International Women's Day Concert - 'Unheard Voices - 8 March 2026, Lauderdale House, 3pm
From the programme
Josephine Lang (1815-1880)
“Herbstgefühl” from Liederbuch Vol. 2 No. 16
Dora Pejačević (1885-1923)
“Ein Lied” Op. 11
“Warum?” Op. 13
Clara Faisst (1872-1948)
“Abendlied” from Drei Lieder Op. 20, No. 1
Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868-1941)
“Wie eine Vollmondnacht from Vier Lieder Op. 20 No. 4
Margarete Schweikert (1887-1957)
“Frühlingslied” Op. 12 No. 1
Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952)
Six Préludes No. 4
Six Préludes No. 3
Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)
“Reflets” LB9
Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979)
“Soir d’hiver (1914-15)” NB49
Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915–1940)
“Jarní pout” No. 4 from Jablko s klína Op. 10
Amy Beach (1867–1944)
“The Blackbird,” from Op. 11
Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979)
Two Songs
I “Shy One”
II “The Cloths of Heaven”
Marion Bauer (1882–1955)
“The Epitaph of a Butterfly”
Florence Price (1887–1953)
“Fantasy in Purple”
Cecilia Livingston
iv & v from hyacinth: songs of the Minotaur
Shirley J. Thompson
“New Day” No. 3 from Tapestry
Alice Ping Yee Ho
“Winter” No. 4 from Four Seasons Ballade
Virginia Firnberg
El niño, No. 1 from El arte de la pesca
‘‘Both Lara and Carola have made it a focus of their careers to showcase women composers. Women composers are still underrepresented in the canon of Classical music and little research has been undertaken into some composers simply because they were women and not as well-known in their time. Luckily, the world is gradually discovering the wealth of repertoire composed by women in the past and contemporary women composers are more and more represented in concert halls. In today’s programme, we chose not to include some women composers who are already being performed extensively, such as Fanny Hensel (1805-1847) and Clara Schumann (1819-1896), choosing instead to search far and wide for more obscure composers. We were delighted to discover many women composers we had never heard of, but who absolutely deserve to become cherished contributors to the Classical canon. We were encouraged to find out that some of these composers are already gaining renown on the international concert stage.
It was a joy and a challenge to put together this programme. Finding the scores of some of these composers was much more difficult than we anticipated, but with the help of both colleagues and strangers, we were able to succeed. One of the most illuminating aspects of preparing this concert was finding out about the life stories of these women. Like all women, many of the composers featured today faced challenges and roadblocks: the pressures of societal norms and domestic duties, misogyny and inequality between the genders amongst many others. Indeed, something we have both experienced firsthand was confirmed as something of a universal truth when learning about the lives of these creative women: marriage and motherhood can mean huge interruptions and at times a cessation of creative output.
It has been illuminating to connect with these composers and their biographies, in some cases across the span of hundreds of years. We want to present our composers as independent women creators: however, it proves difficult to speak about these composers’ lives without mentioning the men in their lives: their teachers, mentors, sponsors, their fathers or brothers and of course many of their partners, some supportive and others hindering of their careers. We aim to paint a picture first and foremost of the human who existed in the context of her time and brought to life these works in the context and Zeitgeist of her time. While marriage and motherhood no longer equal creative death in our times, gender-inequality and marginalization of other groups are still very present in Classical music and we hope to rectify some of this with today’s programme. We are deeply humbled and inspired to have gotten to know the heroines of this concert and their fantastic music.
The first third of this concert will take you through German-speaking repertoire of the golden age of Vernunft (reason) and Bildung (education) in Germany, Austria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, starting with a contemporary of Hensel and Schumann. We then move on to Expressionism and the Impressionism of Belgium, France and the Czech Republic and into the 20th Century. From there, we continue to the United States. The final section of this concert features living women composers of China, Canada and England. The themes common to many of their stories are personal courage, determination, resilience, talent and opportunity, but also the challenges of financial hardship, ill-health, childbirth, mothering, suppression, war and adversity in a male-dominated world. The saving grace for many of these composers was human connection and friendship to see them through difficult times. Some of these themes are reflected in the texts you are about to hear, whilst others are more intimate expressions of the soul.’’
Read Malcom Miller’s review here