FUTURE CHORUS formed in the summer of 2017 to respond to the rise of the right-wing in the United States through art and song. The pop / punk choir sang original arrangements and unexpected cover songs in pubic and cultural spaces throughout the Bay Area from 2017 to 2019. Our material was chosen for its poetic connection to the current socio-political landscape, including cover songs by Solange, X, Bjork, the Flaming LIps, Bauhaus, Chumbawuma, the Dog Faced Hermans, and original arrangements by Gee Hahn, Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and Kate Sweeney.

From the start, the project was conceived as a collaboration. Musician and Los Angeles based performance artist Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs acted an an advisor and vocalist Claire Plumb expertly led the project as musical director for its duration, while Lena acted as the project’s creative director, selecting the material and narrative sequencing of songs for performances.

Together, we sang songs that are incantations to the forces that bolster transformative movements, songs that call upon love, resilience, imagination, inclusivity and determination to fight for a better future, performing at the de Young Museum, Johannson Projects, on the BART (the Bay Area public train system), and on the street.

RECORDINGS

The Song is Love, Artist Residency, de Young Museum October 31 to December 2, 2017.

During a month-long residency at the de Young Museum, The Song is Love tapped into the transformative power of art and collaboration to generate empathy in a moment of political disaster. Through multiple collaborations with artists, musicians and the public, the residency at the museum upheld collective creative activity as a force capable of turning the tide away from hate and callousness, toward wider affirmative forces of love, imagination and inclusivity. For the duration of the project, my studio was set up as an intimate space within the museum and visitors were invited to send letters of solidarity into the wider world at an art and letter-writing station made by local woodworker Nobuto Suga. In addition to the development of new work and letter writing activities, FUTURE CHORUS practiced weekly and performed at the museum on December 2nd, along with dance by choreographer Lauren Benjamin and a prelude by multi-media artist Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. 

FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Lena Wolff

CHORUS DIRECTOR
Claire Plumb, Little Mission Studio

COLLABORATORS & SONGWRITERS
Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs / Community Chorus
Gee Hahn
Koralie Hill
Ivy Jeanne
Terri Loewenthal
Jesse Carlo Parsons
Kate Sweeney

FUTURE CHORUS MEMBER VOCALISTS - PAST & PRESENT
Jessica Baer
Ezequiel Calderon Jr
Alice Caraway
Cedre Csillagi
Stevie Ann dePaola
Gee Hahn
Koralie Hill
Colter Jacobson
Ivy Jeanne
Jaime Knight
Rumi Koshino
Koralie Hill
Eli Lazarus
Phoenix Libsch
Terri Loewenthal
Mona Martinez
Muwazu Misquitta
Neil Nisbet
Jesse Carlo Parsons
Corinna Press
Lily Rachels
Amy Rathbone
Laurian Rhodes
Catherine Lipsetz Dauer
Laura Rose Sanford
Daniela Sea
Will Schwartz
Larisa Shaterian
Sarah Simon
Silky Shoemaker
Andrew Berg Sweeney
Kate Sweeney
Henry Velasco
Emerald Vernon-Lapow
Hannah Weiss
Hazel Klein Wolff
& more