More exciting news this week!
Stefania Turkevych, Ukrainian composer
On February 22, composer Stefania Turkevych will have the US premiere of two movements from her Symphony n. 1 (1937) by the Binghamton (NY) Community Orchestra. Turkevych (1898-1977) is Ukraine’s earliest known female classical composer, and is considered a pioneer of Ukrainian classical music. Also a musicologist and Ukrainian folklorist, her pieces carry influences from both Ukrainian folk music and modernist stylistic elements, but they are not regularly described as atonal or expressionistic. She studied and later taught at universities in Ukraine and Eastern Europe pre-World War I and under the Soviet Union, but eventually settled in Britain in 1946 with her husband to escape Soviet control and censorship. Turkevych believed in a free Ukraine—a position that would have brought her plenty of trouble from the Soviet government. Many of her works have gone unplayed for years between being banned in the Soviet Union, obscure in Britain, and only recently re-discovered. The Ukrainian community in Binghamton is excited about the performance, which also includes well-known works by Ukrainian composers Myroslav Skoryk and Mykola Lysenko. The Binghamton Community Orchestra’s Conductor Evan Meccarello (who studied at an International Conducting Workshop in Lviv, Ukraine) worked with the organization Ukrainian Live Classic to obtain the music for this US premiere.
The following recording of the composer’s first symphony is from a concert in 2021, performed by the Ukrainian Festival Orchestra, conducted by Ivan Ostapovich. It includes only the first three movements of the four-movement work. as more editing is needed to prepare the piece for full performance (which is also the case for Turkevych’s six other orchestral works).
“Performance Today” (a radio program of American Public Media and yourclassical.org) is taking nominations for its 2026 Classical Woman of the Year as they prepare to celebrate Women’s History Month in March. Anyone who wishes to is invited to nominate a living woman who has greatly influenced the classical music scene. The nominee does not need to be known to the person nominating her, but should have made a significant contribution to classical music and/or to the nominator’s appreciation of it. Nominations are due by 11:59 p.m. CST on Friday, Feb. 28, 2026. Previous winners include: Jessie Montgomery (2025), Deborah Borda (2024), Gabriela Montero (2023), Lara Downes (2022), Marin Alsop (2021), Valerie Coleman (2020), and JoAnn Falletta (2019).
On Friday February 20th, the Oakland Symphony performs their program “To These Shores,” including works by composers Reena Esmail & Chen Yi. Opening the program is Chen Yi’s Introduction, Andante, and Allegro; and Reena Esmail’s choral tone poem She Will Transform You is performed between the “Adagio” from Mahler’s 10th Symphony and the world premiere of the Oakland Symphony commission America, To US by Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR). We congratulate the Oakland Symphony (and Music Director Kedrick Armstrong) for this exciting and exemplary programming!
On February 21, the 30th International Festival of Women Composers is hosting its concert at 1:30 PM CST on the campus of Iowa State University. The festival is organized by Dr. Miriam Zach, whose ISU Organ/Harpsichord studio will present the recital, which is the first of two events; the second is a service featuring music by women composers, which will be on Sunday, March 15 at 10am at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ames, Iowa. The February 21 concert will have a livestream.
On February 26 to March 1, the LA Philharmonic will perform Gabriela Ortiz’s Revolución diamantina. Revolución diamantina (“Glitter Revolution”) is Ortiz’s bold response to the 2019 feminist uprising against Mexico’s epidemic of violence against women. An LA Phil commission, the orchestra recorded it in 2024 (linked below) winning three Grammys. A work in six acts, including a very large orchestra and a women’s chorus, the work was conceived by Ortiz as a ballet, and these four performances are its first staging as a ballet, with dancing and chorography by the Brazilian ensemble Grupo Corpo.
Let us know what you’re listening to! Email us at info@wophil.org