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in association with 

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REDISCOVERING FEMALE COMPOSERS OF THE PAST WITH VOICES OF THE FUTURE

6-13 MARCH 2021

ABOUT THE PROJECT

One of our most fascinating projects to date, 'Forgotten Voices' is an ongoing research and performance project with the goal of rediscovering and celebrating women composers of the past to ensure they have much more of a 'voice' than they have had compared to their male counterparts in modern programming.  The original festival has led to an ongoing collaboration with Oxford Lieder.

 

We celebrated International Women’s Day 2021 with an online festival showcasing some of the extraordinary music composed by women over the last 180 years. Working in association with HERA, we put together a programme of over eighty songs and arias which will be recorded by 50 students from the UK’s conservatoires and young artist programmes.

 

The festival launched at 4pm on 6 March with a live-streamed, hour-long concert from Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama celebrating Welsh composers past and present. Over the course of the following week we released more videos – recorded in lockdown – every day, with the intention of flooding social media with the wealth of talent from female composers. 

 

The festival featured music by composers including Maud Cuney-Hare, Elaine Hughes-Jones, and Laura Netzel along with some unpublished songs by Margaret Bonds, Avril Coleridge-Taylor, and Rebecca Clarke. This was the first chapter in an ambitious new project to build a comprehensive database to facilitate and encourage more programming – and awareness - of works by female composers. 

 

Our co-founder Kitty says, ‘Although there are many websites which catalogue the names and dates of female composers, they all lack recordings. Artists looking to expand their repertoire of women’s music need to hear a snapshot of a composer’s music to get a flavour of her sound-world in order to decide if they are attracted to her style and interested in exploring more. If recordings of a composer’s music were free and easily accessible, I know I personally would be far more likely to be more adventurous in my programming.’

We’re delighted to be working with Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and Trinity Laban as well as singers from the National Opera Studio.

 

A full list of featured composers:

Agathe Backer-Grøndhal

Amy Beach

Adolpha le Beau

Margaret Bonds

Ingleborg Bronsart von Schellendorf

Hedwige Chrétien

Rebecca Clarke

Avril Coleridge-Taylor

Maud Cuney-Hare

Eva Dell'Acqua

Pauline Duchamge

Gabrielle Ferrari

Eugenie-Emilie Juliette Folville

Chiquinha Gonzaga

Clemance de Grandval 

Guy d'Hardelot (Helen Rhodes)

Augusta Holmès

Amy Elise Horrocks

Elaine Hugh-Jones

Betty Jackson King

Mathilde Kralik von Meyrswalden

Claire Lidell

Laura Netzel

Johanna Müller-Hermann

Marguerite Olagnier

Morfydd Owen

Poldowski (Régine Wieniawski)

Betty Roe

Charlotte Sainton-Dolby

Undine Smith Moore

Pauline Viardot

Maude Valérie White

Grace Williams

Amy Woodforde-Finden

With enormous thanks to:

 

All the student singers, young artists and pianists who have volunteered their time and talent to this project 

 

Everyone who has helped us to put the project together, including:

Alexa Carey - RAM

Angela Livingstone - RWCMD

Armin Zanner - GSMD

Audrey Hyland - RCM

Beth Lynch - National Opera Studio

Betty Roe - Composer

Catherine Carby - SWAP’ra 

Christopher Johnson - Rebecca Clarke Estate

Christopher Painter - Oriana Publications Limited / Cwmni Cyhoeddi Oriana

Claire Liddell - Composer

Claire Tomalin

David Good - Goodmusic Publishing (Claire Liddell song)

Diana Ambache - Repertoire consultancy

Dominique Le Gendre - Repertoire consultancy

Dr Louise Toppin - Videmus Inc.

Elaine Hugh-Jones - Composer 

For Love Let Wind Cry...How I Adore Thee by Undine Smith Moore appears courtesy of Round Hill Carlin

Hera

IMSLP.com

Iain Burnside - Repertoire consultancy

Jean-Marc Reyno - language consultancy

Jennifer Hamilton - Trinity Laban 

John Ramster - GSMD

Lynn Dawson - RNCM

Martha Hartman - GSMD

Natasha Loges - RCM

Nigel Foster - Repertoire consultancy

PRS for Music

Penny King - RWCMD

Phillip Sunderland - RAM

Robert good - Bibliofox

Simone Jonetsu Ibbett-Brown - Hera

Siân Rogers - Siren

Toria Banks - Hera

William Coleman - Caradoc press

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