Women in Music - August 2016

This summer has brought us an abundance of political news I am sure most of us would rather ignore.  Our wish may have been that we could escape all of it for the joys and freedom of vacation time. 

During the hot, humid days of July and now early August, announcements and news about women in the arts have lit up my computer screen.  Creativity, digging in with determination and bold, daring decisions initiated new opportunities for performances of women’s music! 

From Vancouver, British Columbia came the announcement that the Allegra Chamber Orchestra, an all female group, will be showcasing women composers. Five women conductors will be leading the Sao Paulo Symphonic Orchestra in Brazil.  In England, the London Festival of American Music featured all women composers. 

There is an all female electronic music festival in San Francisco.  

Dr. Julia Mortyakova, pianist, of the Mississippi University for Women, has released a CD of works by women composers.  Celebrating 70 years of existence, the Ojai Music Festival in Ojai, California declared their season, The Year of the Woman.  

Spring in the northeast brought the inaugural concert of the BostonWomen’s Music Project.  The Festival was founded by New England Conservatory of Music student, Katherine Miller.  

Take a look at the website, MANY MANY WOMEN, an index of woman composers and performers of all genres.

Bona fide creativity deserves an award!  In the site of a former Harvard swimming pool, four singers and a pianist, playing an electric piano, presented four operatic scenes by historic women composers.  What an inspired project though I am sure the group would prefer a real theatre and a grand piano for their next performance.  

Through the ages of classical music women composers have been marginal citizens.  As I have written in past blog entries, these women produced their own concerts, became marketing experts and were performers.  Era upon era of women composers laid down a pathway, brick upon musical brick, for those who would come after them. 

Our present generation of women composers, performers of their music and the audiences are reaping the benefits of those wonderful women of the past.  Make it your musical journey to experience and be a patron of women’s music in your communities.