Happy Women’s History Month! And we hope you celebrated International Women’s Day! So much is going on!
On March 12th Palazzetto Bru Zane will begin a series of concerts that give three women composers a chance to shine: Louise Farrenc, Augusta Holmès and Clémence de Grandval. Their March concerts will all feature large works by Louise Farrenc, appearing alongside her contemporaries as les enfants du siècle. “Palazzetto Bru Zane’s initial concert cycle also makes a conscious decision to step away from what they describe as the risk of ‘ghettoising’ women composers. Rather, they prefer to think generationally – the children of the century, les enfants du siècle, in all their variety, evolving through the decades.”
On March 13 the UN Symphony Orchestra presents its “Global Women in Music” initiative featuring compositions by women, in partnership with United Voices for Peace. The initiative works to advance gender equality by promoting the music of female composers around the world. The concert is presented as an official side event to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW 70). The concert will feature eight works by historical and contemporary women: Ethel Smyth’s overture to The Wreckers (UK); Morena Galán’s “The things you will never hear” (Argentina); Aida Saco Beiroa’s “Going Home” (Spain); Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa’s “Mhande” (Zimbabwe); Ana Krstajić’s “Heroic Cinematic” (Serbia); Valerie Naranjo’s “Tierra Pura” (USA — Southern Ute, First Nations); Ghiya Rushidat’s “Love and Tranquillity” (Jordan); and Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s “Knell” (Iran).
Photo credits: Carolyn Kuan by Charlie Schuck; Amanda Gookin by Julia Comita; Cynthia Yeh by Todd Rosenberg; Karen Slack by Kia Caldwell.
On March 11 the American Composers Orchestra will present its “Hello America: Letters to Us from Us” concert at Zankel Hall as part of Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival. The concert will feature four world premieres and a New York premiere, including: Suzanne Kite’s Cosmologyscape for Orchestra (World Premiere), Shelley Washington’s Haymaker for Cello and Orchestra (World Premiere), Jessie Montgomery’s Procession for Percussion and Orchestra (NY Premiere), and Brittany J. Green’s Letters to America for Soprano and Orchestra (World Premiere). The program also includes a piece by Joseph C. Phillips Jr.
Members of the ensemble have described these pieces as open letters reflecting “narratives around the summer homes of turn-of-the-century Black folk, dreams, unspoken emotions, rituals of celebration, and the connection between the historic and current patriotism of Black American women.”
Dr. Sofia Yatsyuk, violin
Ziteng Fang, piano
On March 11 violinist Dr Sofia Yatsyuk and pianist Ziteng Fan will present their recital, “From a Woman’s Pen: Souvenirs Past to Present” at the National Liberal Club in London. Their program presents “a deep dive into the lives of seven women, charting a journey through periods of history and highlighting works both historical and contemporary.” The headlining work is Ethel Smyth’s Violin Sonata in A Minor (1887), dedicated to Elizabeth Wach. Though the work was not immediately a critical success— a critic at the time in Leipzig described it as “music devoid of feminine charm and therefore unworthy of a woman”—but it later came into its own. Accompanying Smyth’s major work is a collection of miniature works by both historical and contemporary women from across the Americas, Europe, and Britain: Florence Price’s Elfentanz, Bohdana Frolyek’s Nocturne, Amy Beach’s Three Compositions, Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s Bloom, Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne, and Clarice Assad’s Emotiva. The concert promises to be an evening of contrasts, showcasing what wonderful skill and diversity we have in the repertoire of women composers.
Dr. Sofia Yatsyuk is a Ukrainian-British concert violinist, doctoral researcher in women’s music, and educator. Sofia was invited to the 2024 Ethel Smyth Symposium in Dublin to present research from her doctoral thesis, a title that might prove interesting to WPA readers: Women composers and their critics in the era of first-wave feminism: gender and the classical music canon in Britain, 1850-1950. She also wrote a popular article for The Strad magazine in 2025, titled What Dame Ethel Smyth and Rebecca Clarke can teach us this International Women’s Day. Collaborative pianist Ziteng Fan regularly appears across Europe and China in recitals and chamber music. She is currently the Artist in Residence at the Piano Art Development & Promotion Association in Changchun, China; she is also a founding member of the Mila Piano Trio, with which she performs widely across the UK.
All month long WRTI (Philadelphia) will be hosting its Women Composers spotlight, which features a different woman composer every day in March. Programs are streamable from WRTI’s website. This week’s featured composers are: Amy Beach (March 9), Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (March 10), Elizabeth Maconchy (March 11), Hildegard von Bingen (March 12), Errollyn Wallen (March 13), and Emilia Giuliani-Guglielmi (March 14).
Finally, March 12 an 14, the Philadelphia Orchestra is performing Amy Beach’s monumental Symphony op. 32 in e minor, “Gaelic” of 1896. While we are happy that this top-Five US orchestra, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, is performing Beach’s Symphony, it seems odd that it is barely mentioned in their publicity — the concert is titled “Liszt’s Piano Fireworks” and the 70-word blurb in the link above doesn’t mention Beach. Rather than celebrating this great Symphony as a highlight, they seem to hope that no-one will notice it? Are they unaware that Liszt is actually considered highly overrated by many fan’s of classical music?
Let us know what you’re listening to! Email us at info@wophil.org