Where were YOU a quarter of a century ago? Do you remember? What kind of music were you listening to? Twenty-five years ago, Calliope Women's Chorus was just forming. During 2000-2001, we are celebrating our first 25 years of singing and working and playing (and processing!) together. We want you to join us.

Calliope Women's Chorus was formed in 1976 by a small group of women who met in member's living rooms to sing and socialize together. Twenty-five years later, we are a 501c3 non-profit organization. As the second oldest Feminist women's chorus, we have a strong commitment to the community and the world, we have an important mission, and we are still singing and socializing together!

We have MANY ideas underway for celebrations. The 25th Anniversary Task Force is hard at work developing plans for our special year. One idea we are working on is a video retrospective of Calliope history. The documentary will include interviews with the public; former and present members, directors and collaborators; and exciting, never before seen footage of the chorus!! We will be working on this video during the next year and a half and hope to premiere it in our 2002-2003 season.

We want our 25th year concerts to be extra special. Our fall concert, tentatively titled, "Your Favorites and Ours," will be full of the songs you have loved over the years, As we plan the program, we need you let us know what those are. Enclosed in this newsletter is a survey to tell us YOUR favorites. They could be songs you have heard us perform, or songs you WISH we would perform. We want this concert to be about all of us - the singers and the audience. After all, we wouldn't be here if not for YOU!! To give you another opportunity to voice your favorites, we are having an evening to reminisce at Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, Tuesday, March 20 at 6:30 pm. Please come ready to share memories of Women's Music in the last 25 years and what it's meant to you. How do you define Women's Music? Who are some of your favorite songwriters or musicians? What music has been especially important to you? How long have you been a Calliope audience member or singer? We would love to hear your stories and opinions about Calliope and our music.

We are very excited to announce that we are negotiating with Rhiannon to join us on stage in the spring of 2001. We are hoping to bring her to town for a weekend and will host a vocal workshop for those interested. Rhiannon is a talented improvisation artist and vocalist who was in the San Francisco based women's ensemble Alive! She currently performs with Bobby McFerrin in Voicestra and performs and teaches exhilarating improvisation and vocal techniques around the world and in the Bay area.

So, plan to come to our special parties and concerts, and don't forget to shop the Calliope sales booths for 25th anniversary mugs, tote bags and clothing. We will be sponsoring a contest to design a special 25th anniversary logo, so if you have an artistic side, start thinking! We are very proud to have reached this milestone in our herstory, and invite you to help us shape how we celebrate it!