The Women’s Chorus of Dallas

The Women’s Chorus of Dallas has been approved for a $10,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support the Voices of Women concert set for March 26. Voices of Women is an annual celebration of women’s contributions to the choral music field and is one of 1,248 projects across America totaling $28,840,000 that were selected to receive this first round of fiscal year 2022 funding in the Grants for Arts Projects category.

Ann Eilers, acting chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, said, “The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects like this one from TWCD that help support the community’s creative economy. TWCD is among the arts organizations nationwide that are using the arts as a source of strength, a path to well-being, and providing access and opportunity for people to connect and find joy through the arts.”

TWCD Executive Director Crystal Koe said, “We are especially honored to receive this support from the NEA as we return to the concert stage. It serves as a reminder that whatever happens, our mission and music continue.”

TWCD’s last concert before the pandemic put a halt to their performance season was Voices of Women 2020, supported by a Challenge America grant from the NEA that year. TWCD returned to the stage in December 2021, performing a one-act holiday concert for a small audience, featuring masked singers and multiple Santas.

Voices of Women 2022 will take place on March 26 and unite TWCD with high school and college singers from Dallas ISD and Texas Woman’s University. The concert will feature three women conductors and the world premiere of a new commission by Rosephanye Powell, noted composer and expert in the African American spiritual tradition. Powell has set to music words written by TWCD singers on women’s experiences, for a uniquely-DFW choral piece that has a universal message.

More information will be on TWCD.org as it becomes available.

For more information on other projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit Arts.gov/news.

— Tammye Nash