Music Meets Drama

As we come to the end of Women’s History Month 2017, for me it has been a month of discovering women composers of the Romantic and Impressionist era.  I made it my goal to go to YouTube each day and find an unknown, to me, woman composer. I started by putting in the name of French composer, Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) in the search area.  I had known her name from my music history classes.  Several times I listened to her Symphony #3 then went on to her Symphony #1 and chamber music .  Over and over I kept asking myself why her symphonies are not performed by all orchestras whether conservatory or professional.  These works are lyrical, full of emotion and major pieces of music that should be performed.  YouTube then brought up composer Dora Pejačević (1885-1923), an Hungarian/Croatian composer.  I listened to her Symphony #4 in F# Minor and her Piano Concerto in G Minor .  Again, the question……….why are her works not perfor...

During the month of March, we acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishments of women of historical importance and those of today's world who carry the torch to make an impact on our society.  Thousands and thousands of women's names should be added to an honor roll of some sort! The first International Women's Day began here in the United States in 1911.  By 1978, the Sonoma, California school district celebrated a Women's History Week that surrounded International Women's Day on March 8th.  The following year, Sarah Lawrence College held a conference about women's history.  President Jimmy Carter, in 1980, declared the week of March 8th as National Women's History Week.  A year later, Senator Orin Hatch and Representative Barbara Mikulski co-sponsored the first Joint Congressional Resolution proclaiming a Women's History Week.  By petitioning Congress in 1987, the National Women's History Project had March declared as National Women's...