Fifteen years ago my friend,
colleague and composer Heather Seaton along with several of her fellow student
composers founded the Women Composers Festival of Hartford. Their collective anger came from the fact that
not one woman composer was represented on the Hartt School of Music’s recital
programs. For the next nine years,
Heather and her friends saw their initial season of the Women Composers
Festival blossom into an international event.
See my blog post of September 2011.
Six years ago Heather invited
Martin and I to perform Life! Love! Song! A Visit with Gena Branscombe in Hartford The following day there was a
concert of Gena’s instrumental and choral works. A weekend of celebrating Gena Branscombe, her
life and music was a dream come true.
At the end of her ninth season
as director, Heather gave up her leadership and handed off
the management role to Daniel Morel.
He has kept the Women Composers Festival moving into the future.
In late February Heather
phoned asking me to perform her solo work, “Credo” at this year’s
festival. As a founding member, Heather
had been invited to return as a featured composer and to participate on a panel
discussion. This was a well deserved honor for Heather!
Quickly Heather e-mailed me
her “Credo", graciously agreed to rewrite some sections of the piece then, I
was off learning her beautiful music. On
March 5, 2015, Heather and I performed her “Credo” on The Invisible Woman
concert for the Women Composers Festival of Hartford - 2015!
Other featured
music on the concert was spirituals sung by Alika Hope, JS Bach/Anna Magdalena
Bach cello suites performed by Maria Martinez and Barbara Strozzi’s “Begli
Occhi” sung by Anna Hayrapetyan and Amelia Nogoski accompanied by Penny Brandt
and Maria Martinez. Between the performances Penny Brandt presented commentary about the composers, their music
and the history of women in music. It
was an honor to return to this important event.
Six years after Heather’s
departure, the festival’s president, Penny Brandt, and Executive Director Daniel
Morel oversee scheduling, performances, performance spaces, panels, performers,
budget problems and fund raising. Women
composers as well as performers who play works by women submit proposals to the
festival for consideration. All this
culminates in a five day March weekend celebrating women in music. 
This year’s composer-in-residence
was Dr. Lisa Renée Coons whose music was performed and who presented a lecture. The concerts and presentations throughout the
five days were diverse as well as inspiring for all who attended.
The future of the Women
Composers Festival of Hartford is bright.
Heather Seaton and friends set the foundation for the festival and we
are thankful for their initiative. Promoting
women’s music is imperative for history has shuffled female composers to the
background. There is a rich repertoire of
women’s music from the past and present that must and will be heard in concert
halls throughout the world. And, the performance of women's music has had
a helping hand from the Women Composers Festival of Hartford.
