2023-553-E-Arts Commission-Women's Voices Chorus -2023-24 Arts Grants

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How do you promote and publicize the work of your organization? W omen’s Voices Chorus has a long history of high-quality performances. The almost 30 years of innovative, themed concerts has created a loyal audience of our family and friends, and each year we attract a broader audience beyond this core group. Our DEIA Committee is adding to our mailing list so that in 2023-24 we reach and include a broader array of potential auditioners and audience members. W e use printed postcards and regular email newsletters, our website (womensvoiceschorus.org), Facebook page, and paid advertising with Triangle Sings, CVNC.org, and local radio stations to communicate with the public. Our new PR Committee Chair on the Board is planning to expand of our use of social media, eNews, and other media to promote concerts and the organization, and in the pursuit of ethnic and cultural diversity (among auditioners and audience), to add new outlets (e.g., Hola Carolina and JMPro media) to the list. To increase the hard-copy mailing list while keeping costs low, we will engage members to mail postcards to new recipients. For materials and programs, choral members with professional expertise create visual representation of our concerts’ themes. Our concerts are highly attended (pre-COVID, they were often sold out), and reviews, which praise our “otherworldly,” “pure” and “youthful” sound, and Laura Sam’s dedication to supporting living (women) composers (CVNC reviews, 2021-23), also invariably mention how moved and delighted the audience seems, as well. One of the ways W VC has built our audience over the years has been by holding joint concerts. Various collaborators in W VC concerts have included Chapel Hill/Carrboro school choirs; Meredith College Chorale; Bennett College Choir; Capitol City Girls Chorale; Cardinal Singers; St. Mary’s School Chorale; Carolina Harmony; Durham School of the Arts; NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble; UNC Charlotteans; UNC W omen’s Glee Club, and others. In-person joint concerts were put on hold during the pandemic; we plan to resume the tradition in the next year. Our DEIA Committee is creating a broad list of new collaborators to approach about joint events. At least one piece in 2024 will include a local school choir. Finally, as mentioned above, Laura Sam and W VC dove into the “virtual concert” world during the pandemic, learning the technical aspects of voice blending (with 78 members submitting individual recordings, she had a lot to blend!), adding graphics and interspersing spoken word interludes by individual members. Beyond creating W VC concerts, she reached out to colleagues at UNC Charlotte and Meredith College and created a virtual concert and webinar, bringing together young women singers from those institutions to share the joy of singing together. The chorus this year is about 40% new members (0-2 years), and several members say they joined because of participating in or viewing the virtual productions. DocuSign Envelope ID: 56ECA0F1-08AA-4A90-B1A0-B9B7C934B889