Celebrating women musicians, past and present Tickets and Dates

This is an in-person only event in the British Library Pigott Theatre.

Join us for a celebration of women musicians to mark International Women’s Day 2024.

This free study day will include a series of presentations and discussions by expert musicologists, academics, and musicians, on various aspects of the lives and music of women musicians, ranging from the 18^th century to today.

The day will include case studies on specific women composers and performers, as well as more general talks on their achievements, challenges and barriers faced in their careers, women’s leadership in music, and aspects of acquiring, curating, and researching women musicians’ archives at the British Library. Speakers will include Suzanne Aspden, Samantha Ege, Sophie Fuller, Laura Hamer, Katy Hamilton, Barbara Kelly, Tim Parker-Langston, Rhiannon Mathias, and British Library curators.

Programme

09.30-10.00 -       Registration with tea & coffee 

10.00-10.10 -       Sandra Tuppen, British Library - Welcome 

10.10-10.40 -       Katy Hamilton - ‘Never quite an expert: introducing women composers to general audiences’.

10.40-11.10 -       Suzanne Aspden, University of Oxford – 'Women on the operatic stage in the 18^th century'

11.10-11.30 -       Break with tea and coffee

11.30-12.00 -       Loukia Drosopoulou, Frankie Perry and Chris Scobie, British Library – Aspects of acquiring, cataloguing, and curating archives of women musicians at the British Library.

12.00-12.25         Composer Charlotte Harding talks about her work and music

12.25-12.50 -       Samantha Ege, University of Southampton – ‘Florence Price’s Fantasie Nègre’ [pre-recorded talk]

12.50-13.50 -       Lunch (not provided) 

13.50-14.20 -       Rhiannon Mathias, Bangor University - 'Changing Perceptions?  The music of Elisabeth Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy and Grace Williams in the 21^st century.' 

14.20-14.50 -       Sophie Fuller, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance -  ‘In all respects a member of the music profession”: women as professional composers in the late-19^th and early-20^th centuries’.

14.50-15.20 –      Laura Hamer, The Open University – ‘Claiming A Place on the Podium: Historic and Contemporary Women Conductors’.

15.20-15.45 -       Break with tea and coffee

15.45-16.10-        Composer Hannah Kendall talks about her work and music

16.10-17.00 -       ‘Women in music: leadership, online resources, and future research directions’ -
                             Panel session chaired by Rhiannon Mathias, Bangor University
                             Panellists:           Laura Hamer, The Open University
                                                        Barbara Kelly, University of Leeds
                                                        Tim Parker-Langston, Goldsmiths, University of London
                                                        Sandra Tuppen, British Library

 

Image: 'Mdlle Jenny Lind as "Susanna" in "Le Nozze di Figaro" at Her Majesty's Theatre'. Wood engraving by Frederick James Smyth (active 1841-1867). NPG D45841. © National Portrait Gallery, London.