Music and Media celebrates International Women’s Day and beyond
Music and Media marks International Women’s Day this Sunday, 8 March, at 3pm, with a concert entitled ‘Her Songs of Spring’, performed by the University of Surrey Chamber Choir directed by Amy Kearsley at Guildford United Reformed Church.
Focused on female composers, the programme will include choral works by Lili Boulanger, Ethel Smyth, Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann and Amy Beach, plus additional pieces performed by student soloists.
Earlier in the week, women in music were also celebrated at our Lunchtime Recital, titled ‘Ethel Smyth: A Stormy Petrel’.
This concert presented the premiere of excerpts from a new opera by Chloe Knibbs and Teresa Howard, inspired by the life and music of pioneering composer Ethel Smyth, alongside Smyth’s own chamber works and extracts from her autobiography.
The event was followed by a Q&A session with the composer and librettist, in conversation with the Head of Music and Media.
Elsewhere in the world, our Honorary Visiting Professor Odaline de la Martinez is one of five composers whose music is being performed on Thursday 5 March by the North/South Chamber Orchestra, led by its founder Max Lifchitz.
Her piece Memorias, which was premiered last year, will be heard in a concert dedicated entirely to women composers being presented at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York City.
Another of her works, Cuban Dances (recently performed here at the University by a quartet of Surrey alumni, all now professional musicians) was broadcast on the radio station Classical Discoveries, based in Princeton, NJ, on the morning of Wednesday 4 March.
Meanwhile, her Studies in Rhythm for solo piano, performed last weekend in Zurich, will be heard at Carcaixent Music Conservatory in Spain in Spain later this month.
Back in Music and Media, a ‘Women in Games’ panel was held at the University last week on Monday 23 February. The speakers were Lauran Carter (Liquid Crimson / Guildford Games), Malika Omarova (Wargaming), Emma Goss (nDreams), and Iasmina Leagan (nDreams), with host Leon Lynn, a freelance narrative designer for video games.
“These events showcase some of the wide range of inspiring activity across the subject areas encompassed by Music and Media, and stand as a testament to our continuing commitment to celebrating diversity and championing inclusion in everything we do.”
Dr Chris Wiley, Head of Music and Media
Finally, February’s Installation Ceremony for the new Vice-Chancellor of the University saw the revival of a ‘lost’ final work by Ethel Smyth, her ‘Hot Potatoes’ Fanfare, performed by the University of Surrey Brass Ensemble for possibly the first time in nearly a century.
An article on the recovery of Smyth’s ‘Hot Potatoes’ Fanfare was recently published in The Conversation and has generated much interest internationally.
This follows a concert last November for the annual nationwide Being Human Festival, in which our students performed several of Smyth’s orchestral works, including a number of premieres.
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