Wednesday, March 8th 2023 is International Women’s Day.
Each year, a theme accompanies the day of action and celebration. This year is the theme is #EmbraceEquity
When it comes to programming music written by women composers the tide is slowly turning. For example, the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2017-2018 had 55 composers on their concert season and none were women. Now, more than four years later, there are more than one in four composers in their season that are women.
The tide is slowly changing here in Canada as well, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra recently did a Winnipeg premiere of the American composer Amy Beach’s “Gaelic” Symphony. In April of 2023 the Toronto Symphony Orchestra will be performing the Scottish composer Helen Grime’s Violin Concerto, and in May the Calgary Philharmonic will be performing music of the Canadian Composer Jocelyn Morlock.
Diversity in programming is something that Orchestra’s have been thinking a lot about…and that is a very definite step in the right direction.
Join us here at Classic 107, as we celebrate the accomplishments of female musicians. Throughout the day, we will be featuring women conductors, performers and composers.
Highlights include:
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At 9:00am Simeon Rusnak will be presenting a full performance of Amy Beach’s stellar Piano Concerto paired up with American composer Jennifer Higdon’s stunning piece “Blue Cathedral”
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At 11:00am tune in to hear a full performance of Dame Ethel Smyth’s Serenade for Orchestra, accompanied by music of Rebecca Clarke, and Liza Lehman.
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At 1:00pm Chris Wolf will be putting to air phenomenal music by little known English composer Alice Mary Smith. Music written by a composer who's career was stifled despite writing outstanding music, because of the time she lived in.
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At 2:00pm hear music of Mozart and Bach performed by some of Canada’s finest female performers.
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At 3:00pm tune in to hear music composed by Canadian female composers such as Jean Coulthard, Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, and Elizabeth Raum amongst others
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At 8:00pm join Terry Klippenstein as he presents complete works of Fanny Mendelsohn and the unjustly overlooked German composer Emilie Mayer.
In the music that is not composed by men, women will be front and centre on the recordings, whether it be as soloists, conductor or ensemble.
In addition to the complete works by women composers, expect to hear fantastic music written by women that you might not have ever heard of before.
#EmbraceEquity….only on Classic 107