On January 25th, the Ensemble for These Times (E4TT) will present “Midnight Serenades,” a highly-anticipated annual concert of chamber music by women and non-binary composers at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. This concert will begin the second half of the ensemble’s 17th season.
E4TT strives to promote music by 20th and 21st century women and non-binary composers that is “relevant, engaging, original, and compelling, music that resonates today and will speak to tomorrow.” This annual concert will feature music by three alumni composers from their Call for Scores collaboration with the Luna Composition Lab and four other composers. A pre-concert talk with the composers will begin at 7:00 pm, and the concert will follow at 7:30 pm PST. Works featured by Luna Composition Lab alumni are: Olivia Bennett‘s Prelude to the Afterlife (2019/20 alumna), Gabriella Carrido‘s Because I Could Not Stop for Death (2021/22 alumna), and Devon Lee‘s What I Know About Living (2021/22 alum). The four additional pieces featured are: Gabriela Lena Frank‘s Manhattan Serenades, Jodi Goble‘s Twelve Chairs, Carla Lucero‘s Sin vos, and Akshaya Avril Tucker‘s Midnight Snack. The performers are also all women & non-binary musicians: Margaret Halbig (piano), Chelsea Hollow (soprano), Abigail Monroe (cello), and Nanette McGuinness (soprano; E4TT co-founder & Artistic Director). In addition to promoting music by women and non-binary composers, E4TT’s roster of guest artists highlights its mission to support women & non-binary performers as well. Halbig, Monroe, and McGuinness are the three core members of the E4TT ensemble, but regularly bring in guest artists (featured on their website). They also host the podcast For Good Measure, which platforms women and BIPOC creative artists.
On Sunday January 12, the Anchorage Lutheran Church hosted a concert of songs by women composers as part of its concert series, performed by Mari Hahn (soprano) and Tamara McCoy (piano). Drs. Hahn and McCoy performed pieces by women composers and songwriters ranging from the Renaissance to the present: Barbara Strozzi, Fanny Mendelssohn, Ramona Luengen, Nadia Boulanger, Édith Piaf, Enya, and Sara Bareilles.
The International Women’s Brass Conference will host its 2025 Conference at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. The conference will run from May 19–24, and will feature recitals (solo & collaborative), lectures, competitions (with solo, ensemble, composition, and mock audition divisions), group warm-ups, and masterclasses. Registration opened January 1 and IWBC is still accepting applications to volunteer, present, and judge as well as for regular attendees.
The Times of San Diego recently reported that “thirteen works by eleven female composers were featured in three different classical events” on the weekend of January 10–12—a concentration of women composers that we at WPA love to hear and see. Paul Bodine’s featured review (linked above, and well worth the read) focuses largely on pianist Jeremy Denk’s recital for the La Jolla Music Society, which featured ten pieces by nine women composers on its first half paired in historical/contemporary duos. (Amy Beach made the program twice). The full program can be viewed on the Society’s website. Both the recital and Bodine’s review highlight a classic tension in women composers’ work similar to women artists’ work in museums: historically they have been considered more acceptable when they are small, and this tendency persists into our own time. The works on the first half were all seven minutes or shorter. The benefit, of course, of playing short pieces is that Denk could platform more composers—ultimately a net good. His decision to pair historical and contemporary voices is intriguing, and one that I hope will be repeated. Though it’s annoying to hear the work of nine women crammed onto the first half and the work of two canonic bros (Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann) luxuriating on the second, it is gratifying to think that the two “headliners” used their draw to get other more unfamiliar composers in the ears of the Society.
Anna Clyne’s Glasslands (2023) featured on the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s first concert of 2025, between James Lee III’s Sukkot through Orion’s Nebula (2011) and Gustav Holst’s classic The Planets (1916). The featured soloist for Clyde’s piece was Jess Gillam, who also played the piece’s 2023 premiere with the Detroit Symphony. The composer describes the work as evoking three realms governed by the banshee—a female spirit famous in Irish folklore for the sound of its wail that foretells the death of a family member. This allusion to mythology gives both the composer and the soloist ample opportunities to explore all of the expressive sounds that the saxophone has to offer.
Below is a brief interview with Clyne and Gillam ahead of the DSO premiere of Glasslands in 2023, and Clyne’s own “Getting to Know You” playlist supported by Boosey & Hawkes.
(Playlist)
On February 2nd at 3 PM the Women’s Orchestra of Arizona (WOA) will perform a “Feel The Love” concert in anticipation of Valentine’s Day. Among the pieces on their program will be Rebecca Clarke’s classic of the Viola repertoire Sonata for Viola and Orchestra, featuring soloist Rose Wodarcyk, in addition to other classical and film favorites.
The Worthington Chamber Orchestra (a WPA Performance Grant winner) is ALSO performing Clarke’s Sonata orchestration on Feb. 2 (at 5 pm in Worthington OH), on a program titled “Debussy and Sunsets.” Korine Fujiwara is both the Viola Soloist AND the composer of the work “Sunsets Like Childhood,” included on the program along with music by Debussy; Antoine T. Clark is the conductor.
Below is a performance of the first movement of Clarke’s Sonata from 2018, featuring the Eureka Ensemble, soloist Deanna Badizadegan, and in the orchestration by Ruth Lomon—a performance that WPA’s own Liane Curtis made possible, and WPA supported.
Let us know who you’re listening to, or if you have any upcoming events that WPA should know about! Email us at [email protected]