Melodia Women's Choir of New York City, conducted by Artistic Director Cynthia Powell, concludes its ninth season of bringing rarely heard music for women’s voices to choral audiences with “Colors of the Sun,” a spirited concert bursting with the joy and vitality of summer days and featuring Many-Colored Brooms, a work by Johannes Somary (1925-2011). This rarely heard, evocative composition for women’s voices, flute/piccolo, viola, and piano takes its name from the opening line of Emily Dickinson’s poem “She sweeps with many-colored Brooms,” and is inspired by the powerful imagery, feminist spirit, and playful tone of Dickinson’s work.

Also featuring the poetry of Emily Dickinson is It sounded as if the Streets were running, a composition by the contemporary British choral and opera composer Jonathan Dove that captures the swelling energy of a summer storm. Additional program works include O Virtus Sapientiae, a radiant and meditative piece by Seattle-based conductor and composer Karen P. Thomas on a text by Hildegard von Bingen, the soaring Magnificat by R. Vaughan Williams, the beautiful Six Songs for Female Chorus by Sergei Rachmaninoff, and beginning and ending compositions, from the celebrated and prolific Estonian composer Veljo Tormis, Suveöö (Summer Night) and Lauliku lapsepoli (The Songster’s Childhood).

Composers
Johannes Somary, Veljo Tormis, R. Vaughn Williams, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Karen P. Thomas, Jonathan Dove