News and music to start your week!
Pianist Samantha Ege
Pianist and musicologist Samantha Ege writes at Sound Studies blog — Sounding Out! — about her recent performance at the Australian Gender Diversity in Making Music conference – where she (most probably) gave the Australian premiere of music by Florence Price. This is a “must read” about the ways in which the best of intentions of a conference can be quickly derailed by an incident of conference planning that reinforces the inherent nature of privilege.
In their continued collaboration with New Music Box, composer & IAWM President Carrie Leigh Page and composer Dana Reason explore the history of bias women have experienced as performers as well as composers. An excellent — and thorough — history, and another “must read”!
Page and Reason in their New Music Box article referred to the famous (to those concerned with gender issues in classical music) case of Abbie Conant who fought the Munich Philharmonic for years to confront the overt bias she faced. The WQXR Blog further explores the story .
In their most recent feature of a contemporary composer, I Care if You Listen interviews composer and sound artist Jess Rowland. From the website: “Rowland’s compositions and performances explore consumer culture, and she describes her own music through the Ives quote “beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ear lie back in an easy chair.” In this interview, Jess Rowland discusses the prejudices faced being a trans woman, a composer not adhering to the hierarchy of academia, and the financial struggles many musicians face.”
It’s been heartening to see influx of attention paid to the work of women in music, and actions being taken to address the imbalances. According to France 24, the French Culture Minister is making efforts to have organizations and institutions commit to more equality both on the podium, and in arts administration. Conversely, the Irish Times reports that the gender imbalance in Ireland is not being taken seriously.
What have we missed? What do you think? We’d love to hear from you at [email protected]