Let’s get your week off to an exciting start with our news!
As previously reported in Feminist in the Concert Hall, the National Symphony Orchestra will host the all-female Lorelei Ensemble in performances of Julia Wolfe‘s Her Story— a large-scale choral work with texts drawn from letters written by suffragettes—February 27 to March 1, 2025. Wolfe’s piece is paired on the concert with Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, both conducted by Marin Alsop. Her Story had its world premiere with the Nashville Symphony and the Lorelei Ensemble in September of 2022. Since then, it has been performed by the Chicago Symphony (January 2023), the Boston Symphony, (March 2023), the San Francisco Symphony (May 2023), and the Cincinnati Symphony (May 2024). The piece is a 40-minute oratorio for ten voices that incorporates excerpts from various texts in the history of women’s struggle for equal rights and representation under U.S. law, including a letter written by Abigail Adams, words attributed to Sojourner Truth, spoken public attacks directed at women protesting for the right to vote, and political satire. Wolfe’s interview with NPR describes her inspiration for the work in detail, and acknowledges the debt she has to other trailblazers like Joan Tower, Tania León and Meredith Monk.
Though it’s always thrilling to see large works for orchestra written by women composers for women performers about women’s experiences, we’re particularly excited about the traction and consistent performances that Her Story has gotten since its premiere in 2022. Large-scale works for orchestra have long held out as types of music that women socially “shouldn’t” aspire to make—they’re not small, or modest, or particularly domestic, and as with visual art have tended to be sidelined from long-term success. (Not that this has stopped women from making them anyway). The successive performances and successes of Her Story give me lots of hope for more works like it in the future.
Below is an excerpt of Her Story, performed by the Lorelei Ensemble with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2023.
From March 6-8, 2025, the ninth annual International Music by Women Festival will be held on the campus of the Mississippi University for Women. The festival will feature concerts of new and historic music written by women composers, programs pending. Questions about the festival should be sent to the Festival Director Julia Mortyakova, D.M.A. at [email protected]
Though not often an orchestral instrument, the American Guild of Organists has announced the winners of its 2025 Woman Composer Sunday composition contest for new and unpublished works for organ. The contest accepts works in two categories: concert works, and short works “suitable for use as preludes, voluntaries, or postludes in a worship service.” Performances of all works can be heard on AGO’s YouTube channel and social media. The American Guild has recently adopted the recommended observance of Woman Composer Sunday, observed this year on March 9. The Society of Women Organists and the UK Royal College of Organists originally organized Woman Composer Sunday as a global event to encourage organists and church music directors to use music by women composers in worship services and concerts on the Sunday nearest International Women’s Day.
Below is Brenda Portman’s 1st-place Concert Work for organ, “Diptyqe for Organ,” performed by Katelyn Emerson on the 2002 Saint-Martin organ in Girton College Chapel, Girton College, University of Cambridge
On March 13, 2025, United Voices 4 Peace and the United Nations Symphony Orchestra (UNSRC) together with guest conductors Josefa and Esperanza de Velasco will present their Global Women in Music 2025 concert to advance gender equality in the music industry. The featured soloist on this program will be cellist and composer Nazira Wali, who will perform her piece “Endless” along with the UN Symphony Orchestra. Wali is a founding member of Zohra, Afghanistan’s all-female orchestra, which has toured the world promoting women in music. The concert will take place at the NYU Skirball Performing Arts Center, NYC.
Below is a recording of Nazira Wali’s “Endless” performed by the Cuatro Puntos Chamber Orchestra in October 2024.
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