an introduction to women composers
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) from Germany
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Maddalena Casulana (1544-1590) from Italy
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Francesca Caccini (1587-1641) from Italy
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
She was friend with Artmisia Gentileschi
Barbara Strozzi (1619-1977) from Italy
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665-1729) from France
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1739-1807) from Germany
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Marianna Martines (1744-1812) from Austria
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831) from Poland
📚Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) from France
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Fanny Mendelssohn [Hensel after marriage] (1805-47) from Germany
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Sister of Felix Mandelssohn
Clara Schumann [nee Wieck] (1819-1896) from Germany
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Married to Robert Schumann
Elfrida Andrée (1841-1929) from Sweden
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Terea Carreño (1853-1917) from Venezuela
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) from France
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
She was the first female composer to be awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1913.
Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) from England
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Not only a suffreagette, but also a lesbian who was involved with Virginia Woolf and Violet Gordon-Woodhouse, among others
Adele aus der Ohe (1861-1937) from Germany
📚 Wikipedia 🎵IMSLP
She studied with Franz Liszt. She was friends with and performed Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with him conducting.
Amy Beach (1867-1944) from the USA
📚 Wikipedia 🎵IMSLP
Dora Pejačević (1885-1923) from Croatia
📚Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Rebacca Clarke (1886-1879) from England
📚Wikipedia 🎵IMSLP 🌀Rebecca Clarke.org
(I have access to almost all her published works, let me know if you want me to email scans of something to you)
She studied with Lionel Tertis and briefly sang under Vaughan Williams. In 1919 her Viola Sonata tied in the Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music with Ernest Bloch’s Viola Sonata. She was also friends with Frank Bridge. In 1912 she was one of the 6 female musicians allowed into the Queen’s Hall Orchestra (later became the LSO)
Florence Price (1887-1953) from the USA
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
She began studying at the New England Conservatory after she graduated high school at 14. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered her Symphony No 1 in E minor on June 15, 1933, making Price’s piece the first composition by an African-American woman to be played by a major orchestra
Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) from France
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
She was the first woman to win the Prix de Rome when she was only 19, in 1912.
Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) from the USA
📚 Wikipedia 🎵 IMSLP
Became the first women to be granted the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930
Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) from England and Ireland
📚 Wikipedia 🌀Biography
Sofia Guabaidulina (1931-present) from Russia
📚 Wikipedia 🎼 YouTube
Joan Tower (1938-present) from the USA
📚 Wikipedia 🎼 YouTube
She has 3 Grammy Awards and and she was a member of the Da Capo Chamber Players who won the Naumberg Award.
Kaija Saariaho (1952-present) from Finland
📚 Wikipedia 🎼 YouTube
Nicole Lizée (1973-present) from Canada
🌀 Nicole Lizee.com 🌀 CMC
Cheryl Frances-Hoad (1980-present) from England
📚 Wikipedia 🌀Cheryl FrancesHoad.co.uk
Dobrinka Tabakova (1980-present) from Bulgaria
📚 Wikipedia 🌀 Dobrinka.com
Caroline Shaw (1982-present) from the USA
📚Wikipedia 🌀Caroline Shaw.com (listen to Entre’act, I’ve played it, so GOOD!)
She won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013, the youngest ever, at only 30.
Hannah Kendall (1984-present) from England & the Caribean
📚 Wikipedia 🌀Hannah Kendall.co.uk
Fjóla Evans from Iceland & Canada
📚Fjiola Evans.com 🎼 SoundCloud
Add any other women composers that you know of to this post!
#WomenInMusic #WomenComposers