Allison Aldrich Smith, founder of  Keene’s Animaterra Women’s Chorus, which ran from 1997 to 2020, told  Sunday’s audience at the Monadnock Summer Lyceum that “there will be more singing than talking.”

“I have been asked to sing a lot, talk a little,” Smith said. “So that is what we are going to do.”

The event opened with a nearly 30-minute performance by the Tara Greenblatt Band, led by Tara Greenblatt, a former member of Animaterra. Moderator Barbara Harlow, one of Animaterra’s original members,  moderated Sunday’s event and introduced Aldrich Smith.

“The name Animaterra comes from ‘anime,’ the spirit, ‘terra,’ Earth, with ‘mater,’ mother, in the middle,” Harlow said. “It is very much about the spirit of Mother Earth, and it was all about creating community.”

Aldrich Smith thanked Eric Blackmer, a member of the lyceum committee and a member of the Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church, for inviting her to speak. 

After moving to Keene to take a position as a music teacher in 1997, Aldrich Smith read about a new arts center, the Keene Institute for Music and Related Arts, which was holding an open house.

“The sign-in sheet asked ‘What would you like to see at KIMRA? And I just wrote, ‘I would love to see a women’s chorus, and I’ll direct it!’” Aldrich Smith said with a laugh. “And six other women signed up under me that they would like to be a part of it.”

The choir grew steadily, with 17 women attending the first meeting, and soon outgrew the practice space at KIMRA. Aldrich Smith described the moment when she realized that in creating the Animaterra Chorus, she had also created a new community.

“After our very first show, just six months after I had founded the group, I went out into the parking lot and saw all these women standing around in little groups, talking. So I went and asked them, ‘Were you friends before you joined the choir?’ And they all said no! Then I knew I had created a community, and these bonds are still in place, 30 years later.”

While Animaterra stopped performing in 2020, during the pandemic, the group remains close, with 18 original members of the choir coming to Peterborough to sing for Sunday’s event.

Aldrich Smith described how, in order to be fully inclusive to all women, Animaterra never had auditions, as any woman who wanted to sing was welcome to join. Aldrich Smith recalled that while she had intended for Animaterra to sing by rote rather than using sheet music, the group evolved with a combination of techniques, with some singers reading music and others singing by ear. 

“The most important thing was connection, that we look people in the eye, and that people were looking at the audience and at the director, not at the book,” Aldrich Smith said. “We sang songs of peace, of joy, reconciliation, the Earth, of women’s issues; but we were singing for everybody.”

By 1998, Animaterra had grown to 65 women, organized by an advisory circle that took care of logistics and management while Aldrich Smith focused on the music. In 2015, Animaterra won the Ruth and James Ewing Arts Award.

“We need to sing,” Aldrich Smith said. “We need to sing in the shower. We need to sing to our children and grandchildren, and we need to sing without judgment or criticism. Studies have proven that people who participate in choirs are healthier and happier. They have greater optimism, a better sense of purpose, a feeling of contributing to community at large, an appreciation of cultural diversity and better physical health. My challenge to you today is to sing with us, and then find a way to keep singing.”

The Monadnock Summer Lyceum concludes with “Yoga for Today: The Science Behind How It Works,” presented by Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, Aug. 25 at 11 a.m. at Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church.