The Dream Lives On

Recently I met a woman musician from Serbia.  She explained that she had few opportunities to pursue her profession in her home country.  She moved to Paris to study music and found few opportunities there too and she felt mistreated.  She wasn’t sure if it was because of her gender or her nationality or both.

She decided to come to the United States and was accepted at the University of Wisconsin Music Department.  Last year she received her doctorate in musical performance.  While studying she became aware of how few compositions performed are from women.

During a lunch with friends she offered a bold idea – let’s organize a festival with all pieces written by women and recruit women to perform as well.  Her friends challenged her to make the dream a reality and recruited one of them to work hand in hand with her.

The festival attracted a woman composer in residence to write a piece to be performed for the first time at the festival.  They also founded an all female treble chorus who made their debut performance at the Festival.  In total 90 women participated in the three day event.

Some of the events were free and others had a small fee.  The grand finale was only $20 a ticket and held at the First Unitarian Church Auditorium.  The audience was appreciative and responded with a standing ovation at the close of the concert.

My new friend had a dream and brought it to fruition in the United States.  My friend is an immigrant and is staying in our country on a green card.  She hopes to become a citizen in five years.  She has already lived here for three years.  Her path to citizenship is long but she clearly has determination.
We need to remember we are a country of immigrants. Even though our country is struggling with unprecedented divisiveness this story demonstrates that the unique American promise is alive and well.
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On this July 4th I am grateful I can share this story with you.