iSing Silicon Valley

The California girls' choir iSing Silicon Valley reflects the diversity of the area in which it is rooted and has commissioned many new works. The group has made several recordings and has attracted critical attention from well beyond Silicon Valley. The choir was founded in 2013 by Jennah Delp Somers, who directs the group, and Shane Troll, who serves as artistic director. Its stated goal is to change the lives of young women through choral music. The group has an educational as well as a performing function; iSing has 300 members between the first and 12th grades who receive rigorous musical training. Smaller groups appear in performance and on recordings. The group cultivates diversity in its membership and administration, drawing on the cultures of its home area. Offering need-based tuition assistance, iSing strives to make its program accessible to students regardless of their families' financial resources. Admission is by audition and is open to young singers in the iSing geographic area. Girls often participate in iSing over a period of years, and the organization plays a major role in the lives of the singers and their families. The group has won awards in the U.S. and beyond, including the Chorus America/Dale Warland Singers Commission Award (2018), the Grand Prize at the 8th International Robert Schumann Choral Competition (2018), and the World Champion title at the World Choir Games (2023, Gangneung, South Korea). In 2020, iSing released its debut album, Here I Stand, on the Innova label. The diversity cultivated by iSing extends to its repertory, which includes newly commissioned works as well as traditional pieces. Commissions have gone to composers from underrepresented groups, often to women. Some iSing commissions are Lux aeterna by Sungji Hong, Where the Insects Cry by Santa Ratniece, and Lenggang Kangkung by Tracy Wong. The group has collaborated with prominent individuals and groups, including singers Joyce DiDonato, Barbara Bonney, and Estelí Gomez; musical pioneer Meredith Monk; vocal ensemble Voces8; the St. Lawrence String Quartet; and members of the SF Symphony and One Found Sound. The choir has released two more full-length albums, Drift (on Amsterdam Records in 2022) and Love & Light (on Avie, 2023). The group, with singers themselves directing the performance, also recorded Caroline Shaw's So Quietly for Innova during COVID-19 pandemic isolation in 2021.
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