Sophie Michaux- mezzo-soprano

Toasts! I love to make toasts! My Lorelei family will recognize the moment when, after a rehearsal, a concert, and always after a drink or two, I’ll raise my glass and try my best to make a reverent toast to a particular person, event, or just the simple fact that we can make such glorious music together. I try to not make them too long or "fluffy," but I always love this moment of pause, when we can focus on how lucky we are to be together. We were indeed very lucky.

The future performances of Julia Wolfe’s Her Story, and the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, will be an opportunity for Lorelei’s audiences and artists to reflect on the fact that American women fought for the right to vote for decades, losing their jobs, being ridiculed and jailed for daring to claim that right. Although from 1920 on, white women were legally allowed to vote, black women and other women of color have had to bravely continue the fight for their right to vote; something that continues to this day. 

In her TED Talk about intersectionality, Kimberlé Crenshaw says, "We have to be willing to bear witness to the often painful realities that we would rather not confront." Her Story will give us the opportunity to pause. To take a moment to focus on what these women had to do to give us equal power to elect our representatives, and through them, shape our common future. What does it mean to us? Why is voting so important? How did their convictions energize them to act, and act some more? How can we, individually and collectively, take on the next fight for equality for all? The performance of Her Story will give us the opportunity for introspection, through absolutely thrilling music, to say the least.  

When Lorelei Ensemble, and the phenomenal Symphony Orchestras that we will collaborate with around the country, can gather to bring Her Story to life, I’ll raise my glass — and hold back my tears — to celebrate these brave women while focusing on how to continue the fight to make voting without obstacles possible for all.