News and music to start your week!

The Orange County Women’s Chorus, like so many ensembles this year, have found and exciting and innovative way to share their music this season.  The Voice of OC has a story about how they collaborated to create a varied concert experience, including a new commission by Dale Trumbore, pictured above.  Listen in here.

Last week we shared the story of the new Principal Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, – Nathalie Stutzmann.  This week The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin spoke with Stutzmann about her career, her experiences, and what listeners might expect with her at the baton in Philadelphia.  Here’s hoping for lots of performances of works by women!

OperaCanada features an editorial by Katherine Goforth, a transgender opera singer who speaks about her experiences navigating a still difficult terrain regarding gender in theatre.

And big news from The Guardian.  The earliest known Church of England hymn by a woman composer – Jane Savage – was found.  The carol from 1785 is titled “Hymn for Christmas Day.”

The phenomenon of Google searches for images supplying a similar but incorrect image, results in mis-labelling that gets carried into print and even products.  Marian Wilson Kimber reports: Google does it again: This is not Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel.

ICYMI — we featured an interview with choreographer/director Zoé Emilie Henrot, discussing her ballet , The Snow Queen, set to music by Ethel Smyth.  And, another piece of dance-related news, a new program funds The Center for Ballet and the Arts, and National Sawdust in supporting women composers and choreographers in collaborating on new works.

Finally, we weren’t planning to celebrate “The Beethoven Year,” but the pianist Daniel Glover pointed out his new recording of Amy Beach’s cadenza for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 3, which she wrote to perform herself, and composed when she was 21 years old.  It is moving and impressive, take a listen!

What did we miss?  What are you reading?  Send us a note at [email protected] and let us know!