Women in the arts
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- a subject close to my heart, having realised after 30 or so years working in classical music how women are (oh so subtly) regarded as second class citizens.
And New! Cecilia's List - music by women
"Cecilia’s List is a lectionary-oriented directory that helps people who are choosing the music in their churches to include more music composed by women and members of other under-represented communities. The aim is to supplement, rather than replace, existing resources." Already available in November 2017: pages for Advent, Christmas, Easter and Lent.
Happy St Cecilia's Day!
New! Illuminate concert series seeks to promote the work of women's music from the past and present. In 2018 they will be giving a concert series around the UK.
Illuminate is a new project to promote the work of emerging women composers and performers. It also gives a platform for historical repertoire by women composers to sit alongside new works. The project has been set up by Dr Angela Elizabeth Slater, a freelance composer who is a strong advocate of the promotion of women’s music both past and present.
Aims of Illuminate concert series
Illuminate is a new project to promote the work of emerging women composers and performers. It also gives a platform for historical repertoire by women composers to sit alongside new works. The project has been set up by Dr Angela Elizabeth Slater, a freelance composer who is a strong advocate of the promotion of women’s music both past and present.
Aims of Illuminate concert series
- To provide opportunities for living women composers to have their work performed, particularly focusing on emerging composers.
- To provide a platform for emerging women performers
- To promote the enjoyment and appreciation of the womens' music of today and from the past to new audiences across the UK.
Here for starters is a link to an article on BBC News reporting on Beth Orton's Brighter Sound residency at the Band on the Wall in Manchester in February 2015. The event was inspired by a Performing Rights Society statistic that showed only 14% of its members were female and organiser Brighter Sound's own experience of one in four applicants to their music residencies being women.
Beth Orton tackles lack of women in music industry
By Chris Long
Beth Orton tackles lack of women in music industry
By Chris Long
Women conductors
Sinfini reports on a women-only conducting course run by Alice Farnham at Morley College in London - "Aimed at women aged 16-25 who are considering entering careers or full-time higher education in classical music, Morley College’s Arts Council-funded workshops have already proved successful in Oxford, and will now be held in locations including London, Cardiff, Cambridge, Glasgow, Birmingham and Leeds.
The two-day, £150 workshops allow up to ten participants (plus observers) to adopt and hone new conducting skills, aided by professional pianists and string players. Participants also play their own instruments when not on the podium themselves, to help their peers develop technique, and a stagecraft coach is on hand to teach the body language skills conductors need to project confidence on stage."
The two-day, £150 workshops allow up to ten participants (plus observers) to adopt and hone new conducting skills, aided by professional pianists and string players. Participants also play their own instruments when not on the podium themselves, to help their peers develop technique, and a stagecraft coach is on hand to teach the body language skills conductors need to project confidence on stage."
And here's Alice Farnham again on how to get more women conducting: "I decided to become an advocate for women conductors and take proactive steps to inspire young women. Marin Alsop's (she conducted the Last Night of the Proms in 2013 and again this year) openness in addressing the problem inspired me to create the Women Conductors @ Morley programme with Andrea Brown at London’s Morley College....Creating role models for women is important. Some of today’s most successful conductors – Jane Glover, Sian Edwards, Julia Jones, Andrea Quinn, Jessica Cottis, Sarah Tenant-Flowers and Rebecca Miller – have all agreed to run workshops. Women will see leading female conductors in action, which is crucial."
From an article in The Guardian
From an article in The Guardian
A recent survey of its members by the International Artist Managers' Association came up with some interesting responses:
What number one factor, do you think, acts as a brake on careers of female composers and conductors?
Conservative attitudes of the audience 15.79%
Conservative attitudes of the orchestra 63.16%
Lack of confidence among female composers and conductors 10.53%
Reluctance of artist managers to represent a female composer and conductor 10.53%
How many female conductors are represented on www.ClassicalMusicartists.com - Who Represents Whom?
There are 26 out of 907 conductors as represented by the members of the AEAA and IAMA (2.8%)
What number one factor, do you think, acts as a brake on careers of female composers and conductors?
Conservative attitudes of the audience 15.79%
Conservative attitudes of the orchestra 63.16%
Lack of confidence among female composers and conductors 10.53%
Reluctance of artist managers to represent a female composer and conductor 10.53%
How many female conductors are represented on www.ClassicalMusicartists.com - Who Represents Whom?
There are 26 out of 907 conductors as represented by the members of the AEAA and IAMA (2.8%)
Women composers
I've just (May 2016) received an email from Rain Worthington in New York who found this website and says "As Artistic Administrator/Composer Advocate for the New York Women Composers, I would also like to introduce the organization and website.
www.newyorkwomencomposers.org
We have an online catalog which is searchable by instrumentation. (P.S. Noted Welsh composer, Hilary Tann is also a NYWC member as she lives and teaches in upper New York state.)"
Thank you Rain - good to be in touch with you!
www.newyorkwomencomposers.org
We have an online catalog which is searchable by instrumentation. (P.S. Noted Welsh composer, Hilary Tann is also a NYWC member as she lives and teaches in upper New York state.)"
Thank you Rain - good to be in touch with you!
At the Utrecht Early Music Festival I noticed a stand offering music from the Furore Verlag - a publisher based in Germany which specialises in music by women composers. 14 November 2015 is the 210th birthday of Fanny Hensel, née Mendelssohn - whose songs were published during her lifetime as anonymous or under a false name.
Composer Hannah Kendall writes in International Arts Manager on "seeing the unseen bias" - "I ask you this: why should it be that the percentage of women performers in US orchestras increased by a quarter when ‘blind’ auditions were introduced? Surely it’s because panels were unable to determine their gender. How very interesting, how very worrying. Is the same happening, I wonder, with composers?" Hannah was one of four women composers (including the new commissioned by the Cheltenham Music Festival in 2014 to write short pieces for the Choir of Merton College, Oxford, and together with Kerry Andrew and Dobrinka Tabakova took part in a discussion on what's it's like for women composers in Britain today.
Kerry Andrew, by the way, is a member of juice vocal ensemble, who are giving a late-night concert at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford on 27 July.
Kerry Andrew, by the way, is a member of juice vocal ensemble, who are giving a late-night concert at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford on 27 July.
The PRS Foundation has chosen three women to to spend six weeks in China "writing new music and building new, international relationships. They are Kerry Andrew, Mira Calix and Bella Hardy. "As of Summer 2015, each musician will begin immersing themselves in and responding to their new environment, meeting local people and sharing experiences. The new music will then be performed publicly in China and the UK in 2015 and 2016."
When asked about being a 'woman composer' Thea Musgrave has replied "Yes, I am a woman; and I am a composer. But rarely at the same time." Tom Service talks to Thea Musgrave on BBC Radio 3's Music Matters on 11 July 2015.
Why the male domination of classical music might be coming to an end
By Jessica Duchen
A fascinating article about women in music appeared in The Guardian, also coinciding with International Women's Day: "In a studio at Morley College in south London, a group of teenagers are learning how to stand. Some postures naturally convey authority; something as basic as a different way of walking can establish the impression of control. The first time a conductor meets an orchestra, first impressions are all-important; she has, after all, to persuade a large group of musicians to follow her instructions.
That’s right: her instructions. Last year Morley College initiated an introductory course at which young female music students could have a try at conducting for the first time. The event was among a number of constructive responses to increasing anger about the under-representation of women in parts of the classical music world."
A special concert for International Women's Day on 7 March - slightly outside the Severn Muses area in Milton Keynes - is conducted by Sian Edwards, with soprano Anita Watson and an all-woman Milton Keynes City Orchestra. It's some time since the days of all-male orchestras (as the LSO and Vienna Philharmonic used to be) and it's interesting to examine our reactions to this idea. Will the sound be different?
At the launch of the new season Jude Kelly, artistic director of London's Southbank Centre (a rare example of a woman at the top of the profession), suggests that "gender equality is “still a dangerous subject” in the arts", saying "the historical canon of theatre, literature, music and choreography was “dominated” by the idea that men are “the central creative force”. She added: “That’s not always been true, and it mustn’t be true in the future in a world where there’s 50% women. So you’ve got to give women the confidence, the space, the time and the authority to make work. And you have to leave space for them." Read more in this article from The Stage.
Of course it's not just women who are in the minority in the arts. Here are some statistics from new research by Dr Christina Scharff at Kings College London which finds extensive inequalities at every level of the classical music profession with regard to sex, class, education and ethnicity (with thanks to Slipped Disc)
Among its findings:
– The proportion of women working in the arts and cultural sector has fallen to 43%;
– women earn less than men (£29,015, compared to £34,669)
– only 7% of the cultural workforce was from a black and minority ethnic background;
– just 3.9 % of students at five conservatories were from ‘low participation neighbourhoods';
– the middle-class culture of music education may explain why classical music continues to appeal to middle-class audiences.
The International Artist Managers' Association has just sent out a survey asking why there are so few women conductors and composers - of the over 900 conductors listed on the classicalmusicartists.com website I counted just 26 women.
Among its findings:
– The proportion of women working in the arts and cultural sector has fallen to 43%;
– women earn less than men (£29,015, compared to £34,669)
– only 7% of the cultural workforce was from a black and minority ethnic background;
– just 3.9 % of students at five conservatories were from ‘low participation neighbourhoods';
– the middle-class culture of music education may explain why classical music continues to appeal to middle-class audiences.
The International Artist Managers' Association has just sent out a survey asking why there are so few women conductors and composers - of the over 900 conductors listed on the classicalmusicartists.com website I counted just 26 women.