West Coast Woman October 2020

focus on the arts
Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota and FST’s Suffragist Project Present:
WOMEN OF NOTE
A virtual celebration of female composers, female musicians, and
the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote
The celebration
includes Jenny Kim-
Godfrey, soprano,
Robyn Rocklein,
mezzo-soprano, Gail
Berenson and Lee
Dougherty Ross, piano
with Kate Alexander,
Ariel Blue and Meg
Gilbert. Hosted by
Marcy Miller. It will
be available online
October 1-12. It was
originally to have been
a live performance
this summer as part
of Florida Studio
Theatre’s Suffragist
Project. Now
it’s gone
digital.
Jenny Kim-Godfrey
Gail Berenson
Robyn Rocklein
Lee Dougherty Ross
Artist Series Concerts of
Sarasota presents, in partnership
with Florida Studio
Theatre’s Suffragist
Project, “Women of Note,”
a virtual celebration of female artists
and composers in commemoration of
the 100th anniversary of the passage of
women’s right to vote.
The video production, professionally
filmed at Church of the Palms,
features soprano Jenny Kim-Godfrey,
mezzo-soprano Robyn Rocklein,
pianists Gail Berenson and Artist Series
Concerts co-founder Lee Dougherty
Ross, performing works by Fanny
Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Amy
Beach and Marion Bauer.
Women of Note is hosted by Marcy
Miller, executive director of Artist
Series Concerts, and also features
cameo appearances by actors Ariel
Blue and Meg Gilbert, reading letters
and writings by key figures in the
women’s suffrage movement. Kate
Alexander, Associate Director At-Large
for Florida Studio Theatre and Suffragist
Project Director, offers commentary and
historical perspective.
The performance will be available for
viewing online from October 1 through
October 12. Tickets are $15 and will be
available at www.ArtistSeriesConcerts.
org during those same dates. Patrons
will receive a link and password to the
video that will be available for online
viewing anytime during that time.
In the classical music world, the [last]
names Mendelssohn and Schumann
usually evoke the first names Felix
and Robert, two great composers of
the 19th century. But Felix Mendelssohn’s
older sister, Fanny Mendelssohn,
and Robert Schumann’s wife, Clara
Schumann, were each brilliant musicians
and composers in their own right.
“Florida Studio Theatre’s Suffragist
Project provided us with the perfect
vehicle to present works by Fanny and
Clara plus two other formidable but
often overlooked female talents, Amy
Beach, the first composer to have a symphony
performed by a major orchestra
in 1896, and Marion Bauer, a contemporary
of Aaron Copland and a key figure
in the shaping of 20th-century American
music,” says Joseph Holt, director
of artist programs for Artist Series
Concerts. “I chose these four mainly for
the musical qualities of their work and
suitability for this program,” adds Holt.
“And while none of the four wrote anything
specifically about the Suffragette
movement, it is still a model sampling
of women who were creating, and
beautifully, over the course of the entire
women’s suffrage movement.”
The musical portion of the program
is performed by noted area sopranos
Jenny Kim-Godfrey and Robyn Rocklein,
and by pianists Gail Berenson and
Artist Series Concerts co-founder Lee
Dougherty Ross. Interspersed throughout
the program, which consists of 16
songs and one piano solo, is illuminating
commentary by Suffragist Project Director
Kate Alexander and readings of
Abigail Adams and Sojourner Truth by
FST actors Ariel Blue and Meg Gilbert.
When the resurgence of coronavirus
cases scuttled plans for a live performance
of Women of Note this July, it was
clear to both Holt and Alexander that
the show would have to go on, virtually.
“The result has been a wonderful
collaboration between us and Florida
Studio Theatre, seven fine area artists
and everyone else involved in putting
this video presentation together,” says
Holt. “We’ve given voice to the certainly
notable work of some extraordinary
‘women of note.’”
TICKET INFO:
The performance will be
available for viewing online from
October 1 through October 12.
Tickets are $ 15 and will be
available at
www.ArtistSeriesConcerts.org
during those same dates.
Patrons will receive a link and
password to the video that will
be available for online viewing
anytime during that time.
OCTOBER 2020 WEST COAST WOMAN 23