“A Woman’s Voice” is an album written for female voices and piano. The repertoire is inspired by literature that celebrates the female spirit and their challenging, and changing, roles throughout history. The multi-lingual lyrics (English, French, and Mandarin) reflect the multicultural Canadian ethos and presents a wide spectrum of text, including ancient Chinese poems from the Tang Dynasty, a war poem by English poetess Charlotte Mew, as well as Alice Ho’s collaborations with seven Canadian writers across the provinces: Marjorie Chan, Madeleine Thien, Carole Languille, Phoebe Tsang, Tong Wang, Thomass Muir, Anna Camara, and Michael O’brien. These writers span a wide range, both in their racial and geographic diversity, as well as where they are in their careers.
“A Women’s Voice” features an “all Canadian” lineup. Many astounding young performers have contributed passionately to this album, including pianist/vocalist Jialiang Zhu, coloratura lyric soprano Vania Chan, soprano Katy Clark, soprano Maeve Palmer, soprano Ariadne Lih, mezzo-soprano Alex Hetherington, pianist/writer Tong Wang, and cellist Andrew Ascenzo.
This recording intends to aim the spotlight at women’s empowerment and strength by leading the audience through a cross-cultural musicscape, and ultimately serves as a reflection on how women of the past and present navigate love, desire, grief, and hardship.
One of the most acclaimed composers writing in Canada today, Hong Kong born Alice Ping Yee Ho has written in many musical genres and received numerous national and international awards, including the 2022 Nova Scotia Symphony’s Maria Anna Mozart Award, 2022 Barlow General Commissioning Award, 2019 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, 2016 Louis Applebaum Composers Award, 2014 Prince Edward Island Symphony Composers Competition, 2014 Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Friendship Orchestral Composition Competition, 2013 Dora Mayor Moore Award for “Outstanding Original Opera” for her opera The Lesson of Da Ji, and the 2013 Boston Metro Opera International Composition Competition, K.M. Hunter Artist Award, du Maurier Arts Ltd. Her upcoming project is a new opera called CHINATOWN commissioned by City Opera Vancouver with renowned Canadian writer/librettist Madeleine Thien and Hoisanese co-writer Paul Yee, premiering September 13-17 at the Vancouver Playhouse.
