CS: Are you a native Californian?
Dr. Levine: No, I grew up in Boston,
Massachusetts. I received my under graduate degree and my Masters
Degree on the East Coast and came out here in 1986 to go to school at USC
and received my Doctorate in Choral Music. I’ve been teaching music
at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona since 1990 and am now
Professor of Music and Chair of the Department.
CS: Did you come from a musical background?
Dr. Levine: My family is not musical
although my Mom used to play trumpet a little bit, but that was not really
her background at all.
CS: Tell us about your choral group.
Dr. Levine: In 1997 is when Vox
got started. It was at the instigation of Jon Bailey who was the Gay
Men’s Choir Artistic Director at that time. He had wanted to have a
women’s chorus which was going to parallel the Gay Men’s Chorus. It
wasn’t something that, necessarily, I was interested in doing, having a
large group. We talked for quite a while about it, and finally reached an
agreement that really what I would be more interested in doing was
something that would be smaller in nature and open to all women; really
more community based with a mission that was going to be about good music
making. So, in January, 1997, we began having auditions. In
our very first rehearsal after our auditions, we had nineteen singers and
they were awesome.
CS: So you began with nineteen singers. How many are there
now?
Dr. Levine: We have thirty-four
singers.
CS: What age group are the women?
Dr. Levine: The youngest is
probably in her early twenties and I would say the oldest is probably in
her late sixties. It’s quite a mix and there is quite a diversity
amongst the women regarding communities that they come from, ethnicity,
and religious background, even economic background. We all come
together for a common goal of making wonderful music and supporting each
other.
CS: What type of music do you perform?
Dr. Levine: We do a cross section
of music. We sing everything from early music to contemporary
musical theatre. We’ve done jazz, folk music, a lot of music from
around the world, a lot of different languages. Yes, it’s pretty
eclectic!
CS: Will you, please give us information about your upcoming
concert?
Dr. Levine: It’s called Cool Blue,
Songs for a Green Art, and basically, it’s our look at the planet, its
life force, if you will; the beauty of our planet, the need for all of us
to be good custodians of our planet. There will be music from the
Native American tradition, from the very classical tradition and world
music pieces, some very tense. We’ll be doing some lighter pieces
which refer to what we can do to make things on our planet a little bit
better. There will be set pieces called Green Songs, each which
offer a light- hearted suggestion of what we can do to save the earth.
CS: Please tell us when the concert is being held.
Dr. Levine: It’s Saturday, June
26, 8 p.m., at Zipper Concert, which is part of The Colburn School, 200
South Grand Ave., in Los Angeles.
CS: How can people obtain tickets?
Dr. Levine: Tickets are
available by calling (310) 922-0025, at
www.voxfeminala.org ,
by e-mail at
vfla@voxfeminala.org ,
or simply by coming and purchasing tickets at the
door.
CS: How many performances do you do in a year?
Dr. Levine: We give three concerts as
part of our concert series, one in November, one in March and one in June.
We do a lot of community outreach concerts, probably one or two a month.
CS: Thank you so much for your time and continued good luck with Vox
Femina.
Dr. Levine: And thank you.
Comments? Write to us at:
Letters@ReviewPlays.Com
