Spotlight: Belle Canto carries on tradition of spotlighting women

Elizabeth Goldstein believes the heartbeats of singers synchronize. The founder and artistic director of Belle Canto felt it. In 2011, two months after her husband’s death, the chorus sang “Sing me to Heaven” at a concert at St. Boniface church. She describes the performance as a perfect moment; she says she felt as if there was a string connecting each singer to her. The power of music is what she thinks keeps her going through difficult times.

Goldstein says the theme of  Women’s History Month, which Belle Canto’s next concert celebrates Sunday, is women of character, courage and commitment. Goldstein fits that mission.

Goldstein didn’t plan to found Belle Canto in 2009. The idea for the group sprouted out of her work as director of music and organist at First Methodist. Goldstein led the women of her church choir in a French piece written for women’s voices. The performance went over well enough that an audience member prompted the idea: Goldstein should start a women’s ensemble. When Goldstein learned there was no adult group doing strictly women’s compositions, she founded Belle Canto, which means “beautiful singing” in Italian.

Today, the group has 20-plus auditioned singers who sing everything from sacred music to contemporary composers and classical to the blues. Some women are also members of Gloria Musicae and Key Chorale — two other notable choruses in the area.

So, given its history, performing a concert for Women’s History Month made sense. Belle Canto is an all-female chorus headed by a female artistic director, after all. In 2012, the chorus began the tradition of a Women’s History Month-themed concert. Belle Canto performs “Singspiration III: And then there was Music” Sunday to continue the tradition. This year’s concert will celebrate female poets whose words have inspired composers to set music to them.

“I think celebrating women in music is a little like women breaking through that glass ceiling,” Goldstein says.

In her opinion, music written for women’s voices is a fairly recent development compared with the hundreds of years music has been written for both sexes. She’s noticed an increase in her 20-plus years directing choral ensembles in the amount of text specifically for women.

Gwyneth Walker is one of the composers creating these works. She’s worked with the chorus in previous years. Walker also sits on the chorus’s advisory board and has worked with the Key Chorale and Sarasota Orchestra’s Brass Quintet. The chorus will sing a series of her songs in the upcoming concert. Her songs were inspired by female poet May Swenson.

The emphasis of this concert is certainly on the X chromosome. Sarasota Young Voices, the locally based all-female youth chorus, will also perform songs in the program. Georgia Court, owner of Bookstore1Sarasota and founder of PoetryLife, will do readings of the poetry used in the songs between performances.

In accordance with the concert, members of Belle Canto have participated in a four-week mentoring program under Geneviève Beauchamp (founder of Sarasota Young Voices) with the Boys and Girls Club. They are teaching 10 girls a piece Sarasota Young Voices is singing in the concert, in the hopes that they will perform alongside them.

“We’re trying to give back to young girls a positive image and let them know what it is to sing together,” Goldstein says.

And, the program doesn’t exclude males. The chorus will also sing arrangements by composer Kevin Memley, who was inspired by poets Sara Teasedale and Ysaye Barnwell. Principal Keyboard of Sarasota Orchestra Jonathan Spivey and the locally based string quartet Chroma Quartet will accompany the performance.

“Our mission is to celebrate and share a passionate celebration of women’s voices,” Goldstein says.

IF YOU GO 
‘Singspiration III: And then there was Music’
When: 7 p.m. Sunday, March 9
Where: First United Methodist Church, 104 S. Pineapple Ave.
Cost: $10 donation
Info: Call 955-0935 or visit firstsrq.com/music/fine-arts-series