Joy and resilience: Santa Fe Women's Ensemble gives voice to uplifting pieces

The Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble will sing songs of joy and resilience on Sunday, April 14, and April 21.

Slated for Santa Fe’s First Presbyterian Church, the concert will feature songs from the 12th century as well as more contemporary sounds.

The program of uplifting pieces encourages listeners to stay strong in the face of adversity and tap into the joy within. The musical styles will range from lush harmonies to rhythmic extravaganzas.

“Each musical selection came from a time of hardship and challenge,” said music director Linda Raney.

Hildegard von Bingen lived from circa 1098-1179, when women’s lives were restricted to marriage or the church. Known as the first woman composer, she became a German Benedictine abbess and polymath who was active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages. She expressed her unique poetic voice in “Caritas Abundat (Charity abounds toward all, most exalted from the depths).”

“In the church, she’s able to use her musical gifts,” Raney said.

Abbie Betinis’ “aural origami” drives “A Blessing of Cranes.”

“It was inspired by a young women injured by Hiroshima in 1945,” Raney said. “She was in her early teen years when she developed leukemia. A friend visited her and brought her a paper gold-painted origami crane. Legend has it if you fold 1,000 you get a wish. She wished they would write ‘peace’ on their wings and fly over the world.”

Philip Silvey’s “Colorful” opens with “Be colorful, Be brave, Once in a while misbehave (a little), Be colorful, please do be colorfully you.”

The composer teaches at the Eastman School of Music.

The ensemble also will perform their commissioned piece, “The Voyage” by Linda Studley and Canadian composer Marie-Claire Saindon, in a world premiere.

“It’s a very inspiring piece,” Raney said. “The music fits the text so well. We did some music of hers during the pandemic. She had a beautiful setting of words for the Virgin Mary by three poets.”

The ensemble will be joined by Dana Winograd on cello, Diana Sharpe on percussion, Dave Anderson on flute and pianist Bill Epstein.