Sing for Justice at EMU
by Liza Calisesi Maidens
ACDA-MIchigan Women’s Choirs R&R Chair
Greetings, Michigan Choral Musicians!
My name is Liza Calisesi Maidens and I am new to the Board as of August 2017. I served as Concerts Chair this past fall at the ACDA-MI Conference and was pleased to get to know many of you in attendance. In a short amount of time I’ve experienced such a warm, inviting welcome from choral community throughout Michigan – it’s joy to make music in this state. If we haven’t met yet, I do hope to meet you at an upcoming conference or concert soon. Please say hi!
Since moving to Michigan in the summer of 2015 I’ve had the privilege of working alongside of Dr. Brandon Johnson at Eastern Michigan University, where I conduct the University Women’s Choir and EMU Express, a small vocal jazz ensemble. In addition to my work at EMU, I am also the Assistant Conductor of the Detroit Concert Choir, the Director of Music/Organist at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Plymouth, and sing in Sounding Light, a professional choral ensemble under the direction of Tom Trenney.
Today, I’d like to take the opportunity to share an event that Brandon and I hosted this past fall at EMU in collaboration with ACDA-MI. Sing for Justice, Michigan! was an interdisciplinary event that called for musicians, artists, and scholars from across the state to consider carefully the role of the artist/scholar as ambassadors for change on social issues. We invited local universities, high schools, community ensembles, non-profit organizations, guest musicians, and speakers to take part in a one-day event evaluating our role as artists and how we respond to injustice. We were thrilled to host renowned composer and arranger Stacey Gibbs as our guest conductor and singer-songwriter Shara Nova from the band My Brightest Diamond as a guest presenter. There were a variety of festival choir rehearsals intermixed with panel discussions, guest speakers, and performances all which shed light on state, national, and international injustices.
I believe this type of programing, and the conversations that follow, is how we may come to make some of our best, most pivotal music in the 21st century. While this was the first year EMU has presented an event of this kind, we do hope it’s the first of many. Dr. Joe Miller, conductor of the Westminster Choir (and former Michigander!) once said, “The days of standing in a semi-circle and singing for an hour or two are over!” True or not, this idea gives us something else to consider when crafting our concerts.
Attached to this post is the Sing for Justice, Michigan! program booklet. I hope you will peruse the materials and perhaps find something helpful and relevant to you in your own work. For copyright purposes I excluded the festival choir sheet music. However, I invite you to be in touch for more information or visit the Justice Choir facebook page or website, a resource we used when selecting music for the event.
Click here to download the Sing for Justice Program Booklet (PDF).
