Tag: women musicians
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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…
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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…
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Over the course of researching historical women flutists, I’ve come across several mentions of women who performed in Victorian music halls. Just like in modern times, even though industry narratives center “traditional” concerts, in reality many performers also play other gigs – including pit orchestras for theatres and entertainment for weddings, parties, and/or local bars. …
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If I had a dollar for every time I attended a concert featuring music written by women or a workshop on female composers where the presenter said something along the lines of “I don’t understand why women’s compositions aren’t performed more often, there’s a lot of really great music here!” … I wouldn’t have a…
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Over the past several months, I’ve added a few books about women in music history to my to-be-read list that I’m SUPER excited about… but after a few conversations with other educators who teach about classical music by women composers, I’ve come to realize that the resources I tend to favor are very different from…
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Why does it feel like there’s something lesser about being an amateur, and where did the idea that musical clubs can’t be “serious” ensembles even come from? Read on for a brief rundown of the history of amateurism in classical music. Early last month, I had a troubling discussion with someone who seemed to be…
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The Western flute used to be considered a masculine instrument, but it’s now one of the most feminine. Why is that, and when did the gender association change? I spent my first year after graduating from college working at a family-owned music shop. During rental season, my coworkers and I would sometimes try to guess…
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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…
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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…
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A brief intro to women’s music salons in early 19th century Paris If you’ve taken a look at Virtuosa Flute Solos, you may have noticed that there’s a big hole when it comes to flute music by women composers from the Classical era. Even when I widened my search to include violin solos, I still…