…Canon is a human creation. It is dangerous to buy into the belief that all of the “great masters” rose into the pantheon of their own accord, simply on their own merit, like some sort of cream rising to the top. The narrative that as the classical music world leans into being more “woke”, we are being relegated to some sort of morass of mediocre music is a destructive fallacy…
Read MoreJust under the wire on the West Coast, a very happy birthday to George Frideric Handel...
Some very fond #Waybackwednesday memories from this dream-come-true role debut back in 2019 with my friends at Boston Baroque...
Read More“The woman of the future with her broader outlook for greater opportunities will go far, I believe, in creative work of every description...”
— CÉCILE CHAMINADE
When Cécile Chaminade speculated in the Washington Post about the increased scope of possibility for women artists of the future, her optimism would not prove unfounded…
Read MoreThe path of progress is rarely a straight line, and as women’s access to music education increased through the years of the Enlightenment, there remained a resistance to the idea of women’s use of that education in the public sphere. There was a stigma of impropriety associated with women who entered the public sphere as professional musicians…
Read MoreAnother composer featured this Thursday evening as we begin our nearly 5-century exploration of music by composed by women for San Francisco Performances’ Salon series is Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. The daughter of a harpsichord-maker and organist, Elisabeth Jacquet was trained by her father in music and displayed exceptional talent at the harpsichord from a young age. She was taken into the French court…
Read More“…show the world the futile error of men who believe themselves patrons of the high gifts of intellect, which according to them cannot also be held in the same way by women.” — MADDALENA CASULANA
In 1568, Maddalena Casulana published her First Book of Madrigals, the first complete volume of music by a woman to be published in recorded western music history. The quote above is excerpted from her dedication in the front of the book…
Read MoreHave a case of the Mondays? Urban Dictionary defines “a case of the Mondays” as: A fictitious disorder associated with the tiredness, irritability or distractedness that comes from returning to work after the weekend.
I feel like Barbara Strozzi might have been having one when she penned this incredible song…
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