October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and to start the month, Haven House will celebrate women in the arts.

Rachel Rising - A Celebration of Women in the Arts celebrates many art forms -- music, painting, photography, fine metalwork and more. The event will include the world premiere of a new classical work called Rachel Rising from whence the event takes its name.

Soprano Rebekkah Hilgraves, composer/conductor Rob Deemer, violinist Lucie Novoveska and a host of other musicians from Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and the graduate department of UT School of Music will perform.

Eleven years ago, after surviving a particularly precarious (long story) ordeal, Rebekkah Hilgraves wrote Rachel Rising as a cycle of poems. Wishing to have the poems set to music, the soprano sought out composers who would be interested in setting it in a song cycle for her to sing. Over the years she asked three, all of whom expressed interest but could not for whatever reason get involved at the time.

Timing was right at last; composer Rob Deemer committed to setting the entire cycle to music in a chamber work and the work will receive its premiere performances in October. The world premiere performance in Maryville, presented in conjunction with art displays and other works of women in the arts, will benefit Haven House. The song cycle will subsequently be presented at SUNY/Fredonia where Mr. Deemer teaches, and at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois in conjunction with university music school seminars on the collaborative process, preparing new works for performance, and other subjects relating to the work.

Other artists scheduled to participate in the event include photographer Theresa Saxon, fine gold- and silversmith Joann Marie, graphic artist and painter Dana Rimback and others.

Plan to attend this significant cultural event and support the work of Haven House! The performance date is scheduled for Thursday, October 2, 2008, at Fairview United Methodist Church, 2508 Old Niles Ferry Road, Maryville. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Please call Haven House at 865-983-6818 for more information.