SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Women’s Chorus (SDWC), the premier non-audition women’s chorus, presents its annual winter concert, Home Is Where the Heart Is Saturday, Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and again on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 4 p.m.
SDWC’s new musical leadership team, Artistic Director Kathleen Hansen and Assistant Artistic Director Justine Hansen, will lead the audience with a dynamic repertoire that explores literal and emotional interpretations of home at St. Andrew’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Pacific Beach. Located at 1050 Thomas Avenue, San Diego, California, 92109, St. Andrew’s will provide an intimate, acoustically rich atmosphere for this heartwarming concert.
Audiences will be treated to the uplifting and evocative concert experience SDWC is known for, with a diverse, multi-cultural program of traditional choral pieces, festive holiday carols and gorgeous contemporary selections.
Attendees will delight in renditions of popular songs like Mariah Carey’s popular chart-topper All I Want for Christmas Is You, Ben Harper’s reggae-infused My Own Two Hands, and the bluesy Please Come Home for Christmas. Concert goers will be swept away by celebratory songs from Nigeria, England and Puerto Rico and mesmerized by lyrics from feminist and fantasy writer Ursula LeGuin and, surprisingly enough, Edgar Allen Poe. SDWC will also sing a Hebrew call for peace and justice and a ballad about LGBT families and unconditional love through the eyes of a child.
Home is Where the Heart Is will have audiences reflecting about home in many ways — as a place of physical dwelling as well as where our heart dwells in our soul, a space where we find ourselves and our voice, where we live and love with our birth and chosen family, create community and memories, celebrate traditions, and seek understanding and acceptance.
The performance space is accessible and the Sunday performance will be ASL-interpreted for the hard of hearing. Tickets can be purchased at www.sdwc.ticketleap.com.
Kathleen Hansen joined SDWC in October 2014 as Assistant Artistic Director to then Artistic Director Chris Allen and she helped lead the chorus through last winter’s “Light Up the World” concert, this spring’s “Songs of Protest, Songs of Peace” concert at the Balboa Theatre with special guests, the iconic folk-rock duo the Indigo Girls,and the 2014 Pride Festival. After Allen’s resignation this summer, Kathleen was promoted to Artistic Director and at that time, SDWC hired Justine Hansen (no relation) as Assistant Artistic Director. Kathleen has been working the field of music education since 1998 and is also the director of the Sun Harbor Chorus, the North County Tremble Clefs and the award-winning San Diego Chorus of Sweet Adelines. Justine brings an exceptional blend of musical diversity to compliment Kathleen’s style and choral abilities. She is the choral music teacher at the The Bishop’s School and sings professionally with the San Diego Pro-Arte Voices.
