle Women's Chorus also partnered with Women for Women International, an organization that helps address "the social and economic empowerment of marginalized women" across the world. At their concert, SWC raised $17,000 to support this organization!

The chorus's performances themselves leave a lasting impact on their audiences and community. Halie says, "Anytime queer people are visible and not 'othered,' it has an impact. There's always someone in the audience who hasn't seen [a queer] interaction and when they do, they realize it is very normal."

Next Up for SWC

Next up, Seattle Women's Chorus and Seattle Men's Chorus will partner with The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Rainbow City Band to march in Seattle's Pride Parade. In the coming season, they will perform a song entitled "Quite Regularly Gay" featuring text from Gertrude Stein's "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" which is believed to be the first piece of literature to openly reference the word "gay" throughout. And for their 15th-anniversary concert, they'll be performing their "Hear Me Roar" concert highlighting multiple decades of women's rock music.

To learn more about the Seattle Women's Chorus, visit their website, "like" them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.

Thank you to Halie Looper and the Seattle Women's Chorus for working on this piece with Chorus Connection!