Andy Anderson on Mine Be the Lips

“If I could sing the song of Love,

Fill my throat with each sounding note,

Others might kiss and clasp and sing,

Mine be the lips that would sing!”

And sing we did on Saturday evening, October 18th, tucked away at St. John’s in the Village.

Vira Slywotzky brought her community together for

an evening of music written by incredible female composers.

Spanning from 1789 to today, the program guided the audience through several hundred years of music history in a succinct 90 minutes.

Mine Be the Lips, the aptly named concert, began with two poems,

including Leonora Speyer’s “Mine Be the Lips,” set to music by the incredible Amy Beach.

Beach was a composer who, to put it far too simply, overcame adversity and

declared her victory into every single note she composed.

Written for voice and piano,

her work still captures the sound of an entire orchestra.

The bold, heroic tones of Beach’s immense harmonies, and

Vira’s rich, contralto sound filled the space with a wave of color that

set the tone for the show.

A return to the massive nature of Beach’s compositions arrived with the singularly-named composer, Poldowski.

The Belgian-born British composer writes for voice in a manner befitting of someone who was friends with Nellie Melba herself.

“Serenade” emerges, decadent and romantic.

The parallel and similar motion rolling out of the piano

transported everyone to the streets of Europe in a way that

only a masterful composer can achieve.

The highlight of the show for this audience member, however,

came in the second Poldowski piece.

“L’heure exquise” is a breathtaking work, and

sung in the lower register it transforms.

The rich, warm purple velvet of Vira’s voice spread throughout the church, filling in every space between the golden notes of the piano.

One would have been sharp-eyed to catch anyone remembering to breathe.

All of the creators featured on Mine Be the Lips

deserve to be recognized, and fortunately,

Vira took the time to tell us about each and every one of them.

From Ukraine to Iran, through the US then to Paris —

each composer featured brought their

unique perspectives and experiences to their pieces.

Niloufar Nourbakhsh tells us the stories of poet Forugh Farrokhzad;

Sheila Silver captures the emotional whiplash of living life through tragedy; Olga Zaitseva-Herz mourns the devastation after the

invasion of her home.

Every woman tells an incredible story, and

brings beautiful music to the ear of each listener.

It is important to appreciate the work of these trailblazers.

Could there be a better opportunity to do so than

cozied up at St. John’s with Vira Slywotzky at the helm,

supported by the excellent David Sytkowski on piano?

The magic spoke for itself.