Tag: 20th century

  • Will the real “first woman to conduct a European orchestra” please stand up?

    Over the past six months, I’ve seen four different women hailed by clickbait headlines as “the first woman to conduct a European orchestra”… but in taking a look at those articles, I noticed there was a 64-year range between the dates of those women’s conducting premieres.  The biographical info about each conductor was factually correct…

  • The Biggest Tour of 1900s America

    I’ve seen several articles over the past several weeks discussing how Beyoncé and Taylor Swift’s recent tours have stimulated the U.S. economy. And although those articles focused on the economic power of women, they also got me thinking: if Clara and Robert Schumann were like the 19th century Beyoncé and Jay-Z… who was the Romantic…

  • Flute Resources for Pride Month

    Happy Pride!! 🏳️‍🌈 Most of the resources for LGBTQ+ representation in classical music that I’ve seen center the biographies and works of queer composers.  And while that visibility is great,  this reminds me of the “add women and stir” approach to incorporating women into historical narratives – a method that’s at least 50 years out…

  • A Quick-Start Guide to Virtuosa Flute Solos

    If you just scrolled through the Virtuosa Flute Solos database and feel overwhelmed… now what??  It’s a lot of information if you’re new to flute music by women composers – so here’s a brief rundown of some suggestions for where to start and a few programming tips, to help make sure this database doesn’t become…

  • Additional Resources for Flute Music by Women Composers

    Virtuosa Flute Solos is great for finding flute solos by historical women composers, but what if you’re looking for chamber music or something more modern??  While those were outside the scope of my research for this particular project, there are many other educators and organizations with a variety of awesome resources.   Check out the list…

  • Flute Resources for Black History Month

    Happy February!! In the spirit of the month, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some resources for flute music by Black composers and performers that I’ve come across over the past several years. I’m always in full support of anything that amplifies voices from outside the narrow canon of Western classical music that’s…

  • Historical Women Flutists – From Astley to Taillart

    For a couple of months now, I’ve wanted to create a series of social media posts highlighting historical women flutists in Western classical music.  What started as a few notes on my phone quickly grew into a mess of memos and bookmarked articles, but when I sat down to organize the info I’d collected, I…

  • Ladies’ Concert Dress:  Not All Black & White

    Women’s Orchestral Uniforms from the 1880s – 1940s While I was going through the files on my phone to delete the photos I’d used in last month’s Instagram posts about early 20th century women’s orchestras, I noticed something odd – in all but one of the pictures, the women performing were wearing white dresses!  Our…

  • The Women’s Orchestra Movement in 20th Century America

    Last month while I was researching women’s music salons, I came across a mention of ladies’ orchestra clubs in the United States.  After some initial googling, I found out there was a whole movement of women’s orchestras who pioneered the way for female performers in professional ensembles.  Many of these women were also active lobbyists…