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MUSICAL PROJECTS

French Songs of the Season

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In April of 2019 the Notre-Dame Cathedral, a landmark of Parisienne society, went up in flames.  Locals watched in horror as their religious and historic "heart" burned - then the crowd spontaneously began to sing hymns in response to the ongoing tragedy.  In addition to having religious meaning, the fact that the community burst into song was especially fitting as Notre-Dame has played a huge role in the development of Western Classical music starting in the 1160’s.  It’s due to this institution, and the clergymen composers it housed, that we have the type of complex music that exists today.

 

Inspired by both the emotional reaction and historical significance, Hats + Heels came together for their Rochester, NY debut to perform “French Songs of the Seasons.” This all French concert explored the musical and cultural significance of Notre Dame through text, poetry, and imagery. 

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Piece

Gabriel Faure

French Songs of the Season Artwork

Women Are…

 

2020 marked the 200th anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s birth and the 100th year since the passing of the 19th Amendment supporting women’s right to vote.  In essence, it was the year to celebrate women. With that in mind, Hats + Heels decided to develop an all-female and non-binary commissioning project. Together, we collaborated with artists to create new interdisciplinary bassoon and harp repertoire that incorporates women-related figures, characters, topics, or ideology.

 

Across the span of two years we collaborated with composers Ellie CherryAmy NamEsther Swift , Yi-Ning LoAngela SlaterKalia Vandever and Anna Heflin to create new works. The repertoire explores the coming of age story of Alice in Wonderland, social movements of French feminists with lack of gender neutral grammar, poetry of Lola Ridge exploring historic oppression, English suffragettes, Hawaiian goddesses, dreamscapes, and being driven mad by love. In these works, our composers have fully embraced our mission, developing interdisciplinary repertoire by utilizing music boxes, pre-recorded sounds, speech, dancers, and even morse code.  We combined these works with existing pieces by Megan Bledsoe-Ward (describing women in politics) and Florence Price (exploring dreams and motherhood) for virtual and live performances through-out 2020-2022.

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A CD recording was developed from a selection of these stories titled “Women Are…A Reflection and Celebration of Women’s Challenges, Persistence and Growth published in 2022. 

Nevertheless

Megan Bledsoe Ward

Women Are...Part 2

Livestream Concert, 2021

WOMEN ARE... Artwork

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