Composer Stephanie Ann Boyd honored feminist activist Betty Friedan (pictured) in a new composition commissioned and premiered by the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. Born in Peoria 100 years ago. The work featured lyrics drawn from Friedan’s influential work, The Feminine Mystique. The rest of the concert was entirely music by Boyd, including her 2018 work “Sheltering Voices.”
Scholar and pianist Dr. Samantha Ege is on the cutting edge of bringing a range of neglected women composers to light, as she discusses in an article in The Guardian. And we at Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy are thrilled to have her as a Board Member!
Samantha Ege is also in the news for winning the American Musicological Society’s Einstein Award in support of her CD in progress, Renaissance Women: Works by Women Composer-Pianists of the Black Chicago Renaissance (LORELT). The AMS also honored Bonny H. Miller’s book Augusta Browne: Composer and Woman of Letters in Nineteenth-Century America. Browne was a pioneering educator and entrepeneur as well as a prolific composer and author. Learn more about Miller’s book here, and also in this podcast.
Aaron Dworkin interviews composer Gabriella Lena Frank in this Video-podcast on Arts Engines.
The Seattle Symphony was praised for its performance on Nov. 18 of a new Concerto for two harps by Hannah Lash, and Amy Beach’s “Gaelic” Symphony of 1894. The concert streams on their website through Nov. 25, 2021.
And to those in the USA or celebrating elsewhere, Happy Thanksgiving!