Mabel Lee, 1912 - Melissa Dunphy - Harmonium Choral Society

Be Brave - June 2024
Under the direction of Dr. Anne J. Matlack
Harmonium Choral Society
Morristown United Methodist Church, Morristown, NJ
Solo: Eliana Vergara, Brandon Johnson-Douglas

You may have noticed that Melissa Dunphy ‪@MelissaDunphy‬ is a favorite contemporary composer of mine. Born and raised in Australia, she immigrated to the United States in 2003 and has since become an award-winning and acclaimed composer specializing in vocal, political, and theatrical music. Her choral work What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach? won the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Composition Competition and has been performed nationally by ensembles including Chanticleer, Cantus, and the St. Louis Chamber Chorus, and by Harmonium’s Chamber Singers    • What do you think I fought for at Omaha Be...  . She holds a PhD in music composition from the University of Pennsylvania, currently teaches composition at Rutgers University, and is also active in Philadelphia as a sound and lighting designer, actor, theater owner, and podcaster (The Boghouse). Recently, her chamber opera Alice Tierney was premiered at Oberlin. https://www.melissadunphy.com/
I can’t think of a braver story than that of a young Chinese girl fighting for women’s suffrage and against the binding of feet. Dunphy provides these notes:
Mabel Lee, 1912 was composed in honor of Mabel Ping-Hua Lee (李彬华) (1896-1966), an activist, writer, and religious leader who was particularly known for mobilizing support for women's suffrage among New York's Chinese immigrant community. Lee was outspoken in her support for women's rights throughout her undergraduate and graduate career. She became the first woman to receive a PhD from Columbia University and soon after assumed leadership of the Baptist mission in Chinatown, to which she dedicated herself for the rest of her life. ... The feministic movement is not one for privileges to women, but one for the requirement of women to be worthy citizens and contribute their share to the steady progress of our country toward prosperity and national greatness.
The text is by Esther Lin.

Full program notes available on our website: http://www.harmonium.org/repertoire/
Video/audio production: http://www.showfocused.llc/

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