Statements
Mission
The mission of Vox Grata Women's Choir is to empower women through provocative choral concerts.
Background
Vox Grata Women's Choir was founded by its Artistic Director, Jeanette MacCallum, in 2012. The choir sings concert programs that directly benefit the needs of women in Nashville and Middle Tennessee. Since the choir's formation, Vox Grata has partnered with nineteen area non-profit organizations to raise awareness of their services and to collect donations in support of their programs. Following each concert program, Vox Grata distributes 100% of the offering collected to the chosen beneficiary agency. To date, Vox Grata has raised more than $30,000 on behalf of its nonprofit beneficiaries.
Through its partnerships with area nonprofit organizations, Vox Grata is uniquely positioned to interact directly with populations and communities affected by such hardships as homelessness, poverty, unintended pregnancies, addiction and domestic violence. Concert programming is intentional and includes choral repertoire often addressing the particular challenges and interests of our beneficiary partners. These choral works confront issues that accurately portray real struggles experienced by women in our community. For example, in March 2017, the choir performed American composer Elizabeth Alexander's "Reasons for the Perpetuation of Slavery" on its concerts benefitting End Slavery Tennessee, a nonprofit addressing the needs of human trafficking survivors. A 2018 concert featured choral works focusing on the plight of refugees and immigrants. The beneficiary was Sew for Hope, a nonprofit agency that teaches employable sewing skills to refugee women in our city.
Beyond social justice advocacy, Vox Grata has earned a reputation as a professional-level women's ensemble in the Nashville area. The choir is co-conducted by Jeanette MacCallum and Susan Kelly, who together have over forty years of experience in leading choirs. The choir has experienced robust growth, from approximately fifteen singers in 2012 to nearly fifty singers in 2022. Vox Grata's artistic merit is evidenced by invitations to perform for or with the Tennessee chapter of the American Choral Directors Association, the local chapter of the American Guild for Organists, the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra, SONUS, Music City Baroque and Alias Chamber Ensemble (3 performances). The choir has performed locally for WKRN and 91.1 FM (3 times). In 2018 the choir participated in the Nashville Symphony's Violins of Hope project by performing a large-scale work based upon The Diary of Anne Frank.
Impact
Vox Grata Women's Choir's impact is two-fold. First, the choir contributes significantly to the arts culture as the only community-based women's choir in Middle Tennessee. Second, the choir's partnerships with a variety of nonprofit organizations expands arts access to traditionally underserved constituencies. This is done by offering free admission to all concerts and by carefully planning programs to benefit women affected by particular social issues. Many of our beneficiary organizations serve clientele experiencing hardships that disproportionately affect people of color, immigrants, refugees and individuals with disabilities. Vox Grata's concerts heighten awareness of the needs of such populations while also offering them access to the choral arts.
The choir has enjoyed 233% growth in membership during the past ten years. This growth has empowered the choir and its board to embark on exciting new artistic initiatives. The 2021/22 season included the release of a virtual concert video recorded in February 2022 entitled "Sing to Me of Home." In May 2022 the choir returned to live performances with its program "You Belong to Infinity," also its tenth anniversary celebration. Live performances continued throughout the 2022/23 season - our first complete season of live performances since the beginning of the pandemic. In addition, live streams are offered for every concert, resulting in several thousand additional views from around the world.
The choir continues its planning for the world premiere of a 30-to-45-minute multi-movement work for women's choir and chamber orchestra by American composer Linda Tutas Haugen. The work will engage the community in compassionate, truthful dialogue about substance abuse, giving voice to victims and their loved ones and providing hope for genuine, lasting recovery. Local organizations on the frontline of addiction will be invited to participate in a public discussion on the subject and to provide resources to attendees. This event is currently being planned for the fall of 2024. This large-scale commission will be of direct interest to nearly every past concert beneficiary in addition to the large numbers of the general population directly or indirectly impacted by substance abuse. With the help of strategic partnerships and a targeted marketing/outreach campaign, this concert will attract a diverse audience including addicts, those in recovery, medical and social workers, family members and caretakers, in addition to regular Vox Grata patrons. A major goal of the project is to enlighten singers and audience members with the latest scientific and medical research concerning the disease of addiction. A developing partnership with the Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research will help advance that goal through the art of singing.
Needs
Vox Grata offers a season of high quality women's choral concerts. Its singers volunteer their time, and the accompanist and conductors earn only a nominal honorarium each year. To ensure long-term sustainability of the organization, the board has implemented a plan to increase these honorariums each year to support the administrative and artistic efforts of the staff. In addition, the board has approved ambitious projects, several with composer commissioning fees, which will result in a significant increase in direct concert costs for sheet music, outside instrumentalists and marketing. Though 100% of the donations made to free-will offerings at concerts are distributed to beneficiary organizations, the choir depends upon individuals, corporations, foundations and grants to fund its own operations. Other opportunities for support include the sponsoring of a particular piece of music, a newly commissioned work, a guest artist, or a particular concert program and venue donations for rehearsal space or concert use in addition to in-kind contributions.
CEO Statement
Vox Grata Women's Choir is widely regarded as Middle Tennessee's pre-eminent community women's choir. The ensemble consistently performs at the highest standards of artistic excellence, regularly advancing new choral works that promote the best interest of women in society. Equally important to its mission is their unwavering goal to sing for the benefit of other women in our region. Since its inception, the choir prides itself in having given 100% of its concert offerings to worthy, nonprofit organizations that are carefully chosen by its board.
Having successfully navigated its formational years and grown in its artistic and administrative capacities, the choir is now positioned to take on more ambitious projects. In particular, the choir's commissioning of a large-scale work for women's choir and chamber orchestra on the subject of substance abuse and the disease of addiction has resulted in significant budgetary increases. The commissioning fee alone for this work is over $45,000. Direct concert expenses are expected to be as much as $10,000. By partnering with a number of local organizations on the front lines of addiction and recovery, we plan to engage the community in compassionate, truthful dialogue about substance abuse, giving voice to victims and their loved ones and providing hope for genuine, lasting recovery. These collaborations will require significant administrative support from both staff and the board. Vox Grata is depending on individuals, corporations, foundations and grants to ensure this project's success.
Since its inception, Vox Grata has developed relationships with each of its concert beneficiaries. Nearly all of these agencies have been directly or indirectly impacted by the disease of addiction. Substance abuse and domestic violence often go hand in hand. Sex trafficking and addiction are interrelated. Inmates often suffer from the disease of addiction. Mothers without resources for their infants are equally desperate for effective recovery programs. Our city, state and nation are facing a crisis of opioid addiction, a problem that has grown significantly during the pandemic. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Choirs are uniquely positioned to give compassionate voice to such societal challenges. We expect our commission will result in an important contribution to choral repertoire for women's voices across the nation. We hope many will join our campaign to finance this unique artistic project.
Board Chair Statement
Having completed its eleventh concert season, Vox Grata Women's Choir has offered innovative and artistic concert programs, inspired by its founder's vision to benefit other women's organizations throughout middle Tennessee. The beneficiary organizations are selected through a vetting process by a subcommittee of the board of directors, and subject to approval by the board. The singers and board members donate their time and talents, without benefit of remuneration and the accompanist and conductors receive only a nominal honorarium each year. In order to continue to program high caliber concerts that include guest musicians (soloists, instrumentalists), the organization is in need of donations that are earmarked to help fund its concerts. This is critical to its function, since proceeds from donations at a specific concert are given to the selected beneficiary organization. The vision of the founder and Artistic Director is unique across the United States. While there are other fine women's choirs in the USA, we are not aware of any other group that contributes 100% of the donations received at each concert to a beneficiary charitable organization in its area. We hope you will help support the choir by attending concerts and helping to fund our operations each season.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - Music |
| Secondary Category: | Housing, Shelter - Fund Raising & Fund Distribution |
| Tertiary Category: | Mental Health & Crisis Intervention - |
Areas Served
Women's charitable organizations within the middle Tennessee region.
| TN - Wilson |
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - Robertson |
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Williamson |
| TN - Cheatham |
