The internationally renowned women’s chorus, VOX Femina Los Angeles led by Dr. Iris Levine, travels to Las Vegas to present American composer Andrea Ramsey’s Suffrage Cantata. They are joined in concert by UNLV’s treble voices ensemble, Argenta, led by Stephanie Council, , Las Vegas Academy's Bella Voz, led by Matthew Ostlie and Sebastian Garcia-Valle, and Desert Singers Las Vegas.

Andrea Ramsey’s Suffrage Cantata celebrates a critical achievement in the history of women’s rights, while shining a light that is often obscured on the injustices that women of color endured during the suffrage movement. The messages conveyed through this piece of history are as relevant as ever today.

This 40-minute cantata was commissioned by VOX Femina Los Angeles and a consortium of women’s choruses. It is written for women’s chorus, soloists, string quartet, two percussionists, piano, narrator, and accompanied by a rich multi-media production. The five movements of the piece tell the story of the U.S. Suffrage movement while examining diverse perspectives, which have notoriously been minimized in history. This piece is educational and impactful—both musically and historically.

Movements

1. It Is Coming: Early Women’s Right’s Perspectives
2. Failure Is Impossible: Illegal Voting, Arrest, & Trial of Susan B. Anthony
3. A Woman’s Place: Ida B. Wells-Barnett and the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Procession in Washington D.C.
4. Shall Not Be Denied: The Silent Sentinels, Arrest, Imprisonment & Abuse
5. Forward into Light: Ratification and the Journey Forward

Music and Lyrics

The music for the work is original, with the exception of a brief portion of movement 3, which quotes Fall in Line: Suffrage March by Zena S. Hawn. Published in 1914, it is quite possible this march was performed at or inspired by the 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. The entirety of the original sheet music to this march is available for free online through the Library of Congress digital collections, which include many other suffrage tunes as well. While movements 1 and 3 include some original lyrics, the bulk of the texts used in the work are historically sourced. The original lyrics of “one day the women got tired” provides a simple message as the women move forward in their various ways (e.g. Charlotte Woodward in her wagon, Sojourner Truth speaking at Broadway Tabernacle, Elizabeth Cady Stanton reading the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments.) The original lyrics in movement 3 were crafted to relay stories from Ida B. Wells’s autobiography Crusade for Justice as well as textbook accounts of the events within the Illinois delegation on the day of the 1913 parade in Washington D.C. Apart from these original lyrics, the rest of the texts were pulled from historical content: banner messages, programs, speeches, writings, and letters of suffragists.

Performance Notes

“This work is about a distinct moment in history, but it was also composed during a critical moment in history. The music and texts capture the struggle for suffrage among women who were separated by the color line, but united in an understanding of the importance of women having the capacity to participate as full and equal citizens. Just as the women involved in suffrage raised their voices, artists must also make their desires for a better world clear, and that is why we implore you to involve singers who embody the women characterized in this work as authentically as possible, so that audiences can connect to the conflicts and triumphs of the road to suffrage.”–Marcia Chatelain & Andrea Ramsey