Concert: East Wing Songs

530 Tuscarawas Street West,Canton OH 44702

14 October, 2022

Description

Classical song literature has often presented women as they relate to men. The same may be said of the First Ladies of our nation. East Wing Songs seeks to humanize the first ladies of the United States through song and to use music to share their stories and memorialize their achievements and challenges as women. This project was inspired by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Iconic Legacies: First Ladies at the Smithsonian and intends to provide song for the other amazing women often overlooked by history. For this first volume of songs, composer Leanna Kirchoff selected women that span time, age, political party, and approach to their role within the White House. Texts have been adapted from primary sources when possible, including letters, speeches, biographies, interviews, and diaries. For women who were more reclusive, or destroyed their correspondence and personal effects, we have created “historical fiction” dialogue based on what we know from first-hand accounts of the women as witnessed by their families, friends, president spouses, and the staff of the White House. Volume I will include songs for Martha Dandridge Washington, Margaret Smith Taylor, Frances Folsom Cleveland, Ida Saxton McKinley, and Rosalynn Smith Carter and have its world premiere in collaboration with the National First Ladies' Library in Canton, Ohio. The lecture recital for 2022 will include the Heggie set as well as the lecture recital premiere of the East Wing Songs. The performers, Dr. Ann Marie Wilcox-Daehn and Dr. Elizabeth Avery are long-time collaborators committed to sharing interesting art song, collaborating with living composers, and creating art that educates and inspires.