Joanna Pascale. Lyric is paramount for Philadelphia-based vocalist Joanna Pascale, who insists that she cannot perform a song unless she can connect personally with its lyrics. But once she’s found that connection, there’s no one who can better convey the emotion of those words more directly and intimately than Pascale. A singer of sophisticated taste, profound expressiveness, and raw emotion, Pascale is also a gifted educator who has been a member of the vocal faculty at both Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. She’s been featured on recordings by Jeremy Pelt, Tim Warfield, Orrin Evans, Larry McKenna, the Temple University Jazz Band, and Garry Dial and Dick Oatts. Pascale made her recording debut with 2004’s When Lights Are Low, followed by the 2008 CD Through My Eyes and a 2010 duo recording with pianist Anthony Wonsey. With the 2015 release of Wildflower, she revealed her most personal and diverse collection to date. She received a 2016-2017 jazz residency with the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts. Learn more at joannapascale.com. (Photo: Whitney Thomas) Sister Cities Girlchoir (SCG) empowers girls by building resilience, leadership, mastery and connection through a comprehensive choral training academy that invests in the unique potential of adolescent girls to enhance their communities. The program is research-based, and although a music program is an uncommon girl empowerment tool, SCG is modeled on the powerful impact that investments in the lives of girls make for a city block, a neighborhood, a city….for the world. SCG is modeled after El Sistema, Venezuela’s monumental music education program that is transforming lives and communities. SCG Founder, Alysia Lee spent a year studying El Sistema and visiting programs in Venezuela and throughout the U.S. through the Sistema Fellowship at the New England Conservatory. Learn more at sistercitiesgirlchoir.org.