A musical celebration of extraordinary women, through new songs inspired by their words

Hear Her Song is The Canales Project’s debut initiative honoring distinguished female leaders through new songs written by female composers and songwriters across the globe. Each artist connects with an honoree, and then uses her words and stories directly to create a song amplifying messages of women’s leadership and challenges they face in contemporary culture. It is both a musical commemoration of women’s achievements, and a call to action to advocate for gender equality.

This collaborative project aims to amplify women leader’s extraordinary voices while also providing opportunities for female composers and performers to use their own. Since its inception in 2017, Hear Her Song has commissioned over 50 songs, honored over 45 leaders, and collaborated with 12 partner organizations, involving over 12 countries.

Countries involved with Hear Her Song

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Each composer is connected with an honoree and creates an original song using their words and stories as direct source inspiration


National Endowment for the Arts Award + El Sistema USA Partnership

We are honored to have received a ‘Grant for Arts Project’ from the National Endowment for the Arts for a project in collaboration with El Sistema USA® (ESUSA)! This project commissioned HHS artists Faye Chiao, Dom Jones, Morley and Madeline Myers to arrange their songs for El Sistema USA® affiliate youth ensembles including Intempo, Junea Alaska Music Matters, Make Music Nola and Sistema Utah.

These collaborations not only provided youth ensembles with new music from the Hear Her Song canon, but also provide professional opportunities for our composers, and expose youth to music of modern female composers that highlights stories of women leadership. Furthermore, these composers represent divergent musical styles and identity backgrounds, inviting a dialogue that fosters mutual respect for the diverse beliefs and values of all persons and groups.

Students from Make Music NOLA performing ‘Someday’ by Faye Chiao.

Wellesley College Artistic Residency 2022 Feature

In April 2022, we worked with students at Wellesley College with a vocal Masterclass featuring songs from the Hear Her Song Canon! It was a powerful experience to have songs from the canon performed by students taking their own approach to these women’s’ stories and compositions.

Performance of ‘Someday’ by Faye Chiao (in honor of Lina Li)

Performance of ‘The Gardener’ by Sara Colman (in honor of Sakena Yaccobi)

Performance of ‘Diver’ by Grace McLean (in honor of Kathleen Turner)

Performance of ‘Grateful’ by Rosabella Gregory (in honor of Shivika Sinha)

Performance of ‘Yours is Ours’ by Gwyneth Herbert (in honor of Gloria Steinem) as part of Wellesley College Concert Series: Building Bridges Through Song


Hear Her Song Returns in 2022 with New Composers and Honorees!


We are thrilled to share that Hear Her Song will continue with a new round of composers and honorees! Our lineup of honorees have been nominated by our partner, Vital Voices Global Partnership. Honorees include Jamira Burley, The Dolls Clan, Victoria Kisyombe, Rouba Mhaissen and Priti Paktar. The composers writing songs in honor of these women include Sofía Élan, Manisha Maru, Alida McKeon, Giselle Felice and Olivia Rodriguez. We are looking forward to these five new songs aimed at celebrating both women’s leadership and artistry. As our composers will be working on these new songs for the next few months, during this time we invite you to check out the inaugural Hear Her Song album, proudly launched in March 2021. We hope you find inspiration from these empowering stories!


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Hear Her Song Album Available Now!

On March 26th, 2021, TCP launched the VERY FIRST album of Hear Her Song! You can check it out below:

YEAR 1

2017 - 2018

Composers


Honorees



YEAR 2

2018 - 2019

Composers


Honorees



YEAR 3

2020-2021

Composers


Honorees



PARTNERS