Commissioned Works

VOX Femina Los Angeles performs "When the Dust Settles" by noted transgender composer Mari Esabel Valverde and commissioned for performance at the June 8, 2019 concert at Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School.

VOX Femina perform Kindness, with music by Christina Whitten Thomas and lyrics from the poem of the same name by Naomi Shihab Nye. Conducted by Dr. Iris S. Levine at the November 2016 concert VOX20: Reflections at Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School. Commissioned by founding singer Mary Read for her wife Liz Cvikel, and in honor of the 20th anniversary of VOX Femina.

VOX Femina Los Angeles performs Moon Goddess by Jocelyn Hage, conducted by Founding Artistic Director Dr. Iris S. Levine as part of their concert Heavenly Bodies in March 2018. A distinctly feminine anthem of praise for the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, the text for this piece comes from Enheduanna, a moon priestess and the first writer, male or female, in history whose name and work have been preserved. In this poem, Inanna is imagined as a terrifying, sublime warrior: a goddess who will defend her worshippers from their enemies.Jocelyn Hagen’s musical realization of the text evokes the unrelenting warrior goddess through aggressive, percussive piano ostinati (a persistent, repeated rhythmic pattern), while also depicting a sense of the lofty, beloved divine through dreamy, chant-like legato melody.

VOX Femina performs One With the Wind with lyrics by Larissa FastHorse and music by David O. at the June 2018 Concert, This Land Is Your Land, at Zipper Concert Hall, conducted by Dr. Iris S. Levine. Soloist, Ashley Sheagley. "The text includes words in Lakota which define circles of community. Misnala, as sung by the soloist, refers to herself. She is joined by a trio singing Tiwahe – representing her immediate family. Then her extended family, her friends, her colleagues appear, announcing themselves with the word Tioshpaye, “to be part of a circle.” Finally, her circle broadens to include her people, her nation: Oyate. Together, these circles of community bolster the individual and support each other, rallying with the phrase “Hoka Hey”, which Larissa FastHorse explains is used in this piece to “urge a person forward (like into battle) with a confidence that they have lived their lives so well that every day is as good a day to live or die as any other because the person is already walking on the good Red Road (the right path)." - From the program notes by Dr. Holley Replogle-Wong