Carols by Jane Savage (1752 – 1824) and Eliza Flower (1803 – 1846)
Carols by Jane Savage and Eliza Flower, recorded by Frances Lynch and members of the Electric Voice Theatre and Virtual Choir here https://www.electricvoicetheatre.co.uk/joyful-music-for-christmas
[December 24, 2022]
Carols by Judith Weir and Errollyn Wallen in Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College
Seasons Greetings to all our supporters!
Carols by Errollyn Wallen and Judith Weir are included in A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Cambridge, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, today, 24th December at 3 PM and tomorrow, Christmas Day, at 1 PM, and available on BBC Sounds after the first broadcast. All details here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001g9pf
You can also hear Peace on Earth by Errolyn Wallen performed by the Girl Choristers of Merton College Oxford here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXbkV-Iyju
Complete programme for Nine Lessons and Carols 2022
Hymn: Once in royal David’s City (Irby, arr. Willcocks)
Bidding Prayer (read by the Dean)
Carol: Up! Good Christen folk, and listen (Piae Cantiones, harm. Woodward)
First lesson: Genesis 3 vv. 8-19 (read by a Chorister)
Carol: The truth from above (Vaughan Williams, arr. Christopher Robinson)
Carol: Adam lay ybounden (Warlock)
Second lesson: Genesis 22 vv. 15-19 (read by a College student)
Carol: Illuminare Jerusalem (Judith Weir)
Third lesson: Isaiah 9 vv. 2, 6-7 (read by a member of College staff)
Carol: O Little town of Bethlehem (Walford Davies)
Hymn: It came upon the midnight clear (Noel, descant Scott)
Fourth lesson: Isaiah 11 vv. 1-9 (read by the Master over the Choristers)
Carol: Peace on Earth (Errollyn Wallen)
Carol: Sans Day Carol (Trad. Cornish, arr. John Rutter)
Fifth lesson: Luke 1 vv. 26-38 (read by a Fellow)
Carol: An old carol (Quilter)
Carol: Angelus ad Virginem (Matthew Martin) – 2022 Commission
Sixth lesson: Luke 2 vv. 1-7 (read by the Mayor of Cambridge)
Hymn: Unto us is born a Son (Puer nobis, arr. Willcocks)
Carol: In the bleak midwinter (Darke)
Seventh lesson: Luke 2 vv. 8-20 (read by the Director of Music)
Carol: The Shepherds’ Cradle Song (Leuner, arr. Macpherson)
Eighth lesson: Matthew 2 vv. 1-12 (read by the Vice-Provost)
Carol: O magnum mysterium (Victoria)
Carol: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (Gardner)
Ninth lesson: John 1 vv. 1-14 (read by the Provost)
Hymn: O come, all ye faithful (Adeste Fideles, arr. Willcocks)
Collect and Blessing
Hymn: Hark! the herald angels sing (Mendelssohn, arr. Ledger)
Organ voluntaries:
In dulci jubilo, BWV 719 (Bach)
Prelude and Fugue in B major Op. 7 No. 1 (Dupré)
Daniel Hyde (Director of Music)
Paul Greally (Organ Scholar)
The Revd Dr Stephen Cherry (Dean)
The Revd Dr Mary Kells (Chaplain)
[December 24, 2022]
Silvia Montello is the new CEO of AIM – Association of Independent Music – congratulations
AIM – the Association of Independent Music have just announced that Silvia Montello will be their new CEO for operations and strategy bringing a wealth of experience and a very fine attitude. Congratulations from Women in Music.
AIM APPOINTS SILVIA MONTELLO AS CEO
Montello brings thirty years of experience in marketing, commercial and strategic operations. She replaces Paul Pacifico in leading AIM’s overarching operations and strategy, as it continues to support the UK’s growing independent music sector, which now comprises 29% of the market.
She joins from a role as CEO of the global trade body the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM), and has held previous senior positions at Universal Music Group, BMG and AWAL, as well as fast-growing startup Blokur. She also founded music and marketing consultancy Voicebox Consulting in 2011, which works with charities, non-profits and SMEs.
Montello is a passionate campaigner for diversity, equity and inclusion, co-founding #remarQabl, an electronic music-focused label services and publishing company supporting new talent from under-represented backgrounds. She is also committed to educating the music industry about neurodiverse conditions and how best to work with neurodiverse talent.
-Here’s the article in full.
[December 7, 2022]
Concert in Memory of Enid Luff 17th November
Please see the attached flyer for details of An Evening of Concerts dedicated to the memory of Enid Luff (1935-2022) from the London New Wind Festival on Thursday 17th November, at The Warehouse, London SE1 8ST. We hope to see some of you there.
Enid was one of the founding members and a continuing supporter of Women in Music in the UK. The concert also includes a piece by Sonja Grossner (1942-2020). Sonja was also an active member of Women in Music in recent years. They are greatly missed.
Tickets available on the door (cash only) or online. https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/london-new-wind-festival
[November 4, 2022]
25th London New Wind Festival – 1st October 2.30pm to 9.30pm
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/london-new-wind-festival
[September 28, 2022]
The Boatswain’s Mate by Ethel Smyth – Grimeborn 2022, Arcola Theatre, London 10-13 August
A revival of Ethel Smyth’s comic opera The Boatswain’s Mate is being performed at the Arcola Theatre in London as part of the Grimeborn Opera Festival.
It is performed by Spectra Ensemble and directed by Cecilia Stinton
10 August – 13 August 2022 at 9 pm
https://www.arcolatheatre.com/whats-on/the-boatswains-mate
[August 8, 2022]
The Sommerville Collection
Songs and stories from the Sommerville Collection, making connections between women scientists, novelists, artists and musicians, linked to Mary Sommerville, performed by Frances Lynch.
Sunday 24th July 2022, 7.30 PM, Stroud Green Festival, Holy Trinity Church, Glanville Gardens, London N4 4EL.
www.electricvoicetheatre.co.uk
[July 18, 2022]
Women Composers Festival, 9 July, 7.30 pm, Southbank Centre, London
The London Oriana Choir, Edinburgh Singers, Southern Spirit Singers, and Archer Academy will perform music by women composers, including new commission by Hannah Kendall. The programme looks really great, get to this if you can.
Mia Makaroff: Butterfly
Kate Rusby: Underneath the stars arr. Jim Clements
Sarah Quartet: Swept away
Eleanor Daley: Set me as a seal
Aileen Sweeney: We will no longer sing into the silence
Judith Weir: My Guardian Angel
Annie Lennox: Love song for a Vampire
Jessica Curry: Home
Cecilia McDowall: Regina Caeli
Jessica Curry: I loved you first
Cheryl Frances-Hoad: So true a fool is love
Ailsa Dixon: These things shall be
Hannah Kendall: Tuxedo: Dust Bowl #2
Rebecca Dale: Salve regina
Shruthi Rajasekar: Green Fingers
Anna Disley-Simpson: In the blue
Tara Mack: In Lak’ech (You are my other me)
Kerry Andrew: who we are
Sat 9 Jul, 7.30pm
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Southbank Centre
London
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/classical-music/women-composers-festival?eventId=906293
[June 28, 2022]
BBC data shows festival lineup inequality yet again, and a response from the MU
BBC research shows that only 13% of festival headliners are female despite campaigns and promises for a 50:50 gender balance by 2022.
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-61512053
The Musicians’ Union responds, noting the need to address wider problems than just the festivals themselves, and the damage caused to the industry by this lack of representation.
[June 20, 2022]
JAM and VOCES8 launch a year-long masterclass series
JAM’s Masterclass Series 2022 is a composition course in choral writing, aimed at emerging UK-based composers. It is free and open to all UK-based composers aged 18+.
Composers are asked to submit a sketch by Friday 20th May 2022. These should be
· A maximum of 50 bars and
· written for SATB to SSAATTBB choir, a cappella.
· All texts must be in the public domain.
· Composers who submit must be able to attend the workshop in person to participate
On 9th July, a maximum of six composers, who have submitted sketches, will be offered the chance to take part in a choral workshop with VOCES8 and composer Paul Mealor. The workshop will take place at St Leonard’s Church, Hythe, Kent.
To watch bite-size choral writing videos by VOCES8 and for full details of this free masterclass series please visit https://jamconcert.org/jam-masterclass-series-2022/.
“Nurturing emerging composers is extremely important to me. JAM’s Masterclass Series does exactly this.” Paul Mealor, composer and JAM President.
The six composers who have participated in the workshop will then be asked to submit their completed pieces to JAM by 2nd September.
All six pieces will be performed by the VOCES8 Foundation in a recorded, public concert at St. Bride’s Church, Fleet Street in October. At the end of this performance one of the composers will be awarded the President’s Commission of £500. The commission will be premiered at JAM’s ‘Music of Our Time’ concert in March 2023.
[May 5, 2022]
JAM: Music of Our Time – 23 March 7.30 pm – St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London
Two premieres, a newly commissioned brass quintet by Janet Wheeler, and The Hand that Made Us Is Divine by Kathryn Rose, feature in this concert that opens JAM’s 2022 season, its first Music of Our Time concert since March 2019.
The full programme is
The Lord is my Light by William Harmer
Clarion Song (Op59) by Christopher Best
In Drifts of Sleep by Richard Peat
The Hand that Made Us Is Divine by Kathryn Rose
Carol of the Passion by Philip Lancaster
New Commission(for brass quintet) by Janet Wheeler
Between the Stormclouds and the Sea by Jack Oades (with text by Grahame Davies)
The Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge
Onyx Brass | Simon Hogan, organ | Mark Le Brocq, tenor |Grahame Davies, narrator
Michael Bawtree, conductor
7.30pm, Wednesday 23rd March
St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London EC4Y 8AU
[March 21, 2022]
Women Improvisers London Concert event on Wednesday 16th March 2022
[March 15, 2022]
Three Centuries of Female Composers (10-CD Box Set) – Worldwide Release Marking International Women’s Day 2022
Women in Music would like to congratulate composer and pianist Dr Tanya Ekanayaka and all those involved in the release of this marvellous collection.
Dr Tanya Ekanayaka – by Nadine Ishaq
Tanya writes
It gives me great pleasure to share with you, news of a unique release in celebration of International Women’s Day 2022 on 8th March.
A limited-edition 10-CD boxset titled, 3 CENTURIES OF FEMALE COMPOSERS containing works for solo piano by some of the greatest female piano composers through history is being released worldwide today (4th March). Many of you will likely recognise many of the composers and some of the music in this set can be accessed entirely free!
I’m deeply honoured that one of the CDs, (CD 9), comprises my own compositions for solo piano mostly composed during lockdown in 2020, and performed by me. Not least because of the beautiful context am I touched by this inclusion, but also because a core aspect of my creative practice as a South Asian woman composer-pianist with a very multicultural lived musical background, focuses on broadening the musical imprint of the piano across cultures and ‘spaces’ not traditionally associated with the pianistic canon.
The set is being released by Naxos Records (Grand Piano) and the following Naxos Records web-link contains full details https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=GP897X
The release note published by Naxos Records on their official web-page dedicated to the release and full list of composers featured are as follows:
“Ranging from the 18th century to the music of our time, this collection of critically acclaimed recordings explores the significant contribution to solo piano repertoire made by a wide variety of women composers. These rare and important pieces include the works of the celebrated pianist Anne-Louise Brillon de Jouy and of Hélène de Montgeroult, whose sonatas are distinctive additions to the Classical and early Romantic periods. Maria Szymanowska’s deft dances contrast with the fearsome demands of Teresa Carreño, herself a great virtuoso. Vítězslava Kaprálová was the most important female Czech composer of the 20th century, while Agathe Backer Grøndahl was one of Norway’s most respected composer-pianists. Tanya Ekanayaka continues the lineage in her own diverse and hybrid pieces.” – NAXOS RECORDS
Composers included (in alphabetical order) –
Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska
Amy Beach
Anna Bon
Lili Boulanger
Anne-Louise Boyvin d’Hardancourt Brillon de Jouy
Teresa Carreño
Cécile Chaminade
Tanya Ekanayaka
Chiquinha Gonzaga
Agathe Backer Grøndahl
Vítězslava Kaprálová
Emma Kodály
Haruna Miyake
Hélène-Antoinette-Marie de Nervo de Montgeroult
Tatiana Nikolayeva
Dora Pejačević
Florence Beatrice Price
Clara Schumann
Maria Szymanowska
And finally, here’s a little preview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT5GzgYczeI&t=5s
[March 7, 2022]
International Women’s Day 8 March 2022 celebrated on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is playing music written by women all day in celebration of International Women’s Day. Composers include:
Composer of the week Henriette Bosmans.
Lunchtime concert by the BBC Singers and organist Anna Lapwood with music by Kristina Arakelyan, June Nixon, Kerensa Briggs,
Sarah MacDonald, Melissa Dunphy, Cecilia McDowall, Judith Bingham and Ghislaine Reece-Trapp.
Afternoon concert including music by Joan Tower, Francesca Caccini, Lotta Wennäkoski, Isabella Leonarda, Erika Fox, Dora Pejacevic, Thea Musgrave, Dora Pejačević, and Elfrida Andrée.
In tune mixtape includes works by Doreen Carwithen, Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Errollyn Wallen, Clara Schumann and Laura Mvula.
Radio 3 in concert gives music by Maddalena Casulana and Barbara Strozzi.
Well done radio 3, and we would like more of this every day.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/schedules/bbc_radio_three/2022-03-08
[March 7, 2022]
Songs & Stories from “The Somerville Connexion” – 7pm 8th March 2022 online
For International Women’s Day, electric voice theatre are presenting this online concert of vocal music that celebrates women in the ambit of the nineteenth century astronomer and mathematician Mary Somerville.
Works to be performed include
Cheryl Frances-Hoad Something More Than Mortal (Words by Ada Lovelace)
Lynne Plowman Seven Dark Lines
Eliza Flower (1803 – 1846) Now Pray We for our Country and Rebecca’s Hymn
Isabella Scott Gibson (1786–1838) Row Gondolier and Lochnagar
Helen Blackwood, Lady Dufferin (1807 – 1867) The Charming Woman
Nicola Lefanu Wishing from “Rory’s Rounds”
Frances M Lynch ADA BAB(BLE)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/songs-stories-from-the-somerville-connexion-tickets-266033773177
[February 27, 2022]
The Routledge Handbook of Women’s Work in Music
This new Routledge Handbook, which arose from the papers given at the First International Conference on Women’s Work in Music, held at Bangor University in 2017, and edited by Rhiannon Mathias, is an important new collection of diverse research and practitioner reporting in this field. Routledge describe it as ‘a key reference work for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in music and gender’. It is available as an ebook as well as a hardback volume.
[February 27, 2022]
Stranger Fruit Contemporary Reflections on Jazz & Blues Women Zoom Feb 26th and fortnightly
Stranger Fruit
Contemporary reflections on the lives of Jazz and Blues women and their legacies
Fortnightly online participatory Zoom sessions Feb 26th, March 12th, March 26th April 9th
8pm UK time
Transculturalvisions in partnership with Griots Arts and Outerglobe presents Stranger Fruit: Contemporary reflections on the lives of Jazz and Blues women and their legacies, a participatory zoom programme with fortnightly sessions between February 26th and April 9th 2022. Arts advocates Debbie Golt and Marva Jackson Lord will host. Four contemporary women musicians of profile choose a fellow artist who inspires them and will share how their own music and practice is impacted by their chosen person. Each session will feature illustrated interviews with Sharron Macloed (voice/flute), Charlotte Keeffe (trumpet), RENU (percussion) and Roella Oloru (multi-instrumentalist) in turn. They will play their own music live inviting the others and eventually audience members to join in open ended improvisations together in real time on zoom. Visual artist Clare Marshall will paint inspired by the music and discussions during the zoom. The sessions will be free and participants will be able to register via a website – www.strangerfruit.net
Bilkis Malek, Director of Transculturalvisions said ‘Women are central to the origins and evolution of Jazz and Blues and have inspired some of the most famous musicians and their contributions are not always well known. I think of Ma Rainey whose gravelly vocals inspired Louis Armstrong, Janis Joplin and Bonnie Raitt and Victoria Spivey who nurtured the talent of Bob Dylan. There is also Mama Ray Thornton who originally recorded Hound Dog which was one of Elvis Presley’s biggest hits. Stranger Fruit picks up on this theme with our four invited musicians who look at artists who they have been inspired by and who in turn may not be so well known or understood.”
As might be assumed, the title Stranger Fruit is indeed inspired by “Strange Fruit” originally sung by Billie Holiday, written by Abel Meeropol. The song is recognised as a protest against the lynching of black Americans and identifies the victims with the fruit of trees. The central invitation of the series is to imagine what would it be like if strangers were seen as a product of a society, or community’s own making, voices highlighting our fault lines and how we might imagine things differently. Taking this as a theme the series also aims to represent women as being in charge of their destinies and not victims as the Blues and Jazz women are so often portrayed when they do get a mention. In fact women have been central to the origins and evolution of jazz and blues and advocates of female empowerment through independence, sassiness and sexual freedom. Through the series as each musician reflects on the how their chosen artist inspires them and how their music, innovation and style has made a difference to their own approaches and development, the aim is to transform perceptions of women’s impact on contemporary music and culture. Perhaps a more liberating view of identity and understanding of differences will emerge.
[February 23, 2022]