It was a great day for women composers and puts all the negative nonsense that has been said of them into the bin. If you missed any of it you can listen again on their web site. But this music should be played every day, the old and the new. Thank you BBC Radio 3, and can we have more of this in future? After all half of us are women.
Great news for women conductors and also for eveyone who loves the CBSO
A display running from 15 January – 24 March 2016 in the library of Trinity Laban Conservatoire. External visitors should contact the library in advance to arrange access. Here is an excellent article on the dislplay by Emma Greenwood in her blog.
Jazz North East is running Women Make Music, a concert and workshop series in the North of England and funded by PRS for Music Foundation and The Arts Council of England.
You can find more details here
http://jazznortheast.com/index.php
Concert Series from the London New Wind Festival
This rave review of conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla and her fabulous actions reveals a change of heart in a key regional critic's view. Here is a quote from Christopher Morley's Birmingham Post piece
"Enthusiasm is one thing, but how about the skills? Well, Mirga, though still barely 30 is already highly experienced in a variety of fields - opera and choral, as well as orchestral - and her conducting technique has an armoury of styles appropriate to whatever the music demands.
She can beat time with acute precision, or swoop and persuade balletically (much in the manner of Nelsons - perhaps it’s a Baltic trait). She can shape structures with a clear sense of direction, and she can point rhythmic detail with witty verve. To everything she tackles she brings an irresistible freshness and a sense that this is right for this moment.
By no means is Mirga a Nelsons clone, despite some of these similarities. She is certainly her own person, with ideas that she wants to share with players and audience alike, such as last July’s insertion of Samuel Barber’s Knoxville into a suite from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty."
http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/cbso-finally-found-next-music-10716300
Women in Music UK will be keeping an eye on proceedings and we look forward to being able to write a congratulatory note!
Speakers will include our Chair, Debbie Golt, and Kelly Wood from the Musicians' Union
http://www.lcm.ac.uk/whats-on/Upcoming-events/LCoM50-Women-In-Music-Day
http://www.lcm.ac.uk/whats-on/Upcoming-events/LCoM50-Women-In-Music-Day
Following the success of a previous shared carol last year the BBC have commissioned Women in Music UK member and leading world renowned composer Cheryl Frances Hoad to write a four-part a capella carol (initially noted for the readers of BBC Music Magazine - and we are spreading the word further) to sing in carol services and concerts around the world this Christmas.
www.classical-music.com/article/download-score-good-day-sir-christemas-cheryl-frances-hoad
And here is an interview with Cheryl: http://www.classical-music.com/article/cheryl-frances-hoad
Quoting from the article: "We do hope that those of you who sing in choirs will include 'Good day, Sir Christemas!' in your carol service or concert. If you have already received your magazine, please feel free to photocopy the music for your choir and share it widely ....
We’d love to hear or watch your performance, so do record it on an audio or video recorder. You can share the file with us via email ([email protected]) or, if the file is too large, visit www.wetransfer.com and send the file to the email given from there.
If you upload a YouTube video, do tweet us the link @MusicMagazine."
There is a link to a PDF for the score and there are some performance directions from Cheryl herself as you will see
You can watch the world premiere performance, sung by Sansara, here.
Happy singing, and Merry Christmas!