WOMEN COMPOSERS IN SONG
PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH SWAP'RA
Oxford Lieder’s Spring Weekend 2022 focused on women composers of the past, the countless gifted figures who vanished from our recital stages. OLF’s artistic director Sholto Kynoch invited SWAP’ra to co-curate events throughout the weekend, and going forward as a long-term project to unearth and to give voice to some of these unjustly forgotten composers. In the long term, SWAP’ra will collaborate with Oxford Lieder Festival to create an invaluable online resource for artists and programmers looking to expand their repertoire of women composer’s art songs. This will include song-focused biographies, links to scores, recordings, texts and translations, programming suggestions, and more. In the shorter term, we have been busy researching composers and gathering repertoire, and we look forward to programming a great deal of this work for events at Oxford Lieder in the near future.
This resource is in it’s early stages, so do head over to their website to see our progress so far. . We are so excited to develop and add to this project over the coming few years, in collaboration with OLF.
FORGOTTEN VOICES 2022
All three of the main evening recitals kicked off with a mini-recital slot performed by some of the outstanding young artists who contributed to our inaugural SWAP’ra Forgotten Voices online festival in 2021, presented in association with HERA. These artists presented music by Hedwige Chrétien, Margarete Schweikert, Margaret Bonds, Elizabeth Maconchy, Johanna Müller-Hermann, Betty Jackson-King, Rebecca Clarke, Elaine Hugh-Jones, and many more.
lecture recitals
1. MARGARETE SCHWEIKERT
Prof Natasha Loges, Dr Kate Kennedy speakers
Harriet Burns soprano
Keval Shah piano
Margarete Schweikert (1887-1957) began composing as a child and her works, including songs, had their first major outing at a concert when she was just 17. She wrote at least 160 songs, setting a wide range of poets. This lecture recital features songs by Schweikert and by Hugo Wolf.
2. ELIZABETH MACONCHY
Prof Natasha Loges, Dr Kate Kennedy speakers
James Gilchrist tenor
Keval Shah piano
Denied a scholarship from the Royal College of Music for being a woman who ‘will only get married and never write another note’, Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) defied gender prejudice and became one of the most substantial and respected composers of her time, with a large and important body of songs. This lecture recital features songs by Maconchy and by Benjamin Britten.
3. HEDWIGE CHRÉTIEN
Prof Natasha Loges, Dr Leah Broad
speakers
Sophie Bevan soprano
Anna Tilbrook piano
Hedwige Chrétien (1859-1944) was a highly regarded French composer, and Professor at the Paris Conservatoire, who wrote an impressive body of songs. This lecture recital includes songs by Chrétien and by Hector Berlioz.
4. JOHANNA MÜLLER-HERMANN
Prof Natasha Loges, Dr Kate Kennedy speakers
James Atkinson baritone
Anna Tilbrook piano
Johanna Müller-Hermann (1878-1941) was an Austrian composer, who studied with Zemlinsky and was later theory and composition tutor at the New Vienna Conservatory. She was extremely successful in the first decades of the 20th century, and her songs in particular are now enjoying an overdue revival. This lecture recital features songs by Müller-Hermann and by Richard Strauss.
with thanks
We are hugely grateful to the following for their financial support towards the research, development and delivery of this project:
The Golsoncott Foundation
The Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust
The Royal Musical Association
The Wavendon Foundation
The Winship Foundation