The summer season is in high gear now!
The League of American orchestras held its 80th National Conference in Salt Lake City from June 11 – 13. During the conference, Marin Alsop was named the recipient of the Gold Baton Award—the highest distinction that the LAO offers. The award was established in 1948, was presented occasionally from 1948–1958. Other prominent women winners have included: Marjorie Merriweather Post (1956), Mrs. Jouett Shouse (1968), Helen M. Thompson (1970), Martha Baird Rockefeller (1971), Nancy Hanks (1974, leading the National Council for the Arts), Beverly Sills (1980), Margaret Lee Crofts (1986), Betty Freeman (1987), Audrey Baird (1996), Catherine French (1997), Helen J. DeVos (2012), Anne-Marie Soullière (2015), Ann Hobson Pilot (2017), Joan Tower (2019), and Deborah Borda (2023).
Alsop is currently music director laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra where she was the first woman conductor, and currently conducts at the Ravinia Festival, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. During the 2025 Summer season she will also make regular appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, pianist
On June 25th the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Florence Price‘s Piano Concerto in One Movement at the Royal Festival Hall. Jeneba Kanneh-Mason will be the featured piano soloist. The concert is the finale of the RPO’s 2025 “Lights in the Dark” series—one that explores and celebrates work by composers whose ideas and musical expressions were challenged by their societies. Such “challenges” range from worldwide conflicts to more personal ones for each composer. Price’s work remained obscure for years after its composition, and was rediscovered (and justly revived) in the 21st century. The recording that Kanneh-Mason and Chineke! made in 2023 (included below) as well as clips from her 2021 Proms concert reveal that the piece is as gratifying to play as it is to listen to. Longtime fans of Florence Price won’t be surprised in the slightest.
Soloist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason made her BBC Proms debut in 2021, playing the same Concerto in One Movement that she will play with the RLP with the Chineke! Orchestra. The orchestra recorded Price’s Symphony No. 1 and a movement from Ethiopia’s Shadow in America on the same album. Kanneh-Mason won the Nottingham Young Musician prize in 2013, the Murs du Son Prize at the Lagny-Sur-Marne International Piano Competition in 2014, and was a BBC Young Musician Keyboard Category Finalist in 2018 before her 2021 Proms debut.
The Open University (UK) is offering a free online course that aims to raise awareness about women composers in classical music. The six-week course is geared toward anyone who works on the programming and funding sides of ensembles. It mixes reflection on students’ personal practices and engagement with women in classical music with practical advice on everything from diversifying programs, finding funding for initiatives that promote women’s music, introducing women composers to audiences and sustaining their interest, and appealing to performers. The course is interactive, and a certificate of completion can be downloaded upon finishing. Though the focus of the course is on women composers, a number of the modules discuss building “gender diverse programs” in ways that could easily extend to composers who identify as non-binary or other marginalized genders. The course is organized by The Open University’s musicologist Dr Laura Hamer, author and editor of many publications on women and music.
Album cover, Saiga Antelope
Violinist and composer Viktoria Elisabeth Kaunzner has released her latest album, Saiga Antelope, on the Solo Musica label. This truly unique album features seven new works for orchestra by four contemporary women composers. In addition to Kaunzer’s own compositions Saiga Antelope, Silk Road, Jasmine Rice, and Lucid Dreams, the it also includes Elena Kats-Chernin’s Times of Rain and Sun, Claudia Montero’s Violin Concerto, and Violeta Dinescu’s Roman Fleuve. Kaunzer performs the works accompanied by the Universal Korean Organic Ensemble and the Viktoria & Virtuosi Orchestra—an international ensemble boasting 30 members from 15 nations. The album’s influences span the globe in rhythm, texture, timbre, and style.
On July 2, the Village of Medina, NY will host the Albany Symphony as part of a day-long celebration of the Erie Canal’s bicentennial. The symphony will play five concerts from July 2-6, featuring the debuts of various compositions commissioned for the celebration. In Medina, the symphony will premiere a piece (to be announced) by world-renowned, Brazilian American composer Clarice Assad. Her composition is currently on a “Sound Capture Journey.” She began crafting the new orchestral work based on the sounds and environment along the Erie Canal. The Albany Symphony will perform Assad’s composition as the centerpiece of the “Water Music New York: More Voices Festival.”
Grants & Opportunities:
— The New York Women Composers’ Annual Seed Money Grant – Deadline is Friday, July 11, 2025
— Lorelei Ensemble’s 2025 Call for Scores, (Christmas performance) – Deadline is August 1, 2025
— The American Guild of Organists Task Force for Gender Equity invites new and unpublished organ compositions to celebrate Woman Composer Sunday (March 8, 2026). – Deadline is September 1, 2025.
Let us know what you’re listening to! Email us at info@wophil.org