"What Are You Expecting?" -Concert with Pregnant Performers: THE MELODIOUS MAMAS!

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Four professional singers, and a pianist... 
ALL with 'buns-in-the-oven'
will perform a concert you will NEVER forget.
​
Saturday Oct 8, 2016 - 3 pm
 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
2727 Lake Ave, Wilmette, IL

Sunday Oct 9, 2016 - 6:30 pm
Lutkin Hall on Northwestern University Campus,
700 University Pl, Evanston, IL

(VENUES ARE PICTURED BELOW) 

Concerts are free. 
Donations are appreciated, and a portion of proceeds will be donated to charity. ​

Families with kids of all ages are encouraged to attend! 
​
Program length: 80 mins (with a brief intermission, see below for more details)
​

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 CONCEPT
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So...I'm sitting in a Chicago Symphony Chorus rehearsal, among two other pregnant soprano friends, (Nathalie and Ingrid) and it was a no-brainer.
​
- "We should do a concert together!" I said. 

​Performers (especially women) go through sometimes insurmountable struggles when trying to juggle their career and a family.

We are attempting to shed light on that issue, in a bold, artistic, sensitive, hilarious, and unprecedented way. Families are so important, and our identities as artists are not lost when we become Mothers, they are enriched. 

We will be celebrating Motherhood (of all kinds) singing classical lullabies, playful children songs, art song birth stories, and even some versions of musical theater songs that you should NEVER sing while pregnant. 
This program is just as much of an emotional roller coaster as is
a hormonal pregnant woman!  

​All of us, (even our pianist!) are expecting. One of our mothers-to-be is in the adoption process. Amanda is just awaiting the finalization of all that paperwork. Even though her baby bump is invisible, she is every bit as 'expecting' as the rest of us! Her baby boy is waiting for her in Thailand.  MOMS ARE AWESOME!
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SPONSORS

We are honored to be sponsored by The Sorel Organization,
and in part by The Northwestern University Bienen School of Music.
(Three of the five performers are Bienen School Alumni, Go Cats!)
Additional sponsors:
Evanston Arts Council
Bel Canto Foundation

We are also grateful to The Chicago Musician's Club of Women, for featuring this concert in their private Salon Series. And to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for hosting a free venue.
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SINGERS  
 RACHEL SPARROW (7 months along, 1st child)
NATHALIE COLAS, (7 months along, 1st child)
INGRID ISRAEL MIKOLAJCZYK, (5 months along, 1st child)
AMANDA KOOPMAN, (adopting! 1st child)
PIANIST
​ YOUNG JEE CHO (6 months along, 2nd child)
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​PROGRAM

What songs are we performing, you ask?
You may download our extensive program notes here:

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AND here are some youtube links to some of the songs, Enjoy the tunes before you hear them from us!
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1. "There is No Rose of Such Virtue" - Benjamin Britten 
       (This group number is a beautiful setting of this famous poem about one of the most revered Mothers of all: Mary, and her perfect newborn.)

2. Lullaby: Cancion de cuna para dormir un Negrito - Montsalvatge

3. Tribute to Mothers
"Songs My Mother Taught Me" - Dvorak (timeless, beautiful melody)
"I Won't Mind" - (a tribute to non-traditional/non-biological "Mothers" who are every bit as important to us in every way that a Mother can be!)
"Your Mother and Mine" - from Disney's Peter Pan
"Mama son tanto felice" - A Neopolitan song about how happy our Mother's make us!

4. Lullaby: "Weigenlied" - Richard Strauss

5. Silly Songs for Children
"A route to the sky" -"Euclid" - "The Moon's the North Winds Cooky" - Jake Heggie
"Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu" - "Quelle Aventure" - Poulenc

6. Lullaby: "All the Pretty Little Horses" - Copland

7. "I Want it All" from Baby, the Musical
(group number about wanting to have a career, adventure, love, life, and a family!) 

 - brief intermission -

8. Songs You Should Never Sing While Pregnant
"I Enjoy Being a Girl" - from Flower Drum Song
"Je suis grise" from La Perichole - Offenbach
I Cain't Say No - from Oklahoma! 

9. Lullaby: To Say Before Going to Sleep - Heggie

10. Birth Songs & Stories
"Pregnant" - "From the Start" - "Five Days" - Libby Larsen 
"Greeting" - Leonard Bernstein
(Friendly warning: highly emotional content! Bring tissues.) ​

11. FINALE
 Two show-stopper songs that we would NOT
​want to spoil for you!

(Spoiler: The Finale may or may not include someone actually acting out 'going into labor'. (Don't worry-It's all safe we have Ob's on site...jk haha!) - Finale also may or may not include a hilarious list of all the things a Mother may actually say to her children while raising them, in a very short amount of time.)

BRING YOUR MOM! AND MOMS, BRING YOUR KIDS! (Dads, you can come too, ;-) 

​VENUES

Parking is free and plentiful at the LDS Church in Wilmette for the Saturday concert.
And on Sunday, parking is free - in the lot near Lutkin Hall,
​just South of University Place, and East of Sherman.
​Snapshots of venues below.

LDS Church in Wilmette:

Lutkin Hall on NU Campus: