Iran’s First Female Conductor

by sarah | Apr 29, 2014

Public Radio International (PRI) aired a story yesterday on Nazanin Aghakhani – the first woman to conduct an orchestra in Iran. Listen (or find the full text) here. Here is a clip from Aghakani’s YouTube page:   A composer as well as a conductor, you...

Liza Lim in the New Yorker

by sarah | Apr 22, 2014

Alex Ross has a great piece being published in the next New Yorker about Australian composer Liza Lim. Read the full piece here to learn more about Lim’s background as well as to get a sense of her musical style and how her song cycle “Mother Tongue”...

Kaija Saariaho: A Primer

by SMBrown | Mar 31, 2014

By Susan M. Brown Though now hailed as one of the greatest Finnish composers of her generation, Kaija Saariaho readily recalls a time at the Sibelius Academy when male teachers balked at teaching a “pretty girl,” claiming it was a waste of their time. But...

Tania León

by sarah | Mar 31, 2014

Tania León (b. 1943) is a Cuban born composer and conductor.  She began studying piano at the age of four and went on to complete a Bachelor’s Degree at the Alfredo Peyrellade Conservatory and a Master’s Degree from National Conservatory.  She settled in...

Women and Music Festival: Eastman Community Music School

by Liane Curtis | Mar 30, 2014

The first of three Festival concerts on Saturday, March 29, was performed by students of the Eastman Community Music School.  Boys and girls performed works composed by women, and four girls performed really lovely pieces that they had written themselves.  The Lowry...

Dana Suesse: Musician, Composer, and Lyricist

by sarah | Mar 29, 2014

Dana Suesse (1909-1987), born in Kansas City, Montana, was a child vaudeville star who eventually left the circuit and moved to New York with her mother when she was just seventeen.  There she began to compose larger works and made a name for herself.  Among her more...