PENINSULA WOMENS CHORUS
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Mission Statement
Mission Through the creation of diverse, dynamic and adventurous music, the Peninsula Women's Chorus strives to inspire and enrich its singers and audiences. The chorus is dedicated to excellence in the performance of choral music.
About This Cause
Who we are The Peninsula Women's Chorus (PWC) is a Palo Alto-based, 50-voice women's choir performing high-quality classical and contemporary music in the Bay Area and many parts of the world. Since its founding in 1966, the Peninsula Women's Chorus has been committed to excellence in the performance of diverse and challenging choral literature for women's voices, and is recognized as the premier vocal ensemble for women in the San Francisco Bay Area. The PWC has come to national and international attention through live performance and recordings and has added significantly to the choral literature by commissioning new music. The chorus inspires and enriches its audiences in the Bay Area through its concert series, its ongoing program of premiering new works, and its numerous collaborations with other performing groups. Unusual repertoire The PWC's commitment to performing new and interesting music has produced many works that have expanded women's choral literature and has also prompted the chorus's involvement in projects beyond the scope of the normal concert season. From 1982 to 1987, the PWC was involved in performing unique "vocal orchestra" music from a World War II women's internment camp in Sumatra, resulting in a beautiful documentary film, Song of Survival. In 1995, the PWC and music director Patricia Hennings performed Puccini's opera, Suor Angelica, with Palo Alto's West Bay Opera company. Collaboration and Outreach For more than 30 years, the PWC has not only brought outstanding performances to local audiences through its own concerts, but it has also drawn visiting choirs (women's, men's, and mixed) from around the world for joint events. Tours to the British Isles, Eastern and Western Europe, British Columbia, and Newfoundland have extended the PWC's impact beyond the United States and enlarged the chorus members' appreciation and knowledge of the music of other cultures. At the local level, the PWC collaborates with local musicians and other choral groups, such as the Golden Gate Men's Chorus, and since 2008 has collaborated on the annual New Music For Treble Voices Festival (NMFTV) with the San Francisco professional chorus Volti. This dynamic festival brings together treble voice choirs from around the Bay Area to perform new music together and for each other. The PWC encourages the next generation of singers by participating in the Women's Exchange Festival, a festival of young women's high school choruses, and through its Mentorship Program in which qualified high school women sing with the PWC for a season, culminating in a performance in the NMFTV. In 2000, a Poetry and Music Project brought together local elementary schoolchildren with the California Poets in the Schools and composers Brian Holmes, Ron Jeffers and Joan Szymko, who wrote nine new works based on poems written by the children. In the 2008 Poetry and Music project, the PWC partnered with Tapestry Arts of San Jose, Cantabile Youth Singers, and composer Karen Linford, resulting in three short pieces by Cantabile composers and a full commission by Linford using poems written by children. Grants, Honors and Awards In 2011, the PWC won second place in the American Prize for Choral Performance for its 2010 CD Nature Pictures. Also in 2011, the PWC was selected to participate in the Seghizzi International Competition of Choral Singing in Gorizia, Italy. The PWC's artistic excellence and leadership role in introducing new music to its audiences was acknowledged by a grant in 2009 from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, which recognizes performing organizations "whose artistic excellence encourages and improves public knowledge and appreciation of serious contemporary American music." In 2006, the PWC was awarded third place in the Béla Bartók 22nd International Choir Competition and Folklore Festival, women's division. Twice the PWC has received the prestigious ASCAP award for adventurous programming, most recently in June 2003, reflecting the excitement of performing challenging contemporary music from around the world.