Libby Larsen: Composer and Advocate

by sarah | Mar 1, 2014

Libby Larsen is distinguished as one of the most prolific and performed living American composers, as well as one of the greatest advocates for rising musicians and composers.  Her catalog of works—which includes over 500 pieces spanning genres from art songs to...

Launching 32 Composers You Need to Know, with Florence Price!

by Liane Curtis | Feb 27, 2014

We are kicking off our Indiegogo campaign with a daily blog series: 32 Composers You Need to Know! This is in honor of Women’s History Month (which is a federally observed celebration; here is last year’s Presidential declaration). But of course it is...

Women Being Heard (or not) This Season

by sarah | Feb 1, 2014

That the professional music world, and professional orchestras in particular, aren’t known for welcoming women musicians with open arms isn’t news. It is a truth and a challenge that women have always faced and, as was recently reported by the BBC, is an ongoing...

Music by Florence Price Featured by the Chicago Symphony and Others: A Conversation with Conductor Mei-Ann Chen

by Liane Curtis | May 13, 2013

Mei-Ann Chen is Music Director of the Memphis Symphony and the Chicago Sinfonietta.  Earlier this year she guest-conducted with the San Diego Symphony, and on May 9 she made her subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony.  This is four orchestras and their audiences...

Making Waves with the Mississippi River Suite: Mei Ann Chen Brings Florence Price’s Music to Chicago Symphony

by Liane Curtis | May 11, 2013

Acclaimed conductor Mei-Ann Chen is just completing her first year as Music Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta.  And Thursday she made her debut as a guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s subscription series.  She made quite a...

More on Ethel Smyth’s Mass

by Liane Curtis | Apr 4, 2013

In anticipation of the April 14 performance of Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D Major, Liz Wood (musicologist and widely published author) gave an illuminating talk about Smyth and the origins of her Mass.  Virginia Woolf described Smyth’s vigorous character, calling her...