Women’s History Month has arrived!
Grace Lewis, conductor
On March 1, Grace Lewis leads the Houston Women’s Chamber Orchestra (HWCO) in the Houston Professional Musicians’ Association’s 3rd Annual International Women’s Month celebration. Lewis recently received the Houston Symphony’s Excellence in Music Education Award (funded by the Spec Foundation); she is currently the Director of Orchestras at G.W. Carver Magnet High School in Aldine ISD, and conductor for the Pearland Youth Orchestra. She will begin her tenure as Conductor and Artistic Manager of the Houston Youth Chamber Orchestra in the upcoming 2026–2027 season. Lewis specially curated the program for the all-women HWCO.
The National String Symphonia (Maryland) will present two programs featuring the music of women composers. On March 1st at the First Evangelical Lutheran Church (Ellicott City, MD) and 8th at the Calvary Lutheran Church (Silver Spring, MD) they will present their program “Compos(HER)s II: Music Modern and Classic.” It features pieces by composers Beth Anderson, Marianne Martinez, Nancy Bloomer Deussen, Alex Shapiro, Mary Howe, and Judith Shatin. Their second program, “Compos(HER)s II: Celebrating Women with Music Written By Women” will feature works by composers Mary Howe, Marianne Martinez, Judith Shatin, Beth Anderson, and Gwyneth Walker and will be performed at New Spire Arts (Frederick, MD).
Below is a recording of the National String Symphonia playing the first movement of Nancy Bloomer Deussen’s Peninsula Suite, recorded in 2019.
On March 5 the North/South Chamber Orchestra performs its program “Women of Note,” music by women composers from Colombia, Cuba, and the United States, at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 W 37th St, New York). The orchestra, led by Max Lifchitz, will perform: Alexa Canales’s Infinite, Mara Gibson’s Rhythmic Mosaics, Odaline de la Martinez’s Memorias, Keyla Orozco’s Marimba de Júcaro Amarillo, and Alba Potes’s Y la brisa trae aroma de cadmia (featuring marimbas Frank Cassara). The North/South Chamber Orchestra is supported by North/South Consonance, Inc. The organization is “dedicated to promoting music by composers from the Americas and around the world. Its activities are supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as grants from the Music Performance Fund, the BMI Foundation, the Zethus Fund, and the generosity of numerous individual donors.”
Below is a performance of Mara Gibson’s Rhythmic Mosaics, performed in 2023 by the American Modern Ensemble. the performance was part of the Mostly Modern Festival at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.
On March 8 the Community Women’s Orchestra (Oakland, CA) will perform its winter concert, “Mother Nature” featuring music by women. The program will include: Anne Guzzo’s Fanfare for Mountains and Peace, Nancy Bloomer Deussen’s The Transit of Venus, Augusta Holmès’s Andromede, Mattea Williams’s Deepest Blue, and Imogen Holst’s Persephone. This is the CWO’s 41st year engaging, inspiring, and celebrating women in classical music. They are an independent non-profit, and one of only a few all-women’s orchestras in the United States. In the last 40 years they have grown from a six-member ensemble that was a community adjunct to the professional Women’s Philharmonic to a sixty-member independent orchestra after the TWP disbanded in 2004. In addition to have all women personnel, the CWO regularly platforms historical and contemporary works by women composers.
Below is a performance of Imogen Holst’s Persephone—my personal favorite work from this program. This recording was made by Alice Farnham and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and was released in September of 2024 by NMC Recordings.
On March 8th, Carola Emrich-Fisher (mezzo-soprano) and Lara Dodds-Eden (piano) will present their recital “Unheard Voices” of women composers’ works at Lauderdale House (London). Though research into and performance of music by historical women composers has grown much in the last forty years, and contemporary women composers are making great strides toward equal representation, both are still underrepresented in the canon of classical music. Emrich-Fisher and Dodds-Eden are determined to do their bit to bring this music into the concert hall and to help listeners discover what they hope will be new favorite pieces. The impressive program will feature music in six languages from three continents, and range from 19th-century Romanticism to contemporary styles. The following are featured in the performance:
- Josephine Lang (1815-1880) – “Herbstgefühl” from Liederbuch Vol. 2 No. 16
- Dora Pejačević (1885-1923) – Ein Lied Op. 11; Warum? Op. 13
- Clara Faisst (1872-1948) – “Abendlied” from Drei Lieder Op. 20, No. 1
- Margarete Schweikert (1887-1957) – Frühlingslied Op. 12 No. 1
- Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868-1941) – “Wie eine Vollmondnacht” from Vier Lieder Op. 20 No. 4
- Henriette Boesmanns (1895-1952) – Six Préludes No. 4; Six Préludes No. 3
- Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) – Reflets LB9 (1911)
- Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979) – Soir d’hiver (1914-15) NB49
- Amy Beach (1867–1944) – The Blackbird, from Op. 11 (1889)
- Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) – Two Songs (1912) “I. Shy One” “II. The Cloths of Heaven”
- Marion Bauer (1882–1955) – Epitaph of a Butterfly (1921)
- Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915–1940) – “Jarní pout No. 4” from Jablko s klína Op. 10 (1936)
- Florence Price (1887–1953) – Fantasy in Purple (ca. 1940)
- Alice Ping Yee Ho – “Winter No. 4” from Four Seasons Ballade
- Cecilia Livingston – “IV” & “V” from Hyacinth
- Shirley J. Thompson – New Day
- Virginia Firnberg – “El niño, No. 1” from El arte de la pesca
Finally, all month long WRTI (Philadelphia) will be featuring women in its classical music broadcasts. Every weekday and Saturday in March a different composer will take the spotlight, and her music cane heard at the start of the 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. hours (EST) from Monday through Friday, and to begin the 10 a.m. hour (EST) on Saturdays. The broadcasts are streamable from WRTI’s website or in the WRTI Mobile App if you are not int he Philadelphia area. All broadcasts are in Eastern Standard Time. This week if you tune in you will hear music by composers regularly featured in the pages of Feminist in the Concert Hall, including: Marianna Martines, Florence Price, Emilie Mayer, Cécile Chaminade, Jennifer Higdon, and Avril Coleridge-Taylor.
Happy Women’s History Month! Let us know what you’re listening to! Email us at info@wophil.org