Suffrage Cantata tells the great American story in song and narration of how women
across a nation found the courage to fight for and win the right to vote more than 100
years ago. As we move toward a critical national election Nov. 5, the Nashville women’s
choral group Vox Grata will join members of the W. Crimm Singers and ALIAS Chamber
Ensemble Oct. 27 to perform the cantata composed by Dr. Andrea Ramsey.
The performance will be held at the historic Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church, one of
Nashville’s earliest Black congregations, founded in the late 1800s.
“We will celebrate the vote with our voices, and we will encourage Nashvillians,
Tennesseans, and all Americans to make their voices heard with their votes on Election
Day,” said Jeanette MacCallum, founder and artistic director of Vox Grata and director
of music at Nashville’s Second Presbyterian Church.
“In Suffrage Cantata, Andrea Ramsey not only celebrates women winning the right to
vote, but she puts to music the unique struggles that our Black sisters have faced to be
able to cast their ballots.”
Not far from where the women will sing is the Tennessee State Capitol, where
legislators cast the historic vote Aug. 18, 1920 that gave women the right to vote. With
Tennessee’s passage, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had the votes it
needed to be ratified, and women’s suffrage became the law of the land.
A free-will offering at the concert will benefit the the Tennessee League of Women
Education Fund. The concert is free, though you can reserve a seat here.
