“Banned!” That was the succinct title of VOX Femina Los Angeles’ concert on Sunday, March 23, at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. The program, conceived and conducted by the 42-member female choir’s founding artistic director, Iris S. Levine, could not have been more perfectly timed as libraries across the country take books off the shelves at the direction of government administrations, politicized school boards, and the like.
Part concert, part call to action, the performance featured a succession of contemporary choral compositions inspired by works of literature that have been either banned or subjected to censorship. Throughout the afternoon, Levine kept up a running narrative that interpolated information about the music with a clear-voiced call to stand up and resist the tide of MAGA extremism.
In the lobby, there was a handout from PEN America — “How to Fight Book Bans: A Tip Sheet for Students.” It offered advice on topics like how to “put pressure on decision makers,” “report book bans,” and “find support and protect yourself from online harassment.” Also outside the concert, there was a colorful mural depicting a library bookshelf stacked with banned editions — ideal for selfies.
The program — accompanied by pianist Lisa Edwards, drummer Lauren Kosty, bassist Carla Capolupo, and the members of Orchid Quartet — covered everything from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice to three songs based on Margaret Atwood’s dystopian saga The Handmaid’s Tale.
This last item, by Jennifer Lucy Cook, was a premiere, commissioned by VOX Femina. “Once I Could Read,” the first song, evolves as a moving internal lamentation on freedoms lost, shimmering with contrasting harmonies. “My Body and Me” divides the chorus in an antiphonal dialogue as the central character reflects on her life, shattered by the slave-like role she has been cast into. The climax, “Ahead,” represents a headlong attempt at escape that ends with the choir panting as if in exhaustion.
Without question, VOX Femina is a skilled vocal ensemble, able to create angelic flowing harmonies with the consistency of double cream. Anger, outrage, and defiance were not in evidence on Sunday, however. There wasn’t a sense of compositional risk-taking or breaking away from the formulas of traditional writing for women’s chorus. I waited in vain to hear a dynamic bridge between the music and the urgency of the message.
It wasn’t until well into the second half that solo voices were able to take center stage. When Sonia Ohan stepped to the microphone to perform “Melissa unSilenced” by composer Michael Bussewitz-Quarm and lyricist Shantel Sellers (inspired by the children’s novel Melissa by Alex Gino), the effect was like an emotional wake-up call, by turns powerful, painful, and consciousness-raising.
The second half had begun with the chorus rather awkwardly attempting to swing to “It Was You” by Maria Ellis (based on Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved). Angelica Rowell, on the other hand, took over and belted out Rollo Dilworth’s arrangement of the title number from the 2005 musical adaptation of The Color Purple — that was the real thing, filled with poetry, passion, and an abundance of soul.
This was a concert animated by a sense of purpose and defiance. It concluded with “Children Will Listen” from Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Although the musical has never been banned, Levine included the song because it contains a related message worth heeding.
