washington women
Sunday, May 3, 2026
4 pm

Mount Calvary Catholic Church
6700 Marlboro Pike
Forestville, MD 20747

At this crucial juncture in our nation’s history, join us as we mark the 250th anniversary of the United States with works from a diverse variety of American composers that celebrate the ideals we ceaselessly strive to realize. Opening with Randall Thompson’s famed call for just leadership in The Last Words of David, we present Washington Women, in which David Chase and Judith Clurman set to music the words of sixteen remarkable women across U.S. history, from Abigail Adams to Eleanor Roosevelt to Kamala Harris.

The program also includes a selection of works which remind us that justice and human rights are underpinned by community, compassion, and joy: Rosephanye Powell’s jazz-inflected setting of Langston Hughes’ I Dream a World; Jennifer Lucy Cook’s contemporary fused They Are Mother; inspiration from Barack Obama in An Exhortation by David Conte; Melissa Dunphy quoting both Ida B. Wells and Stacey Abrams in Identity Politics; and the exultant spiritual arrangements of Gwyneth Walker.