As the women’s liberation movement was going strong across the country in the late 1970s, a small group of women came together in Northeast Ohio to advocate for equality through music. Today Windsong, Cleveland’s Feminist Chorus, continues to build on that legacy while evolving to meet the needs of the community.
“Feminism has always been at the core of who Windsong is and really why it was started,” said Jaca Kaverman, the organization’s president. “When it was started in 1979, it was a handful of people who wanted a safe space to sing about things that mattered to them.”
Now the nearly 50 members, affectionally called “Windies,” span the generations. The youngest is 25 years old while the youngest at heart is 81.
“We have members who cannot read music, who just sing in the car and in the shower,” Kaverman said. “Then we have members who have higher education with music, who sing semi-professionally.”
At the helm of Windsong is artistic director Jessica Gallagher-Steuver, who has devoted her academic career to music education. She has a particular interest in choral music and also serves as artistic director for the treble choir at Case Western Reserve University, where she’s working toward a doctoral degree.
“There’s something so special about how all these individual, unique voices can come together and tell so many incredible stories,” Gallagher-Steuver said. “To be able to do that in a place where I feel like I can be my authentic self and encourage others to be their authentic self is one of the coolest things.”
At the group’s recent 45th anniversary concert, Honor the Past, Inspire the Future, the diverse repertoire of songs reflected on historical figures of feminism while also examining what’s currently happening politically and socially throughout the country.
“We have songs that are very emotionally heavy that reflect a lot of the emotions that a lot of people, specifically people in the LGBTQ+ community, might be feeling right now,” Gallagher-Steuver said. “But even within that heaviness, there’s this constantly moving message of hope.”
Despite its branding as a feminist chorus, Windsong welcomes all singers who identify as women or who are nonbinary, something Kaverman said speaks to the mission of fostering a safe and inclusive environment for everyone.
“There have been people who feel comfortable expressing who they are at the concert for the first time or just fully using pronouns for the first time or coming out with an orientation that they've never said out loud before,” Kaverman said. “That's such an important thing to me to keep.”
The group typically performs two concerts a year and will soon begin rehearsals for its spring program: Furious, Frustrated, Fiery Hearts.
