Female composers

[Roy Bland]

Women composers are absolutely underrated so it 's welcome


The Muffled Voices festival is the first international project dedicated to supporting and recognizing women's contributions to classical music. The initiative was implemented by the Lyrics Classic music organization together with the Shostakovich and Stravinsky publishing house and the Music of Our Time project. The first season of the festival is dedicated to the outstanding composer, author of more than 500 works and Honored Artist of Russia Tatyana Chudova.

For the "Muffled Voices" festival program, 10 chamber operas were selected, created by seven talented female composers and representing various musical styles: Tatiana Chudova, Russian Women, Tatiana's Dream, The Head of Professor Dowell, Tchaikovsky - Von Meck "; Amy Mercy Beach, Cabildo; Missy Mazzoli, "Proof"; Anna LeBaron, "The Blues Call Will Set You Free"; Alina Nebykova, "Zhdana"; Anna Kuzmina, "Dreams and Not Dreams"; Alina Podzorova, "Periodic Table".

The first three premieres will take place at the opening of the festival on the stage of the theater hall of the Moscow International House of Music on February 7. The program will open with Tatiana Chudova's operas "Tatiana's Dream" and "Russian Women", as well as Amy Beach's "Cabildo" performed by soloists of the Bolshoi Theater, the Musical Theater. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, Helikon Opera, Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall. On April 15, in the Concert Hall of Zaryadye Park, they will perform a vocal cycle of six songs for soprano and string quartet based on poems by Anna Akhmatova and will again perform Amy Beach's Cabildo, an opera with a historical plot about the colonial prison in New Orleans and the escape of the pirate Pierre Lafitte.

February 7
Theater hall MMDM
Kosmodamianskaya embankment, 52/8
Starts at 19:00

April 15
Zaryadye Concert Hall
Varvarka, 6, building 4
Starts at 19:00

 

[71 dB]

Recently I have explored the music of Croatian Dora Pejačević (1885 – 1923). I heard her Symphony on TV and found it quite nice, in some ways even Elgarian, or rather a Germanic version of Elgar such as Richard Strauss maybe? She seems to have been largely self-taught as was Elgar which might explain why their approach to late-romantic writing has similar feel. While the works I have heard by her haven't been mind-blowing, they are pleasant to listen to. I especially like her slow movements. She knew how to write those!