October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Boston-based artist-alliance group Women In Music Gathering is helping raise awareness of the important work of Casa Myrna and RESPOND, two local programs helping domestic violence survivors and their children.
The #WIMG 5th Annual Showcase, Sunday, November 5th at the Burren in Somerville, MA is donating all proceeds to these two great organizations. You can help #WIMG help Casa Myrna and RESOLVE by purchasing tickets and attending the show.
What can you expect?
You will be treated to blues, jazz, and folk/singer-songwriter tunes performed by #WIMG members Meral Ekincioglu, Deborah Galiga, Joanna Katzen, Linda Marks, Isabel Stover and Lori Zuroff in an uplifting concert. Staff members from Casa Myrna and RESOLVE will also speak.
"Domestic violence knows no bounds, sadly enough," remarks Women In Music Gathering co-founder and award winning singer-songwriter Linda Marks. "People of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds in every city and town, locally and globally experience domestic violence."
In an effort to get to the heart of the matter, Marks has written a new song, "Sanctuary," inspired by and incorporating words of domestic violence survivors. "Casa Myrna and RESPOND both gave me stories from domestic violence survivors and their words led to an uplifting song of hope, healing and resilience, 'Sanctuary.' My hope is that this song helps each of us look at the roots of domestic violence to help stop it from being so widespread, so that the world we give to our children is a safer, better one." The song will premiere at the November 5th show.
Listen to Sanctuary: https://youtu.be/ZFyR_PoIosc?si=OQy_92l9QrNB5FqO
Women In Music Gathering is an artist-alliance group bringing together women in music of all ages and backgrounds to support one another personally and professionally and to collaborate in sharing music, including the group's annual benefit concert at the Burren. "Women in music face many unique challenges as they try to balance being a musician with caring for all the important relationships in their life including children, family and partners. Having colleagueship and support makes a big difference."
Marks adds, "If you can't make the show, you can still support the benefit by purchasing tickets. You can even buy tickets for others who might like to attend the show. If you do so, just contact [email protected], so we can match tickets with people who would like to attend who might not be able to afford one. Every ticket sold makes a difference!"
About Linda Marks
Genre-bending, multi-award winning Boston based singer-songwriter Linda Marks is an emotional alchemist, creating uplifting songs at the heart of our times that heal, build community and give vision and hope. Finding her home in the Folk world, Linda integrates elements of jazz, gospel, pop, Latin and Broadway into her songwriting, letting the message of the song dictate the musical arrangement. Her songs can go deep (“Please Listen,” “Our Children’s Prayer,” “Coat Hanger Abortions And People Shooting Guns”), make you smile (“The Facebook Songwriter’s Blues,” “The Garden Buffet,” “Virtual Pie In The Sky”) or invite people to join together through song (“Be The Light,” “Let There Be Love,” “Love Always Wins.”) She has written songs about a wide range of contemporary issues: what it’s like to be a child in this world today, the gun violence epidemic, the teardown epidemic, bridging our political divide, domestic violence and caring for shelter animals to name just a few. She written songs for non-profits including the Cotta Blue Project, Casa Myrna and RESPOND, Light Up The Love, Upstage Lung Cancer, and Buddy Dog Humane Society.
Linda is known for her elegant voice, which has been described as “the voice of an angel,” and her rich studio arrangements. She is a prolific composer with a 14th studio album, A Recipe For Hope, due out 1/1/24. Her music was featured in the September 2023 Composer Showcase at Club Cafe in Boston and on Composer’s Corner with Andrew Celentano. Over the past 15 years, Linda has played at most of Boston’s top venues including Scullers Jazz Club, Club Passim, the Burren, City Winery, Club Cafe and Ryles Jazz Club, as well as performing in festivals and performing arts series like the Newton Festival of the Arts, the Rhode Island Folk Festival, the Boston Public Library and many Porchfests. She has been featured in the Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Metrowest Daily News, the Waltham Patch and on National Public Radio.
Linda’s 2022 Home album charted at #18 on the Folk Charts (Folk Alliance International) and her 2023 Everyday Legends album charted on the Roots Music Reports Folk Charts for more than 9 months. She has won awards from the World Songwriters Awards (2022), the International Singer Songwriters Association (2023), and has been a semi-finalist in Talent Is Timeless (2022).
Linda’s story is relevant to women in music today; following a period of writing and performance in her early 20’s (including releasing her first album, Dreams and Themes in 1983, appearing on major Boston music radio stations, and performing at Club Passim), Linda took a multi-decade hiatus during which she raised her now twenty-something son. Linda spent many years wanting to jump back into music wholeheartedly, but was sandwiched between the realities of being a single mom and caring for a mother with Alzheimers. Her journey embodies the very real struggle women in music face - merging family responsibilities with musical passions. In early 2018, Linda co-founded the Women in Music Gathering, an artist-alliance of women in music; singer/songwriters and performing musicians, with the primary goals of collaboration and support, extending to both personal and professional aspects of being a women in music.
Building community through music and the arts has been a lifelong commitment. As a young singer-songwriter just out of college, Linda founded The Boston Arts Roundtable to bring artists of many genres together to for colleagueship and support and to present multi-genre concerts to the public. She co-founded Yales’ 3rd women’s a cappella singing group Something Extra as a 17-year old freshman, which is still going strong today. Artist-alliance group Women In Music Gathering in 2018, presents an annual benefit concert at the Burren in Somerville to support a good community charity. She created the Music Salon as an intimate house concert series in 2014, and pivoted to grow it as an online community during the pandemic. To provide upliftment during pandemic times, Linda has been playing a weekly lifestream, "Songs From The Heart, Meditations For The Heart" on her personal Facebook pages since March 2020. She leads the International Singer Songwriter Association (ISSA) Boston (Northeast) Chapter, and won the 2023 ISSA Award for Best Representative USA. Linda is a member of the Recording Academy, Class of 2022 (Grammys), and is a Big Records Artist.
Linda is also a pioneer in the body psychotherapy field, and a published author who has toured the country, appearing on national television and NPR radio affiliates as a speaker on mind/body hearing and the power of the heart.
“Lifelong singer/songwriter Linda Marks not only sings from the heart, but also writes and arranges her songs from her heart and in doing so she hopes to capture an emotional, magical moment that may be experienced by the listener.” ~ Indie Music Women
“Linda Marks is a classy and accomplished singer/ songwriter, composer and mother. Linda is a piano-connected creator and social trendsetter.” ~ Colette O’Connor, Notes from New England, the Wimmin’s Show KZUM
To Purchase Your Tickets, Please Click the Ticketing link:
https://24hourconcerts.showare.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=541
Listen to your body...follow your heart...
Award winning singer-songwriter and
Pioneering heart-centered body psychotherapist
Songs At The Heart Of Our Times
https://www.LindaMarksMusic.com
https://www.healingheartpower.com
Be The Change (co-written with Mike Greenly)
Tribute song to David Ortiz, "Heroes" article in the Boston Globe 7/23/19
Listen to Heroes
Follow Linda on YouTube
Pamela
Commented 16 Oct, 2023
I am always excited for new music from Linda