Samantha Ege, author, pianist, & Music historian
On May 15th, St. Paul’s Sinfonia (dir. John Andrews) performs “British Landscapes” at the historic St. Alfege Church, Greenwich, London. The program features Penillion (a symphonic poem) by Grace Williams and the Piano Concerto by Avril Coleridge-Taylor with Dr. Samantha Ege as the soloist.
Included below is the album, Avril Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Concerto and Orchestral Works (Resonus, 2025)— the first professionally recorded album entirely of the composer’s orchestral music. The BBC Philharmonic recorded it in 2025, with Dr. Ege as soloist, and it featured in WPA’s 2025 in Albums series.
On May 17, the Warsaw Philharmonic is playing an orchestration of Grażyna Baciewicz’ Scherzo alongside a program of other music as the finale to Birmingham Classical, as part of a short UK tour. The Scherzo was originally for piano, but WP conductor Krzysztof Urbański has orchestrated it for the ensemble. Though it is wonderful to see her on the program, it’s hard not to speculate about why conductor Urbański chose to program an orchestration of her work instead of selecting one of her own brilliant pieces for orchestra, such as the Concerto for Symphony Orchestra (1962), the Variations for Orchestra (1957), or any of her four symphonies (1945, 1951, 1952, 1953). Her fourth symphony famously won the Polish Ministry of Culture Prize in 1955. There are always logistics to consider in programming, though it’s more than a recognized pattern that compositions by women are often left to fill the “left-over” spots after the large anchor works have been chosen—in the WP’s case, by Chopin and Beethoven. Perhaps the next time they tour the orchestra will have the pride and the wisdom to put music by this award-winning Polish composer in the headline spot.
Gabriela Lena Frank, composer
The Pulitzer Committee announced on Monday May 4 that Picaflor: A Future Myth by Gabriela Lena Frank has won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The prize is given for a “distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the year.” Lena Frank’s work was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra on. March 13th under the direction of Marin Alsop. Picaflor was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. Alsop and the Philadelphia Orchestra will offer audiences a repeat performance on July 6th.
As if winning a Pulitzer Prize were not enough distinction, Lena Frank’s opera El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego will begin its run at the Metropolitan Opera on May 14th. This opera is Lena Frank’s Metropolitan Opera debut, and the fourth opera composed by a woman to be performed there. Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño joins the ranks of Dame Ethel Smyth’s Der Wald (1903), Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin (2016), and Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded (2024). The opera runs from May 14 to June 5th, and will also be available to view in cinemas in HD on May 30th.
Below is a short interview clip with composer Gabriela Lena Frank about composing Picaflor and its world premiere.
On May 16, 2025, Tapestry Opera with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra will hold a masterclass for women & non-binary conductors in Roy Thomson Hall. Participants include Monica Chen, Eve Legault, and Serena Reuten, all fellows of the Women in Musical Leadership (WML) Conducting Program.
Ruth Gipps, composer
On May 17, 2026, the Community Women’s Orchestra of Oakland, CA offers the final concert of its 2025 – 2026 season. The program includes Ruth Gipps’s Death on a Pale Horse and Grażyna Bacewicz’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Both composers’ orchestral offerings have been enjoying renewed interesting recent years, as readers of Feminist in the Concert Hall will recognize. Ruth Gipps’s work in particular has been the subject of a recent album series by the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos Records, the third and fourth albums of which were released in 2025. They also featured prominently in WPA’s 2025 in Albums series.