Empowerment Through Music

Empowerment Through Music 2023:

How do we empower ourselves and others when we are frustrated with an increasingly bleak reality? How do we continue to believe in love and care when inhuman acts of violence and greed drown out hope? The Cornell Chorus’ 2023 Empowerment through Music event centers around a recently premiered project: “Freedom on the Move, Songs in Flight.” Basing their music on the Cornell-founded “Freedom on the Move” database (the largest crowdsourced database of fugitive slave advertisements in North America), composers and performers including Shawn Okpebholo, Mason Bynes, Tsitsi Ella Jaji, Rhiannon Giddens, and more collaborated to weave narratives from the source material to sound out liberation and re-humanization of people escaping enslavement.

On March 3rd and 4th, Bynes and countertenor Reginald Mobley will be visiting campus to speak about the project, perform selections, and work with students. Mobley will give a solo voice masterclass on Friday, March 3rd in Barnes Hall. On March 4th at 7pm in Barnes Hall the Chorus and Glee Club will perform Bynes' Three Dialogues, Mobley will perform solo selections, and the evening will culminate with a roundtable discussion about the project with Bynes, Mobley, Professor Martha Guth (professor of voice at Ithaca College and co-founder of the project), and Professor Ed Baptist (professor of History at Cornell and co-founder of the Freedom on the Move database).

For more information, visit https://www.sparksandwirycries.org/songs-in-flight.

Empowerment Through Music 2022: Karen Slack

Hailed for possessing a voice of extraordinary beauty, a seamless legato and great dramatic depth, American soprano Karen Slack has garnered international renown for her artistic versatility, charisma and entrepreneurial endeavors. A recipient of the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, Slack is known for her dynamic and passionate performances in both lead operatic roles and on the concert stage; as a sought-after collaborator, curator, and artistic advisor; and for her ground-breaking approach to engagement. She is an Artistic Advisor for Portland Opera, Co-Chair of the Women's Opera Network with Opera America, and serves on the board of the American Composer’s Orchestra. In January 2022, Slack was appointed Creative Partner with Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, opening with a solo recital and continuing through multiple programs throughout the season.

Empowerment Through Music 2021: Dr. Melissa Dunphy

Composer Melissa Dunphy specializes in political, vocal, and theatrical music. She first came to national attention when her large-scale work the Gonzales Cantata was featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, National Review, Fox News, and on The Rachel Maddow Show. Other notable works include the song cycle Tesla’s Pigeon, which won first place in the NATS Art Song Composition Award, and choral work What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach? which won the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Competition and has been performed nationally by ensembles including Chanticleer and Cantus. Dunphy is the recipient of a 2020 Opera America Discovery Grant for Alice Tierney, a new opera commission by Oberlin Conservatory set to premiere in 2023. She has been composer-in-residence for the Immaculata Symphony Orchestra, Volti, and the St. Louis Chamber Chorus, and her commissions include works for VOCES8, Mendelssohn Chorus, and the Kennett Symphony. Dunphy is also a Barrymore Award-nominated theater composer and is Director of Music Composition for the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference. Dunphy has a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.M. from West Chester University and is on faculty at Rutgers University. More at www.melissadunphy.com.

Empowerment Through Music 2020: Lindsay Pope*

Lindsay Pope is the Visiting Director of Choral Activities at Williams College. She recently completed her doctorate in choral conducting at the University of North Texas, where she directed Concert Choir and University Singers. She was also Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Chorus, for which her work as chorusmaster was praised as “exemplary and well-prepared” (Texas Classical Review).

From 2011 to 2016, Lindsay served as Director of Choral Ensembles and Lecturer in Music at Mount Holyoke College, where she conducted the Glee Club, Chorale, and Chamber Singers, and taught undergraduate conducting. Under her direction, the ensembles participated in tours to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, released a commercial CD, and performed at the American Choral Directors Association’s 2016 Eastern Division Conference. Lindsay was also active as Reading and Standards Chair for Women’s Choirs for the Massachusetts branch of ACDA. She has appeared as a choral clinician for area children’s choruses and district choirs in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Lindsay is passionate about exposing her students to choral music from a variety of genres, eras, and particularly cultures. She has traveled to Corsica and the Republic of Georgia with Village Harmony to study and perform traditional folk songs and chant.

Lindsay is a mezzo-soprano and was as a frequent concert soloist with North Texas’s early music program. Recent performances include Bach’s St. John Passion and chamber music at the Boston Early Music Festival. Other notable performances include as mezzo soloist for the Duruflé Requiem for the Dallas Symphony Chorus’s Scando-Baltic Tour and as an alto soloist in Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms at the Spoleto Festival, conducted by Joseph Flummerfelt. Lindsay is also active as a choral musician. She sings with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Grammy-affiliated True Concord, and the Handel and Haydn Society.

Lindsay has a master’s in choral conducting from Westminster Choir College and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Mount Holyoke College. While at Mount Holyoke, Lindsay directed the V-8’s, the nation’s oldest continuing female a cappella group.

*This event was cancelled after the university’s transition to virtual instruction in March 2020.

Empowerment Through Music 2019: Bishop Chantel Wright

Pastor Wright has been involved with music since the age of 3, beginning in the Sunbeam Choir. She opened the doors of Pneuma Ministries International Church in Harlem in 2010.

In addition to being a pastor, she also serves the world community through her gift of music. A graduate of VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, Illinois, Chantel is the founder and artistic director of Songs of Solomon: An Inspirational Ensemble, as well as a consultant for Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute, the Metropolitan Opera, New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Center for Arts Education. In addition to the work that she does as a consultant, she is a member of the faculty at New York University in the Steinhardt School of Music and is a highly sought after choral clinician, nationally and internationally. She brings 25 years of choral music experience to the table.

Empowerment Through Music 2018: Caroline Shaw

Caroline Adelaide Shaw is a New York-based musician—vocalist, violinist, composer, and producer—who performs in solo and collaborative projects. She is the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, for Partita for 8 Voices, written for the Grammy-winning Roomful of Teeth, of which she is a member. Recent commissions include new works for the Dover Quartet, the Calidore Quartet, the Aizuri Quartet, FLUX Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Anne Sofie von Otter, The Crossing, Roomful of Teeth, yMusic, ACME, ICE, A Far Cry, Philharmonia Baroque, the Baltimore Symphony, and Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. In the 2017–18 season, Caroline’s new works will be premiered by Renée Fleming with Inon Barnatan, Dawn Upshaw with Sō Percussion and Gil Kalish, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with John Lithgow, the Britten Sinfonietta, TENET with the Metropolis Ensemble, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, and Luciana Souza with A Far Cry. Future seasons will include a new piano concerto for Jonathan Biss with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and a new work for the LA Phil. Caroline’s scoring of visual work includes the soundtrack for the feature film To Keep the Light as well as collaborations with Kanye West. She studied at Yale, Rice, and Princeton, and she has held residencies at Dumbarton Oaks, the Banff Centre, Music on Main, and the Vail Dance Festival. Caroline loves the color yellow, otters, Beethoven opus 74, Mozart opera, Kinhaven, the smell of rosemary, and the sound of a janky mandolin.

Empowerment Through Music 2017: Maggie Wheeler

Maggie Wheeler is best know in the U.S. and internationally for her work as an actress in film, television and voice-over and most notably as the character of Janice on NBC’s hit series Friends. She is also a singer/songwriter/choir director and workshop facilitator and has been teaching her vocal workshop "Singing In The Stream" in and out of Los Angeles for the past 20 years.

She co-founded The Golden Bridge Community Choir in Los Angeles, now in its 11th year, with the belief that the joy of singing is a universal birthright, and that together, regardless of musical background, we can help improve the world by joining our voices in song.
 
Maggie’s workshops provide the experience of creating interpersonal harmony and internal harmony through the powerful act of creating vocal harmony. Through the creation of song, harmony and rhythm, participants become inspired, energized and connected to one another. The physical act of singing together creates a sense of wellbeing that lasts way beyond the moment.

Empowerment Through Music 2016: Dr. Jeannette M. Perez-Rossello, MD

Dr. Perez-Rossello is a Pediatric Radiologist at Children’s Hospital Boston and Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. Her clinical focus is musculoskeletal imaging, and her primary research interest lies in the imaging evaluation of child abuse. 

Dr. Perez-Rossello holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biology and Society from Cornell University College of Human Ecology. She received her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and completed her radiology and pediatric radiology fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She has served as Chair of the Child Abuse Committee of The Society for Pediatric Radiology.

As a Cornell alumna she serves as Chair of the Presidents Council of Cornell Women, member of the Human Ecology Alumni Board, member of the Cornell Council Administrative Board and  member of Quill & Dagger. She is married to Paul Hayre ’91 and has three children.

Empowerment Through Music 2015: Jan Rock Zubrow

Jan Rock Zubrow is one of Cornell’s many successful and influential female leaders. As a key leader on the Board of Trustees of Cornell University since joining the Board in 1998, Ms. Zubrow is currently the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and recently chaired the Presidential Search Committee for Cornell’s thirteenth president, Elizabeth Garrett. Ms. Rock Zubrow also serves as co-chair of the Cornell Tech Task Force, which is responsible for overseeing the creation of Cornell’s new tech campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City. Previously, she served as Co-Chair of Cornell’s “Far Above” Capital Campaign. She is a member of the Board Membership, Finance and Academic Affairs committees. Ms. Rock Zubrow was a founding member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) and served as Chair of PCCW from 1997-1999.

Ms. Rock Zubrow is the incoming Chair of the Board for Women for Women International, an organization that provides female survivors of war with vocational and life skills through twelve month training programs. She also serves on the board of New Leaders for New Schools, an organization that trains educators to be transformational school principals, to bridge achievement gaps in inner city schools. She also heads non-profit organizations active in K-12 and high education and international development.

In 1998, Ms. Rock Zubrow founded MedCapital LLC, a venture capital firm that invests in early stage healthcare companies. She served as President until 2010.

Prior to founding MedCapital, Ms. Rock Zubrow was Vice President of Women’s Health at Johnson & Johnson and was responsible for expanding their two billion-dollar franchise in women’s pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer products. Earlier in her career, Ms. Rock Zubrow managed significant consumer franchises at Tambrands, Inc. and the Procter and Gamble Company.

Ms. Rock Zubrow graduated from Cornell with a B.A. in Economics in 1977, and went on to receive her M.B.A. from Harvard.            

At the Empowerment Through Music event on March 6th, Jan Rock Zubrow gave incredible insight into her vast experience and success in the workforce. She offered informed advice to the audience about life, business and personal wellbeing. Her discussion about women’s empowerment and leadership was very well-received and inspired members of the Chorus as well as many other Cornellians who attended. The Chorus is extremely proud to have hosted such a successful event and we are excited for next year’s event in the Empowerment Through Music speaker series.