With Women’s History Month is full swing (did you download your calendar yet?) it’s no surprise that there are many stories to draw our attention. Here is some news to start your week!
Streaming music provider Rhapsody shared an article on International Women’s Day titled, “Women’s Indelible Mark on Classical Music” – a thoughtful, if brief, overview of the work women have accomplished in music from Hildegard to today.
WOSU out of Columbus, Ohio shared a fantastic list of children’s books about women musicians that belong in every young person’s library. Included are stories about the lives of Maria Anna Mozart, Marian Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Mary Lou Williams, Melba Liston, Leontyne Price, Josephine Baker, and Florence Mills. Find the full list here.
The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced the 2016 music awards. Out of the seventeen winning composers, only five were women. (Chia-Yu Hsu, Hannah Lash, Sonnet Swire, Liliya Ugay, and Amy Williams.) Read the full announcement here.
Ivan Hewett, classical music critic for The Telegraph writes about women’s relationship to the violin, and how much it has changed over the years. From being deemed “socially unacceptable” to now outnumbering male colleagues, women violinists have come a long way. Unfortunately, the same is not true of other instrumentalists. Read the full article here.
And as a very appropriate follow up, Tom Service of BBC News looked into current gender divides in orchestral performers. As most of us have come to expect, the results are not surprising, but are disappointing. Follow this link to the story, or listen below.
What did we miss? What are you reading? Leave a comment and let us know!