MILLENNIAL WOMAN
Illustration and Design by Christina Wen
Millennial Woman is a call to unify women and men around gender-blind equality of opportunity. It celebrates the emergence of women in positions of visibility and influence, despite the visible and invisible deterrents to be overcome. It inspires others to follow.
Lyrics by David Keyes and Stephanie Chou Music by Stephanie Chou
Produced, Recorded, Mixed by Roy Hendrickson at Spin Recording Studios, NYC, October 2020 Mastered by Fred Kevorkian
Stephanie Chou - voice Drums - Ralph Rolle; Bass - Jerry Barnes; Piano, Organ - Shedrick Mitchell; Guitar - Sherrod Barnes
Executive Producer David Keyes
Millennial Woman gives a voice, understandable by all, to the yearning for fairness and demand for justice of today’s ambitious women, who have paid full dues in terms of education and sacrifice but have not received full membership.
Millennial Woman is dedicated with admiration to Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020), one of the greatest visionaries of the preceding millennium, who dedicated much of her career to equality of opportunity for women, and to whom millennial women – and men – owe accordingly much for the strengthening of our third millennium society and economy.
Illustration and Design by Christina Wen
The lyrics to Millennial Woman began in December 2018 as Millennial Daughter, in the form of mentorly aspirations of David Keyes for the talented women scholars he had watched graduate in over three decades of teaching engineering, mathematics, and computer science, knowing from professional experience on the downstream side of graduation how the playing field was often tilted against them. It sat dormant until composer/musician and mathematician Stephanie Chou, who had worked together with Professor Keyes in 2008 on the mathematical structure of musical harmony while both were at Columbia University, enthusiastically received the challenge of setting it to song in autumn 2020. Stephanie had spent much of the previous two years working on Comfort Girl, a musical concept album memorializing the suffering of Chinese “comfort women” during World War II, whose NYC premiere David heard in March 2019. Their resonance for Millennial Woman was immediate, their iterations were rapidly converging, and their expectations are high.
An expedited production pathway for Millennial Woman was charted by New York City mixer/engineer/producer Roy Hendrickson, who engaged veteran studio musicians Jerry Barnes on bass, Ralph Rolle on drums, Sherrod Barnes on guitar, and Shedrick Mitchell on piano and organ, to accompany Steph’s vocals.
photo by John Abbott, design by Christina Wen
Millennial Woman is more than a catchy tune or a window on a social phenomenon; it is intended as a call to unify women and men around gender-blind equality of opportunity – one of the great justice issues of this millennium, to be reckoned with throughout politics, business, law, finance, medicine, technology, the arts, and academia.
“...a real change of pace, an optimistic, bouncy rock song inspired by “those who write big questions.” This one’s got gospel-infused piano and organ, and more than a hint of hip-hop playfulness in the lyrics. Chou has a strong background in jazz; a lot of musicians have a hard time shifting gears into more straightforward, simple harmonies, but she doesn’t let it phase her.”
Lyric video: Audio only on Youtube:
Illustrations- Christina Wen; photo- John Abbott; Special Thanks - James Wordsworth for his vocal guidance
Why KAUST's Women To Impact Matters - KAUST Webinar 2020 featured speech - David Keyes - 2020
Review in New York Music Daily - “Potent Relevance and Inspiration from Stephanie Chou” - 2021
Together apART: Creating During COVID | ArtsWestchester exhibition (online) - May 2021
Songs for Social Change 2021 Finalist - Renaissance Artists and Writers Association - 2021
The Radical Songbook Podcast - April 2022
“When David first sent me his lyrics, I “heard” the chorus immediately in my head. I knew we had to get this important and timely message out there, and that a protest song would be an effective way to do that. His words came at the perfect time for me, because I had been wanting to create an artistic response to the turbulent times of the past few months, but had not yet found a way. This song became that for me, and I hope it inspires real change. David and I have collaborated previously, but this is our first song that has led to a studio recording. Roy and I have worked together for many years, and his treatment of the song took it to another level. Working on “Millennial Woman” has brought me so much joy, and I hope it resonates with people.”
“Knowing how busy Steph was with her Comfort Girl project, I hesitated to open up a new line of collaboration, but her songwriting fluency together with her commitments of conscience made her the perfect test for my recently revamped lyrics. When she came back with a catchy refrain in just an hour, I knew we were resonating. I knew that I needed her perspective on what would be singable and what would reach the career-oriented millennials that she represents. Everything I sent her came back with 3 or 4 options, including lyrical improvements, and I could hardly choose between them. I feel like we left some great songs unborn but I’m thrilled with what was born. We lost RBG just as we converged and we are proud to dedicate it to her.”