Brattleboro Women's Chorus 20th Anniversary Concert

The Brattleboro Women’s Chorus honors 20 years of singing together with two concerts and a twentieth anniversary CD release celebration the weekend before Thanksgiving. Founder/conductor Becky Graber will lead over 100 women in a repertoire of chorus favorites with Cathy Martin on piano.

Songs in the concerts will include several from the first session of chorus in the fall of 1996, such as Bernice Johnson Reagon’s “I Remember, I Believe.” Other songs are Ysaye Maria Barnwell’s “Breaths,” Bobby McFerrin’s “Twenty-third Psalm,” and Holly Near’s “1000 Grandmothers.” “When Harvesting Arugula” is a piece that was composed for the chorus from words written by chorus member Becky Karush when she worked at Walker Farm; it will be performed and is also on the new CD.

Over the course of the 20 years of the chorus’s existence, nearly 700 women and girls have been a part of making music together, gathering weekly to learn, laugh and harmonize. Graber’s method of teaching music, mostly by ear and by rote, is both challenging and accepting of all singers, regardless of experience. And her song choices are ones that speak to the heart and stay there a long while.

The concerts are Saturday, November 21 at 7:00 pm and Sunday, November 22 at 3:00 pm, both at the First Baptist Church on Main Street. Tickets for the concert are available at the door, $10 adult, $15 generous, $8 senior and student.

Immediately following the Sunday concert, fans of the chorus are invited to a gala CD release celebration across the street at the River Garden. The CD is entitled “A Garden of Our Own” and represents favorite songs from concerts over the past 20 years and the support of many local heroes. It was mixed and mastered by sound technician Julian McBrowne, a painting by Donald Saaf graces the outer cover, and photos of the chorus by Jeff Woodward enhance the inside. And finally, the CD features many local musicians, with instrumental tracks by Lisa McCormick, Anna Patton, Alki Steriopoulos, Susan Dedell, Cathy Martin, and Peter Siegel. The CD will be for sale at the concerts and at the River Garden celebration for $15.