02 August 2013, Artikel
Orchestral premieres and the NEA
The Summer 2013 edition of Symphony , the official magazine of the League of American Orchestras, brings us the (surprising?) news that nothing new is happening for women composers in the world of orchestral music.   Page 21, “A Continent’s Worth of Premieres: Looking Towards the 2013-2013 Season” is quite beautiful and is devoted to “World and Territorial Premieres in North America.” The orchestras featured are the Boston, Baltimore, Toronto, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Seattle ...
11 August 2012, Artikel
The Other "One Percent"
Quite a bit of current political discussion, especially in the United States, refers to "The One Percent"-- that group of people who earn the most money. However, both in the US and the European Union there is another "one percent." Women composers, whether of popular or serious music, receive one percent of all broadcast time in the European Union.. Little more than a generation ago recorded music by women was hard to find, but today it is readily available.  Why does so little of it get ... Kommentare: 1
26 Juli 2012, Artikel
Where Are They? Part II
Where Are They? Part II Have you ever heard of Libby Larsen, Alice Shields, Missy Mazzoli, Anne Le Baron, Victoria Bond, Ann Gebuhr, Nancy Van de Vate, Veronika Krausas, Justine Chen, Karen Griebling, Carol Barnett, or Sorrel Hays?   This list could include dozens more names of American women composers who have written operas, many of them large-scale works which have been publicly performed.   Thus, it is somewhat baffling that usopera.com, which describes itself as “the web’s ...
28 März 2012, Artikel
New opera
Nancy Van de Vate’s new opera, Hamlet , based on the play by William Shakespeare, has just been released on a three-CD album, VMM 4008, from Vienna Modern Masters.   In five acts, the opera features a distinguished international cast, with three soloists from the US, three from Vienna, one from South Africa, one from Greece, and one from Colombia.   The excellent Moravian Philharmonic and Zerotin Academic Choir from Olomouc, Czech Republic are also heard on this new recording, conducted by ...
24 Februar 2011, Artikel
Where Are They?
Why is it easier for a woman to become an astronaut and fly into outer space than to get an opera performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, or for that matter, almost any other major opera house in the world? A lot of very fine operas have been and are being composed by women, but no one hears them.  Today's world of opera composers is truly a Boys' Club. Should women composers wait longer?  What for?  The first Italian opera performed at the court of Empress Maria ...