To make a tax-free donation to the Melbourne Women’s Choir commission fund see below.
Six Medieval Women, for women’s voices and bells, draws on words by Hildegard of Bingen, Trota of Salerno, Anna of Rome (aka Anna the Hebrew), the Wife of Bath, Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. The half-hour piece is for Faye Dumont’s Melbourne Women’s Choir, Jane Edwards’s JESSA (Hobart), Christie Anderson’s Aurora Vocal Ensemble (Adelaide) and Joseph Nolan’s Sonus Angelorum (Perth).
Hildegard is a 12th-century Benedectine Abbess, theologian, natural scientist, poet and composer; Trota (or Trotula) is an 11th- or 12th-century medic, specialising in women’s health; Anna of Rome is a cosmetician; Chaucer’s Wife of Bath, on to her fifth husband, takes on the Church; Margery Kempe writes the first autobiography in English; Julian a 14th-century anchoress of Norwich, shares her unshakeable faith in Revelations of Divine Love, insisting that ‘All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.’
You can make a donation to the Faye Dumont Singers Trust, who will give you a tax deduction. They’re currently $8,000 short of their target ($20,000). Their banking details are: FDS Donations Trust, BSB: 063145, account number: 10133788. Mark the donation ‘for Six Medieval Women‘ to secure a tax deduction. If you let Faye Dumont (saintcecilya@internode.on.net) or Andrew Ford (andy@andrewford.net.au) know you have made the donation, you will be sent a signed score later in the year with your name among the donors.