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To celebrate International Women’s Day, we asked the UK’s leading conductors to nominate a composer who deserves wider recognition. From Azerbaijan to Israel, and symphonies to songs, here are 10 women whose voices will enrich your life
Last year, Women in Music’s survey of major classical concerts confirmed that classical music is a man’s world. Only 2.3% of works programmed in the 2018-19 season by 15 of the world’s major orchestras were written by women. A survey of the same 15 major orchestras for this current season reveals a tiny improvement – of 3,997 works being performedin 2019-20’s concerts, 142 have been written by female composers, ie 3.6%. Progress is glacially slow, and the gender imbalance is too often framed as a problem for women alone to grapple with. (I am reminded of Marin Alsop, who, when asked why there are so few women conductors, will reply “I dont know. Ask the men.”) And so, on International Women’s Day, we asked 10 of the UK’s leading male conductors to nominate a female composer whose music deserves wider recognition. Their responses have been fascinating, and prove that there is a vast wealth of music out there that can enrich our musical lives. Imogen Tilden Continue reading...