Women in Music Blog

Sometimes in the midst of my own intense manifestation of geekdom I find myself wondering what is out in the world about the women during any one particular time period.  For instance, today is Franz Joseph Haydn's birthday...and that made me wonder just who were the women musicians who might have helped Haydn celebrate his birthday during his own time period if he had known them?  It fascinates me to think about what a woman with my own personal talent range could have done given the rules of society in any specific historical time period. I went searching the internet today to see if anyone else wondered what the lives of women musicians in Haydn and Mozart's time were like and I found this particularly enlightening article by Ann Midgette written for the Washington Post on June 4, 2008.  Click the link below if you find yourself equally curious about women musicians during the Classical Era. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/03/AR2008060303378.ht

In an effort to find what is out in the world about Women in the history of Music, I ran across this entry by Alice Gregory published in the New York Times on December 2, 2016.  She's highlighting the fact that the Metropolitan Opera was at that moment putting on an opera by a contemporary woman composer named Ashley Fure.  The great thing about this list is that it comes linked to recordings of works by these women composers throughout the years.  Some of the ladies Alice Gregory mentions are women we have already  mentioned on this blog, but others provide a glimpse of individuals who are new and equally interesting women of history.  Click the link below for Alice Gregory's New York Times article about women in the history of classical music! https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/02/arts/music/01womencomposers.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

I found this list on 98.7wfmt's website and it seemed appropriate for the ongoing focus on Women in Music that we have going on in this blogspot.  Some of these composers we've already mentioned this month, but several are new voices we all might be interested in noting!  Click the link below for the interactive experience 98.7 wfmt lets you have with the newest and best women composers currently influencing contemporary classical music! http://www.wfmt.com/2017/02/28/10-composers-changing-contemporary-classical-music-also-happen-women/

This profound comment comes from Mitsuko Uchida in an interview she did for the Telegraph with Ivan Hewet, their classical music critic on January 10, 2017.  I include it here during Women in History month to honor the performing women who travel the world helping us all learn through their talent what music can mean as they themselves continually seek ever deeper understandings of the music they perform.  Please enjoy this article, because it gives this world class performer the chance to impart her wisdom gained through experience.  Click the link shown here to go to The Telegraph and  read some inspirational words from a wise and wonderful master of the piano.   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/mitsuko-uchida-interview-not-enough-play-piano-takes-lifetime/?platform=hootsuite

While Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth wife, was not herself a musician, recent findings in England say that she and Thomas Tallis cooperated to write music to rally the English people behind Henry's war plans.  This is Women in History month and so today we celebrate the interesting musical connection of Katherine Parr! Just click on the link below to see the Telegraph's fascinating article on this newly found but very old musical treasure. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/12/king-henry-viiis-sixth-wife-collaborated-thomas-tallis-write/

18 Women Composers We should all know! Happy International Day of the Woman!

Women who have won the Pulitzer Prize for Music: (pictured from left to right) 1983 Ellen T. Zwilich for Three Movements for Orchestra  1991 Shulamit Ran for Symphony 1999 Melinda Wagner for Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion 2010 Jenifer Higdon for Violin Concerto 2013 Caroline Shaw for Partita for 8 Voices 2015 Julia Wolfe for Anthracite Fields

Music Library Association Women in Music Interest Group Blog March is rather a magical time in the world of a group that celebrates the contibutions of women in the world of music, since it is considered Women's History Month and includes the International Day of Women on March 8th. What more fitting time is there for beginning a blog that will be curated by all the members of the Music Library Association's Women in Music Interest Group?  Here I include a small collection of the Women in musical history that have inspired me. Lili Boulanger was a child prodigy composer in Paris and her music was completely remarkable, so remarkable, in fact, that she was the first woman to ever win the prestigious Prix de Rome. Amy Marcy Beach was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music.  Clara Schumann was a virtuoso pianist and traveled as a performing artist but she also composed and did it all while raising her family largely on her own after her h