The Peninsula Women's Chorus (PWC) is a Palo Alto-based, 50-voice women's choir performing high-quality classical and contemporary music in the Bay Area and many parts of the world. Since its founding in 1966, the Peninsula Women's Chorus has been committed to excellence in the performance of diverse and challenging choral literature for women's voices, and is recognized as the premier vocal ensemble for women in the San Francisco Bay Area. The PWC has come to national and international attention through live performance and recordings and has added significantly to the choral literature by commissioning new music. The chorus inspires and enriches its audiences in the Bay Area through its concert series, its ongoing program of premiering new works, and its numerous collaborations with other performing groups. PWC has produced 8 CDs. Featured on this CD, Mostly Made in America, are some the PWC's signature and most intimate performances, including the heart-wrenching "Let Evening Come," the battling interludes of "Thou Famished Grave," the intricate and exuberant "Venite Exultemus Domino" and the well-loved Songs of Night, commissioned to celebrate Artistic Director Martín Benvenuto's tenth anniversary with the PWC in 2013. Unusual repertoire The PWC's commitment to performing new and interesting music has produced many works that have expanded women's choral literature and has also prompted the chorus's involvement in projects beyond the scope of the normal concert season. From 1982 to 1987, the PWC was involved in performing unique "vocal orchestra" music from a World War II women's internment camp in Sumatra, resulting in a beautiful documentary film, Song of Survival. In 1995, the PWC and music director Patricia Hennings performed Puccini's opera, Suor Angelica, with Palo Alto's West Bay Opera company. Collaboration and Outreach For more than 40 years, the PWC has not only brought outstanding performances to local audiences through its own concerts, but it has also drawn visiting choirs (women's, men's, and mixed) from around the world for joint events. Tours to the British Isles, Eastern and Western Europe, British Columbia, and Newfoundland have extended the PWC's impact beyond the United States and enlarged the chorus members' appreciation and knowledge of the music of other cultures. At the local level, the PWC collaborates with local musicians and other choral groups, such as the Golden Gate Men's Chorus, and since 2008 has collaborated on the annual New Music For Treble Voices Festival (NMFTV) with the San Francisco professional chorus Volti. This dynamic festival brings together treble voice choirs from around the Bay Area to perform new music together and for each other. The PWC encourages the next generation of singers by participating in the Women's Exchange Festival, a festival of young women's high school choruses, and through its Mentorship Program in which qualified high school women sing with the PWC for a season, culminating in a performance in the NMFTV. In 2000, a Poetry and Music Project brought together local elementary schoolchildren with the California Poets in the Schools and composers Brian Holmes, Ron Jeffers and Joan Szymko, who wrote nine new works based on poems written by the children. In the 2008 Poetry and Music project, the PWC partnered with Tapestry Arts of San Jose, Cantabile Youth Singers, and composer Karen Linford, resulting in three short pieces by Cantabile composers and a full commission by Linford using poems written by children. Grants, Honors and Awards In 2015 the PWC won first place in the American Prize for Choral Performance, community chorus division, with the submission of its Mostly Made in America CD. In 2011, the PWC won second place in the American Prize for Choral Performance with its 2010 CD Nature Pictures. Also in 2011, the PWC was selected to participate in the Seghizzi International Competition of Choral Singing in Gorizia, Italy. The PWC's artistic excellence and leadership role in introducing new music to its audiences was acknowledged by a grant in 2009 from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, which recognizes performing organizations "whose artistic excellence encourages and improves public knowledge and appreciation of serious contemporary American music." In 2006, the PWC was awarded third place in the Béla Bartók 22nd International Choir Competition and Folklore Festival, women's division. Twice the PWC has received the prestigious ASCAP award for adventurous programming, most recently in June 2003, reflecting the excitement of performing challenging contemporary music from around the world. Director Martín Benvenuto, artistic director Martín Benvenuto is one of the leading treble choir conductors in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he has been Artistic Director of the Peninsula Women’s Chorus (PWC) since 2003. Active as a clinician, panelist, and guest conductor, Benvenuto is also Artistic Director of WomenSing (WS), has served as Artistic Director of the Contra Costa Children’s Chorus, and has been on the faculty of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir for eight years. Recognized for his exacting technique, and a passion for drawing the finest choral tone, Benvenuto’s repertoire is extensive. In addition to the historical repertoire, his choirs are dedicated to commissioning new works from composers such as Kirke Mechem, Libby Larsen, Mark Winges, Ted Hearne, Chen Yi, Stacy Garrop, Charles Griffin, Cristián Grases, Judith Shatin, Frank Ferko, Brian Holmes, and David Conte. His choirs have earned high marks in international competitions in Argentina, South Africa, Canada, Hungary, and Spain. Of particular note are the Third Prize awarded to the PWC at the 2006 Béla Bártok International Choir Competition, one of the most prestigious in the European circuit, the 2010 Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker award, which recognized WomenSing for programming recently- composed music that expanded the mission of the chorus, and the PWC’s second place in the 2011 American Prize in Choral Performance, which recognizes and rewards the best recordings by choruses in the U.S. Benvenuto highly values artistic collaborations: his choirs have collaborated with Veljo Tormis, Joseph Jennings, Karmina Silec and Carmina Slovenica, Charles Bruffy, California Shakespeare Theater, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus. Benvenuto has prepared choirs for organizations such as the San Francisco Opera, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Redwood Symphony, and the Kronos Quartet in works by Bach, Monteverdi, Britten, Mahler, Holst, Stravinsky, and Orff. Benvenuto also regularly appears as tenor soloist with leading Bay Area ensembles. Benvenuto holds a D.M.A. in choral conducting from Boston University, where he studied with Ann Howard Jones and the late Robert Shaw. He earned his master’s degree from Westminster Choir College, majoring both in Choral Conducting and in Voice Performance and Pedagogy. His undergraduate degrees in choral conducting and composition are from the Universidad Católica Argentina.