There’s lots to listen to by women in the concert hall this week!
Anna Handler, conductor
Credit: Peter Rigaud/Los Angeles Philharmonic
Announced on April 7th, Anna Handler will be the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s conductor-in residence. She will begin her three-year term with the orchestra in the 2026/27 season following Gustavo Dudamel’s final season. Handler will spend three weeks each season conducting the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl—favorite venues of the LA Phil. She will also be working with students from the Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood. She currently serves as assistant conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She was the first conducting student to receive the prestigious Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, New York.
Mark Swed noted in The Los Angeles Times that the orchestra’s collaborative team boasts many names from a who’s-who of classical music; all those he names are men, and over 60. Handler will be an early thirty-something when she attains her post, which in addition to her experience conducting orchestras hailing from Boston, Ulster, and Berlin, and enthusiasm for combining music and technology will make her a bracing breath of fresh air for the ensemble. During the same 2026/27 season, Handler will also be Artist in Residence at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany. She will curate four concerts in the historic venue, where she will perform rotating roles of soloist, chamber musician, and conductor.
Margaret Bonds, composer
On April 18–19, the world premiere of Margaret Bonds’s Bitter Laurel will be performed at Queens University (Charlotte, NC). Originally titled Lizzie, It is the first and only (so far!) musical and dramatic exploration of the life and legacy of Elizabeth Keckley, an enslaved woman who bought her freedom and eventually became a dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln. This is Bonds’s final work, left unfinished at her death. The work will be presented as a workshop production—minimal staging, no props or costumes, and a narrator. In 2024 Dr. John Michael Cooper gave an interview about his and others’ scholarly work reviving Bonds’s legacy along with Florence Price’s and other black women composers.
On April 16, the MSU Concert Orchestra at Wharton will perform Margaret Bonds’s classic Montgomery Variations, as well as the Philharmonic Fanfare for orchestral brass and percussion by Gina Gillie. The concert will also include selections of music by Respighi. The Philharmonic Fanfare is performed below by the Southern California Brass Consortium in 2023.
Angelin Chang, piano
On April 19 at Severence Hall in Cleveland, OH the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra will give its 91st annual concert, featuring pianist Angelin Chang. They will perform the premiere of Sarah Hegenderfer’s Blood Moon for orchestra, as well as other works by Saint-Saëns, Franck, and Ravel. Hegenderfer is a composer of music for film, video games, and live concert performance. One of her early forays into orchestral composition, Clearing of Snow, was performed by the Akron Symphony earlier this year. Cleveland Classical described it as a “lovely little gem of a piece. . . [that] paints a winter scene at sunset in lush textures.” We look forward to hearing more orchestral work from her!
On April 17, the Chamber Orchestra of Boston performs a string orchestra concert, “American Views” in Boston. The COB’s repertoire explores ideas of America in music, including Lisa Nardi’s depiction of the desert and Florence Price’s soulful “Andante cantabile.” Nardi writes music for documentary and independent films, including the acclaimed Ken Burns series “The National Parks.” The concert will also offer listeners a chance to hear the rarely-performed serenade “The Far West” by British composer Granville Bantock (1868-1946). It seems that all of the USA was “The Far West” to Bantock, who quotes “Old Folks at Home” and “Yankee Doodle.”
Let us know what you’re listening to! Email us at info@wophil.org