MUSE Cincinnati's Women's Choir

Dr. Catherine Roma, Artistic Director of MUSE was interviewed for the GALAgram about the group's recent trip to the Dominican Republic. Here's what she shared with us:

How did the opportunity for MUSE to travel to the Dominican Republic (DR) come about?

Mark Porter Webb, the son of one of our founding members, Diana Porter (still in the choir), lives and teaches in the Dominican Republic and invited us. He works with an organization, Justicia Global, that sponsored a conference: Art and Revolution (Arte y Revolucion). Mark wrote the following poem for us to ponder before we left:

To MUSE: upon your first visit to the Dominican Republic

I would like you to see hope, not waste

for waste is everywhere, obvious

while hope is more opaque

like roofs sprouting rebar

the dreams of another story.

I would like you to hear voices, not noise

for noise is everywhere, demobilizing

while voices move in quiet spaces

organizing a future

where love is spoken, heard, and spoken again.

I would like you to see through time, this space

a present that should not be believed

sleeps like a child to convince us of its innocence.

Wake her without fear

for this past is our past.

I would like you to see this island

not as an escapade of rights we never earned.

Our responsibility here is different and large--

it involves hope,

and voice,

and history.

Mark Webb December, 2008

How many MUSE members went and when?/How long were you gone?

Our director, 24 singing members, a guest accompanist, our sign language interpreter, and a drummer traveled to the Dominican Republic. Everyone went on Wednesday, March 18th and most went home on the 23rd, as we had a women's history month concert gig on the 24th that needed to be covered!

What did you do while you were there?

MUSE sang two public concerts, and had the opportunity to do a choral Merengue workshop with Matises, a professional vocal ensemble of 10 voices. At the conference, we were part of a panel about how the arts can be used to organize people. We met with members of Justicia Global, attended a few sessions of the conference, did some sightseeing, and spent two days at a beach retreat.

Where did you go within the Dominican Republic?

MUSE members spent most of their time in Santo Domingo, and ended their travels in Juan Dolio, a beach community near Santo Domingo.

What impact do you feel your trip had on the people you performed for?

Berenice Pacheco, a member of Justicia Global, one of the organizers of the conference, shared the following words with us:

"I hope these words will motivate you and the rest of the MUSEers on your journey tomorrow...

A pesar de lo poco que he podido escucharles, sus voces han sido para mi fuente de poder, pasion, sabiduria y alegria. Escucharles me provocan ganas de bailar, llorar y reir. Sera un honor recibirles en esta tierra de poetas, luchas y suenos. Sera un honor conocerles y escucharles. Les recibimos con todos los abrazos del universo, para compartirle un poco de la semilla que sembramos dia a dia. Continuen cantando y haciendo milagros".

Translated: I've only heard a little bit of your music, but your voices have been a source of power, passion, wisdom, and joy. Listening to you makes me want to dance, to cry, to laugh. It will be an honor to receive you in this land of poetry, struggle, and dreams. It will be an honor to meet you and listen to you. We receive you with a universal embrace, to share with you the seeds we are planting every day. Keep singing and making miracles.

What impact did the trip have on the MUSE attendees?

This is hard to judge, because it was very personal for everyone on the trip. For some who had not traveled in the global South before, it was a confrontation with poverty and how the majority of people in the world live. For African-America members it was being in a country where they were the majority. For many of our non-Spanish speaking people, it was confronting the obvious-- that the whole world does not speak English. For all of us, we struggled to learn to sing the Merengue and other Latin rhythms authentically and with ease and passion. We had a party on the beach where we each got to talk about what the trip meant to us, allowing time for everyone to take time to reflect and share.

How did you finance the trip?

We were hosted by Justicia Global and stayed in very simple accommodations. We held a fund-raiser - A night in Santo Domingo -where we raised $1,000; and agreed to sing a concert the day after most got back. The $1,000 honorarium went to cover trip expenses, and MUSE put in $1,000 that allowed for eight scholarships - each of which paid $400, or half the cost of the trip.

Would you do a similar trip again in the future?

YES!

How did the trip fit with MUSE's mission?

This trip deepened members resolve to "work for change together" (from Never Turning Back--a MUSE standard). Actually, the first line of our philosophy - MUSE is a women's choir dedicated to musical excellence and social change - captures the crossroads we encountered on our trip. We did a workshop with a professionally trained ensemble, Matises ("musical excellence"), and we participated in a conference about art and revolution, and discussed how the arts can serve the greatest good, how they can bring about change, and how music can empower and educate people, and advance ideas about justice, gender and race ("social change"). A challenge for us was to share all phases of the trip with the majority of the choir who were not able to go. Everyone had to learn the Spanish repertoire for our spring concert. We held a fund-raiser which educated the entire group about life in the Dominican Republic, we shared the written reflections from the event held on the last night, and presented a slide show at a rehearsal when we got back. We want to teach the whole choir what we learned about Merengue, and the full choir will perform El Pambiche Lento on our Spring concert.

Below are stories that appeared on our website about the trip:

Stories from the Dominican Republic:

Highlights of trip:
* Upon arriving to the airport, we received our first of many tastes of salty, warm Caribbean breezes. After being greeted by members of Justicia Global including Diana's son Mark, we saw the ocean on our first bus ride, to the hostel!

* Our first morning in the capital, we gave an impromptu concert on the steps of the National Archives. One archivist and Justicia Global leader was campaigning to start a community choir among the Archive staff. The sunny hall was filled with archive technicians and national leaders gathered to commemorate the institution's oral history radio program. The audience gasped at Lois's voice in I'm Gon' Stand, and one woman even cried during the Duerme Negrito, remembering her mother singing that song to her as a child.

* Although the evening's concert was challenging, we also got to hear a group of campesino singers and a local merengue dance/singing group of girls and women.

* Friday morning! We rehearsed with a local a cappella ensemble (10) that arranges, performs and spreads the word about Dominican music. They workshopped El Pambiche, suggested ways to improve the feel of syncopation. We ended up dancing with choir members (with Donna of course in the front of line!). This was an amazing experience for everyone, and Cathy commissioned an arrangement for MUSE from the director. - Katie E. Johnson

The conference definitely kept us busy, and being able to sing to the people of the Dominican Republic was both a gift and a challenge. Technical difficulties, Tucki's relationship with the Casio, the language barrier, making group decisions with the information we had, and very tightly packed bus rides to and from the hostel were some challenges. Being able to interact and share music with the Matisse Choir, singing to a very welcoming and appreciative audience at the Office Secretary of Culture for the archive staff, and experiencing Dominican music and art were definite gifts.

Observing one another in these situations allowed for new and deeper connections, an appreciation for diverse personalities and points of views, an opportunity to grow and learn more about ourselves, and to open ourselves up to a different culture, language, and struggle.

TO see with our own two eyes the poverty, pollution, and trash filling the streets was not easy, and to see the mixture of people, the vivid colors, the crowds, Spanish words, and children dancing is what I see as the living spirit of this country.

Still surrounded by natives in Juan Dolio, our Dominican Republic experience never ceased to be filled with its culture, politics, and people. Because of our own personal histories, experiences, and personalities, we may have looked differently, seen differently, thought differently, and valued different parts of the trip, but our last night as a group, we came together- we shared our thoughts, we laughed, we cried, and we thanked. It was memorable, it was beautiful, and a reminder that we took this trip together, and it's now forever a part of the way we see the Dominican Republic and the world around us. It's a reminder that there is still fighting to be done, and justice to be achieved. I thank everyone on the trip, and I feel blessed to be a part of this choir which strives for so much of what the conference and the people from Justicia Global strive for in their own country every day. - Julie Lessard (SII)

A Lesson in Patience

While walking or riding in a bus through the streets of Santo Domingo, I frequently heard horns honking. I soon noticed that the feeling it invoked was different than here in the U.S. Somehow the horns in Santo Domingo seemed friendlier. I asked one of our bus drivers who explained that the beeping is a way of warning other vehicles of a car's presence, usually in an intersection where stop signs and traffic lights seem to be a mere suggestion. I was reminded of this "friendly-driver" mentality the other day when a driver slammed on her horn because I pulled in front of her and wasn't going fast enough. If I had one thing I could teach my fellow Americans from my experience, it would be to adopt a Dominican driver's mindset of being friendlier and a bit more patient! - Julie Brock (AI)