Here’s a question we should add to the list of FAQs about our Performance Grants:
Q: I see your grants encourage the performance of historic composers (“we prefer that one of the two works be by a historic woman”). I guess that means that new music ensembles shouldn’t apply?
A: Not at all! We interpret “historic” very broadly, as composers who are deceased, or born in or before 1934 (and we are flexible about that). New music ensembles often include historic composers: look (for instance) at the presence of Charles Ives, Xenakis, Stockhausen, and Ligeti, on this schedule of the Calithumpian Consort, a new music ensemble based in Boston. On the copy below, I have highlighted the male composers’ names in green; the lone woman is in yellow. The original schedule is here. We would like to see more women composers – both living and historic — included in the programs of ensembles like this (and also on their “discography” and “listen” pages!). Here are a few (of the many, many) historic female composers that would fit in with Calithumpian’s exploration of works by modernist and experimental composers: Elisabeth Lutyens (1906-1983), Ruth Schonthal (1924-2006), Ursula Mamlok (b. 1923), Vivian Fine (1913-2000), Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006), Barbara Pentland (1912-2000), Miriam Gideon (1906-1996).
