Allison Lovejoy, composer
Credit: Judy Rosenfeld Photography
Lots of concerts in October and November have been/are featuring works by women composers! (We love to see it!)
On November 3, 2024 the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra & Chorus (San Francisco, USA) will perform the world premiere of Elijah’s Call: An Oratorio for an Abolitionist by composer Allison Lovejoy. The oratorio honors Lovejoy’s ancestor Elijah Parrish Lovejoy. He was an American abolitionist, journalist, newspaper editor, and Presbyterian minister, known for his defense of free speech and freedom of the press. Lovejoy’s oratorio features a narrator and solo singers, with lyrics by the composer and Gary Kamiya. The program will also spotlight Florence’s Price‘s Symphony No. 4.
On October 26 and 27, the Ashland Symphony Orchestra featured the Sinfonia in C major by Marianne Martínes, the first woman composer of a symphony in our historical record (so far). In eighteenth century Vienna she was a contemporary of Mozart and was the first woman admitted to the Academy of Bologna—no small feat at a time when women had been systemically barred from such institutions. Her work has featured recently in our WPA news as both the English Touring Opera and Boston’s Horizons Ensemble have performed her music. Richland Sources coverage of the concert includes a playlist of Martínes’s music and conversation with WPA’s own Dr. Liane Curtis on revivals of classical music by women and the work of Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy.
Below is a performance of Martínes’s work, performed by the Collegia Musica Chiemgau in 2022.
On November 27th, the Shrewsbury Symphony Orchestra will perform Amy Beach’s classic Gaelic Symphony as part of its Fall 2024 program lineup. The orchestra is one of the oldest amateur orchestra in the UK (founded in 1888), and in recent years it has grown its reputation for delivering high quality concerts. Performing Beach’s symphony represents an ongoing commitment by the orchestra to perform the work of female composers.
Below is Beach’s Gaelic Symphony, played by the Ulster Orchestra and conducted by JoAnn Falletta (recorded August, 2010 in Ulster Hall, Belfast, IRE)
On November 17th, the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra will present their “Women in Music” program at the Victory Theater in Evansville, IN. The concert will commemorate the work of an impressive lineup of five extraordinary women composers: Elaine Hagenberg, Stacy Garrop, Gabriela Ortiz, Ruth Gipps, and Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, as well as featuring other women associated with the orchestra. Hagenberg’s By Night pays homage to Harriet Prescott’s poem of the same name and features the women of the Evansville Philharmonic Chorus. Stacy Garrop’s “The Battle of the Ballot” draws on the texts of speeches and writing by seven suffragettes during the struggle to pass the 19th Amendment, and will be narrated by Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry. Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari (“Blue deer”), Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Overture in C Major, and Ruth Gipps’s Symphony No. 2 will complete the orchestra’s program.
Below is a performance of Elaine Hagenberg’s By Night, performed by the Timber Creek High School National ACDA in 2023 with their director Adrian Kirtley.
Below is a link to Stacy Garrop’s appearance on the Frost School of Music’s podcast, talking about her experience as a woman composer and writing “The Battle of the Ballot” from November 2020.
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