News and music to start the week!
Congratulations to composer Jessie Montgomery, pictured, who was just named the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s new composer in residence! Her three year term begins July 1. Read more at the Chicago Sun Times. The CSO Press release (PDF) is here.
Also, these seven women have been appointed Guggenheim Fellows in composition: Zosha Di Castri, Sky Macklay, Miya Masaoka, Nkeiru Okoye, Helen Sung, Katherine Young, and Nina C. Young.
The Philadelphia Orchestra performs Louise Farrenc’s Symphony no. 2 next week, directed by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Michigan State University celebrated works composed by women on April 19 in a concert titled “Trailblazers”. It was live streamed, and is still available to watch in an archived performance. The repertoire includes works by Amy Beach, Florence Price, Lena McLin, Ann Ronell, Mary Lou Williams, and Keiko Abe. Find the links at MSU Today.
The Midwest Chamber Ensemble also presented “A Celebration of Women Composers”. The archived livestream of the concert is on Facebook; read more about the ensemble and this event, which included music by Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, Jeanine Rueff, Ingrid Stölzel, and Dora Pejačević, at KC Studio.
In news of the disappointing, a (former) patron of the Detroit Symphony has stopped supporting the ensemble because of their dedication to performing works by Black composers in the coming year. Classical FM has the story. The good news is that the Classical Music Community has responded with enthusiastic support of the endeavor of moving towards diversity.
NCPR has a story about the probability of listeners having ever heard a work by a female composer – an unsurprising fact to most readers of this blog! The story includes a conversation with Rene Lacouna, pianist, and Hannah Holman, cellist, who have been working to record forgotten works by women composers. Listen in!
And in the latest episode of Amplify, Lara Downes speaks with Esperanza Spalding. Spalding’s recent projects include an opera Iphegenia that she is collaborating on with Wayne Shorter; the project is described here.
What are you listening to? What did we miss? Leave us a note at [email protected] and let us know!