Manitou Singers to perform Andrea Ramsey’s ‘Suffrage Cantata’
The Manitou Singers, conducted by Associate Professor of Music Therees Tkach Hibbard, will present a collaborative Spring concert titled “Lifting As We Climb, Forward Into Light” featuring Andrea Ramsey’s Suffrage Cantata.
The concert, which will be streamed and archived online, will begin at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, in Boe Memorial Chapel. It is free and open to the public, and St. Olaf alumni Sharon Trunnell Bonnet ’70 and Chris Bonnet ’70 provided generous support for the event.
The Manitou Singers will be joined by See Change Treble Choir, Maple Grove High School’s Voce, Northfield High School’s Uno Vox, St. Michael-Albertville High School’s Vivace, and Northfield Youth Choir’s Anima. The work will feature soprano soloist Coraine Tate Sharma ʼ13, be narrated by Maria Wilson, and accompanied by the Høyde String Quartet. Each guest ensemble will share an individual work and collaborate with the Manitou Singers on separate movements of the Suffrage Cantata.
“Deeply, deeply do I feel the degradation of being a woman. Not the degradation of being what God made woman, but what man has made her.”
Lydia Maria Child, in a letter to Angelina Grimké, 1838
Lydia Maria Child’s words open Ramsey’s Suffrage Cantata, an extended work with five movements for SSAA chorus, piano, string quartet, narration, soloists, and percussion that expresses the long road women have traversed to gain the right to vote. It was written in consortium for 26 treble-voiced music organizations spanning from high school choirs to professional ensembles — including St. Olaf College’s Manitou Singers.
“It’s not only artistically meaningful, but also deeply, humanly important that when we do a new work this significant, that amplifies the momentous, life-changing impacts these women made, we open it up to gathering voices of a variety of ages and the greater community, and also remind people that our work is not yet finished,” Hibbard says.
“This work is about a distinct moment in history, but it was also composed during a critical moment in history. The music and texts capture the struggle for suffrage among women who were separated by the color line, but united in an understanding of the importance of women having the capacity to participate as full and equal citizens. Just as the women involved in suffrage raised their voices, artists must also make their desires for a better world clear … so that audiences can connect to the conflicts and triumphs of the road to suffrage.”
Marcia Chatelain and Andrea Ramsey
Ramsey’s Suffrage Cantata is one of three pieces, including Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard and Rollo Dilworth’s Weather, in a larger research project currently being conducted by Temple University, Fisk University, and Westminster Choir College that studies rehearsals and performances of music centered on social justice themes. The students in Manitou Singers have spent much time reflecting on the Suffrage Cantata through workshops, recommended reading, small group discussions led by section leaders, and a blog where they can share their thoughts outside of their rehearsal time.
“I wanted them to have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the sacrifices it took for women to stand up for themselves and others. Some of the subject matter in the historic texts are difficult to listen to in our present day context. The scorn and violence endured by these women demanding the right to vote forced people to recognize that they deserved this right — and it also amplifies that not all women got it at once,” Hibbard says. “These singers are thoughtful in their approach to these words, and bring it to relevance in their own life. They’re not just reading about it and thinking about it, but they’re singing about it — so more of the true story is revealed.”
To honor the Suffrage Movement, the League of Women Voters will be on-site during the concert to register new voters for the 2024 presidential election. The concert program will include a QR code for the audience members to scan and gain more historical context for the lyrics, as well as several photographs of the suffragettes at the forefront of the Suffrage Movement. The event will also include remarks from St. Olaf College President Susan Rundell Singer.
The concert will act as a benefit event for Ruth’s House of Hope, Inc., a nonprofit organization in Faribault, Minnesota that provides housing in a safe, supportive, and healing environment for women and children in crisis.
The Manitou Singers are composed of alto and soprano voices from the first-year class, performing repertoire that ranges from sacred to secular to popular ballads — including another collaborative social justice-centered performance of Jodie Goble’s True Witness: A Civil Rights Cantata with St. Olaf Cantorei in the Spring of 2022. Hibbard serves as the conductor of the Manitou Singers and St. Olaf Chamber Singers.