Female Composers
I feel like this year everywhere you turn you're hearing about women's rights and women all over the world standing up and say "Hey! I do exist! I do matter! And I will not be silenced!" This movement, while not the first, seems to finally be having an impact including famous actors and directors being fired and publicly shamed. It's starting the difficult conversations that must be had. Even in the Classical Music world we are seeing the same kind of movement with people making some very serious allegations against some very prominent conductors that are resulting in them rightfully losing work and respect.
While this is amazing and about time it is still only the tip of the iceberg. This is great for this and future generations but what about all of the generations that came before us and especially all of the Female Performers and Composers who were neglected, ignored or not taken seriously simply because of the sex they were born with? Where is the justice for them? How do we make this right? Well the simple answer is we never fully can. We can never go back in time and let Clara Schumann composer freely to her hearts content. Or let Fanny Mendelssohn publish works under her own name instead of her husbands. These women and countless others were stunted from ever reaching their full potential because of a society and world that wasn't ready for them.
And even if there are still some who aren't ready today, I am. So to balance the scales as much as I can I have decided to start the process of creating a Monthly concert series devoted solely to music written BY WOMEN from every generation and decade. No we will not be performing works dedicated to women, no we will not be performing works about women, but solely the music that these amazingly patient and talented women penned themselves. This is all about them and their accomplishments and getting inside their heads and letting their music be heard.
Countless times I ask people why they don't program Women and their first answer is almost always that they aren't familiar with many pieces by women and second that the pieces they do know about are just so hard to get a hold of. Well I don't want that to be a valid excuse anymore! So to combat that I have created a spreadsheet of ever piece I could possibly find by Women for the Oboe (and friends) and included as many links as to where to purchase this music. This spreadsheet will be continually updated and will never be fully complete but I encourage any and all of you to please send in anything that needs to be added! All I ask is that you try to provide all of the information listed on the catalog.
It is deeply disturbing the amount of music I am finding that has probably never seen the concert stage or fallen on eager ears. That is about to change as long as I have something to say about it.
More coming soon!!
