Happy Monday! We note a few concerts from around the world, with links so you can listen to featured selections, and we also start taking a look at next seasons’ programming!
Anna Clyne, composer
On May 21-23 the Chicago Symphony performs Anna Clyne’s Sound and Fury, a tone poem for chamber orchestra. The piece was written in 2019, commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Auditorium-Orchestre National de Lyon, and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. It begins with vigorous energy in the strings, which propels it forward all the way to the end. Even the slower lyrical sections rarely drop the propulsive forward motion. The conclusion of the piece includes the text of the soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Macbeth from which the piece gets its title. Far from “signifying nothing” as the original Macbeth quote alludes, Clyne offers a study in orchestral textures and moods. The composer writes of her own piece: “My intention with Sound and Fury is to take the listener on a journey that is both invigorating—with ferocious string gestures that are flung around the orchestra with skittish outbursts—and serene and reflective—with haunting melodies that emerge and recede.” The CSO has chosen to use the title of her work as the title for their program—a rare distinction for a woman composer, and one that positions her work as the headliner among other selections.
Below is a performance of Clyne’s Sound And Fury by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Catherine Larsen-Maguire.
The US National Philharmonic announced its 2026/27 season on May 12, which will include a number of featured works by women composers. includes Laura Karpman’s All American (9/20), Joan Tower’s Made in America (11/7), Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Overture in C Major (3/13/27), and the East Coast premiere of Jocelyn Hagen’s What the Soul Already Knows (5/8/27). The program for the “Great Moments from Opera” concert (2/20/27) has yet to be announced, but will hopefully include a representative number of women composers of opera. Dame Ethel Smyth, Kaija Saariaho, or Gabriela Lena Frank would, of course, be natural choices, as would a few other WPA favorites including: Eleanor Alberga, Unsuk Chin, Pauline Viardot, Tania León, Chen Yi, Margaret Bonds, and Libby Larsen.
Dani Howard, composer
On May 16th composer Dani Howard’s Cello Concerto Maverick will premiere with its commissioning ensemble, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Maverick is a meditation on the journey of the individual, the value of mentorship, and the fleetingness of time. The composer writes that “it reflects on what it means to live fully and authentically – to embrace experience, to learn deeply from others, and ultimately to shape a voice that is unmistakably one’s own.” The cello is a multi-faceted voice in this concerto, double-cast as both the student and teacher, background commentator and center-stage star. The composer wrote this piece for her longtime teacher and mentor Richard Bamping, who will perform as soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
Howard is an in-demand composer in Britain and internationally. Her work has been commissioned and performed by orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gävle Symphony Orchestra, and the Kuopio Symphony.
May 20 and 21 the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra performs Betsy Jolas’ “A Little Summer Suite” (2015). The concert takes place in Helsinki and is sold out. The French/American composer Jolas (b. 1926) wrote of the work: “I’ve been toying lately … with the notion of “wandering music”; in other words, music which seems aimless and could land anywhere at any time. This concept, obviously inherited from Mussorgsky’s justly famous Pictures at an Exhibition, is at the root of the seven movement structure of my little Summer suite : a walking stroll in four sections, designated « away, about, under and home », leading to three clearly identified, and fairly stable moments, labeled: « knocks and clocks, Shakes and quakes, chants and cheers ». HERE you can listen (YouTube Playlist) to “A Little Summer Suite” performed by the Orchestre national de Metz.
Caroline Shaw, composer
On Wednesday May 13, GRAMMY Award-winning Caroline Shaw was announced as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s first Composer in Focus for the 2026/27 season. An artist who tends to interpret genres as guidelines rather than hard-and-fast rules, Shaw composes across length and breadth of ensemble sizes and styles. She is the author/composer of everything from film scores to concertos, chamber music to large choral works. Her career has already seen four GRAMMY awards, and she is the youngest-ever recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music to date.
AND — — — Some listening from the archives: Below is a recording of composer and cellist Nazira Wali’s piece Endless, recorded by the Cuatro Puntos Chamber Orchestra in 2024 under the direction of Kevin Bishop. It features solos by several Middle Eastern and south Asian instruments, including: Sitar (Huma Rahimi), Rubab (Hasan Ali Khan), Harmonium (Arson Fahim), Tabla (Hamid Habib Zada), and Zerbagali (Ameen Mokdad), in addition to the chamber orchestra. Composer and cellist Nazira Wali is from Afghanistan, with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. She has performed in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, New England Conservatory, the Muscat Opera House in Oman, and at embassies from around the world. Wali is a founding member of Afghanistan’s all-female orchestra Zohra.
Let us know what you’re listening to! Email us at info@wophil.org