International Women’s Day is coming up on March 8, 2025! In the news this week we note some ensembles that are marking the occasion, both on the 8th and and in the early weeks of Women’s History Month.
On March 2, 2025 at 3pm EST, pianist Katelyn Bouska will present her recital “Hildegard and Her Sisters” at the West Building, West Garden Court of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. The program pairs art works chosen from the National Gallery’s collection with a musical re-imagining of Hildegard von Bingen and other female composers. The path of the program follows the trajectory of falling darkness. Amy Beach’s Hermit Thrush at Eve (Op. 92) and Hermit Thrush at Morn (Op. 92b) bookend the program, which alternates between Bouska’s own arrangements of Hildegard’s O vis aeternitatis, O quam mirabilis est, Karitas habundat, and original compositions: Maya Miro Johnson’s bruises paraphrase, Ruth Schönthal’s Canticles of Hieronymus, Clara Schumann’s Scherzo no. 2 in C minor, op. 14, and Sláva Vorlová’s Síla světla (The Power of Light). Her album preview of these pieces can be found on YouTube.
Below is Bouska’s arrangement of Hildegard’s O vis aeternitatis, performed by the arranger in 2024.
ALSO on March 2 is the Accademy Awards Ceremony, and many people will be cheering for “The Only Girl in the Orchestra,” a documentary nominated for an award. The 35-minute long film features Orin O’Brien, who made history in 1966 as the first woman admitted to the New York Philharmonic. A recent article in The Guardian interviews O’Brian (now 90), who does not plan to to attend the ceremony. She was a member of the orchestra for 55 years; this film is made by her niece Molly O’Brien.
On March 5, 2025 at 10 AM EST the New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS) will present a program celebrating the music of women composers at the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, NJ. Nearly 1,000 elementary and middle school students from Union, Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties are scheduled to attend the orchestra’s free education concert, which will feature compositions by Louise Farrenc, Florence Price, Chen Yi, and Gabriela Lena Frank. The New Jersey Youth Symphony is a winner of one of our Performance Grants!
The New York Philharmonic offers a Young People’s Concert “The Future is Female,” on March 8. It includes selections by Marianna Martines, Lili Boulanger, Gabriela Ortiz and Gabriela Lena Frank. However, the New York Philharmonic is not programming any works by women composers in, apart from one work by Cindy McTee, on March 26-28, so it seems like “The Future is Female” is a fairy-tale for children ….
However, the BBC Philharmonic does offer “A Celebration of International Women’s Day” concert on March 8, at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK.
Led by Anja Bihlmaier, conductor, it includes works by Olga Neuwirth and Sofia Gubaidulina, as well as the commissioned work by Sarah Gibson “beyond the beyond” in its world premiere. Sadly, Gibson learned she had a terminal illness after receiving the commission, so the premiere is posthumous. The program concludes with Emilie Mayer’s tempestuous Symphony No. 5 in F minor.
On March 8, 2025 at 3pm local time, the University of Nevada – Las Vegas chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota will present their recital “Women Composers in Concert” at the Dr. Arturo Rando-Grillot Recital Hall in the Lee and Thomas Beam Music Center. The program includes: Jennifer Bellor’s “Indigo Nocturne,” performed by UNLV faculty Shawna Pennock (alto saxophone) and Jennifer Bellor (piano); Isabelle Aboulker’s “Je T’aime” performed by Isabella Ivy (soprano) and George Ivy (piano); Danielle Aguon’s “Masquerade of Sorrows,” performed by Leanna Oliver (violin), Ilinca Cristinoiu (cello), and Danielle Aguon (piano); Kelly Dugger’s “In Pieces,” performed with the composer on piano; Amy Quate’s “Light of Sothis,” performed by Dr. Lindsey O’Connor (saxophone) and Kelly Dugger (piano); and Dobrinka Tabakova’s “Nocturne,” performed by Violet Jones (piano). Several other performers and composers will also be featured. The concert will conclude with a dessert reception with the performers.
The Cité des Compositrices (formerly Elles Women Composers) celebrated its 5th anniversary in 2024. The group has reorganized and elected to change its name after legal disputes will ELLE Magazine, owned by the Lagardère group. Its 2025 season of work will continue to promote women in music through its concerts, festival, record label, video channel, and new score publishing venture which will be announced in 2025. Founder Héloïse Luzzati has high hopes for the new incarnation of her organization: “This Cité des Compositrices will bring together all our activities, from research to distribution. An imaginary place, ‘for them’, these women composers who deserve to find their way back into concert halls.” Luzzati founded the organization in 2020, with the ambition to identify and promote the work of women composers of the past and present. They published a study in 2024—Women composers: what place in French programming?—that revealed that only 6% of work programmed on classical music concerts were composed by women, which accounted for roughly 4% of total programming time. This study and others like it, including WPA’s own Repertoire Report by Sarah Baer, have been fueling the work of performers, composers, and activists in recent years to platform work by women in music.
Below is the organization’s video introducing composer Adrienne Clostre (1921 – 2006) and her piece El Tigre de Oro y Sombra : II. Una rosa y Milton (Une rose et Milton; narration in French with English subtitles). Performed by Marielou Jacquard (mezzo-soprano), Anastasie Lefebvre de Rieux (flute), and Constance Luzzati (harp).
Let us know what you’re listening to for International Women’s Day! Email us at [email protected]