The Ladies Speak

18/11/2023

Scheduled to appear at a children's folk festival the same day, Ruth Crawford Seeger died in Chevy Chase, MD, on November 18, 1953.

04/11/2023

Gena Branscombe, composer of the award-winning oratorio "Pilgrims of Destiny", was born on this date in 1881 in Picton, Ontario.

31/10/2023

Louise Juliette Talma, the first woman elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, was born on this date in 1906 in Arcachon, France.

23/10/2023

Miriam Gideon, the second woman elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, was born on this date in 1906 in Greeley, Colorado.

28/09/2023

Vivian Fine, who over two decades in the mid-20th century wrote at least one piece for every major dance company in the U.S., was born on this date in 1913 in Chicago.

24/09/2023

Congratulations to our 2022 Conductor Scholarship winner, Valery Saul. Valery has been appointed Associate Conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and will be the Music Director of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Community Orchestra. September 25-30 Saul will be the cover conductor with the Minnesota Orchestra. Congratulations, Valery!

16/09/2023

The Army Music School Choir performed Mary Howe's Prophecy, 1792 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, in September 1943.

20/08/2023

Zitkala-Ša, the Yankton composer of "Sun Dance Opera," posed for this photograph in New York City in August 1898.

19/08/2023

In September 1880, Julia Rive-King, composer of Polonaise Héroïque, Bubbling Spring, and other works, formed the Rive-King Concert Company, which toured widely in the U.S. in its inaugural season.

01/08/2023

Mabel Daniels conducted her "Deep Forest" prelude, inspired by her time spent at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, in San Francisco on this date in 1915.

19/07/2023

In July 1924, Amy Beach became the first president of the newly founded Society of American Women Composers -- a position held four years later by Gena Branscombe.

03/07/2023

Electronic composer Jean Ivey, whose 1967 work "Continuous Form" was played in thousands of performances on educational TV stations, was born on July 3, 1923.

27/06/2023

Stony Brook University professor Daria Semegen, known for composing works for both electronic and traditional instruments, was born on June 27, 1946.

16/06/2023

Composer and musical instrument inventor Lucia Dlugoszewski was born on June 16, 1931. In 1951, she invented a timbre piano that could be muted in several ways and struck, plucked with plectra, or stroked with bows.

03/06/2023

Suzanne Ciani, composer of a range of works for the Buchla, a proto analog synthesizer, was born in Indiana on June 4, 1946.

30/05/2023

Pioneering electronic and experimental music composer Pauline Oliveros was born in Houston on this date in 1932.

12/05/2023

Congratulations to The Gena Branscombe Project 2022 Composer Scholarship winner, Alexandra Bellhaven, for the New York City premiere of her song cycle, "Diary of a Payphone" at 54 Below!

Left to right: Allison Branscombe, Alexandra Bellhaven, Kathleen Shimeta and Dr. Laurine Elkins Marlow.

02/05/2023

The Metropolitan Opera House of Philadelphia performed The Rose of Destiny, by native Philadelphian Celeste de Longpré Heckscher, on May 2, 1918.

15/04/2023

The Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered Concertstück, the first major composition by Helen Hopekirk, on April 15, 1904.

04/04/2023

The Kentucky Opera Company and Louisville Symphony Orchestra premiered Peggy Glanville-Hicks' The Transposed Heads on April 4, 1954. It is believed to be the first opera by a woman to have been commissioned by an American company.

31/03/2023

Some exciting news to share:

The Gena Branscombe Project is proud to announce the "Bringing Back Branscombe to the Upper West Side" concert on Saturday, May 6th, 5 PM at the New York Society for Ethical Culture - 2 West 64 Street.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bringing-back-branscombe-to-the-upper-west-side-tickets-604023088317

We hope you will join us for a concert of French Horn pieces, a violin sonata, piano works, song and choral pieces all representing Miss Branscombe's ties to the Upper West Side. Below is the Eventbrite link for purchasing tickets. See you May 6th.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bringing-back-branscombe-to-the-upper-west-side-tickets-604023088317

29/03/2023

As we continue to celebrate , be sure and listen to episode 2 of The Ladies Speak, which begins with mezzo-soprano Kathleen Shimeta's stumbling upon the work of Gena Branscombe while putting together a concert of love songs by women composers, and continues with Shimeta's journey of discovery of Branscombe's remarkable output, including the epic oratorio Pilgrims of Destiny. The episode is hosted by Elizabeth Austin, composer of the award-winning works Klavier Double and Hommage for Hildegard, and who early in her career received a scholarship to study in France from the legendary Nadia Boulanger.

17/03/2023

Radie Britain, whose orchestral work Symphonic Intermezzo was performed in 1938 by the Women's Symphony of Chicago, under the baton of Ethel Leginska, was born on March 17, 1903.

08/03/2023

Sarah Cahill demonstrating today, with her lovely rendition of ”Troubled Water” by Margaret Bonds and other works by women composers, that both the future and the past are female. https://www.nga.gov/calendar/concerts/womens-history-month.html

08/03/2023

On this International Women's Day we salute the women who have composed great music for this country since its founding, and continue to break barriers and innovate today.

03/03/2023

The opera Tammany, with a libretto by novelist Ann Julia Hatton, premiered on Broadway on March 3, 1794.

14/02/2023

Just in time for Valentine's Day, we bring you episode 2 of The Ladies Speak, which begins with mezzo-soprano Kathleen Shimeta's stumbling upon the work of Gena Branscombe while putting together a concert of love songs by women composers, and continues with Shimeta's journey of discovery of Branscombe's remarkable output, including the award-winning 20th century oratorio Pilgrims of Destiny. Listen at

The Ladies Speak explores the lives and achievements of the great, and largely unknown, American women classical composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

10/02/2023

Julia Frances Smith's "American Dance Suite," based on four American folk tunes, was premiered by the Orchestrette Classique at Town Hall in New York City on February 10, 1936.

05/02/2023

The National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC, performed Mary Howe's "Stars", "Sand", and "Rock" in February 1956. She received a standing ovation following the performance.

26/01/2023

Zitkála-Šá, a Dakota composer, writer and activist, died on January 26, 1938. "The Sun Dance Opera," for which she wrote the libretto and songs, premiered at Orpheus Hall in Vernal, UT, in 1913, and New York's Broadway Theatre staged it in 1938 -- without giving her credit.

10/01/2023

The Choral Music Society of Boston performed Margaret Lang's "The Heavenly Noel" on January 10, 1917, and she retired from composing shortly thereafter.

27/12/2022

Amy Beach died on this date in 1944, at the age of 77.

26/12/2022

Thomas Ryan, in a December 26, 1897, article for a Philadelphia newspaper, called Margaret Lang and Amy Beach two of "the four leading composers of the time."

25/12/2022

On Christmas Day 1815, a Handel and Haydn Society chorus, including ten women, performed selections from Handel’s works in Boston.

22/12/2022

On December 22, 1863, pianist and composer Teresa Carreño celebrated her tenth birthday by giving a concert in Boston with B.J. Lang, conductor and father of Margaret Lang, where she played two of her own compositions, "Impromptu" and "La Emilia Danza."

12/12/2022

The Boston Women's Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of British conductor and composer Ethel Leginska, made its debut on December 12, 1927.

25/11/2022

Venezuelan pianist and composer Teresa Carreño made her New York debut on November 25, 1862, at Irving Hall. She went on to write approximately 75 pieces for piano, voice and orchestra -- including "Gottschalk Waltz," composed shortly after the Irving Hall performance.

24/11/2022

The celebrated the 100th birthday of Margaret Lang on November 24, 1967 with a performance of “Old Hundredth Chorale” and the movement “Sheep May Safely Graze” from Bach’s "Cantata no. 208." Seat B-1 at the symphony hall was also named in her honor.

23/11/2022

The Gena Branscombe Project has awarded its 2022 Composer scholarship to Alexandra Bellhaven.

In addition to being a composer, Alexandra is a musical theater writer, pianist, and conductor with a passion for the art of telling stories. She is a current student at Berklee College of Music in Boston where she studies Film Scoring and Composition with minors in Musical Theater writing and conducting.

Alexandra’s niche is telling the hidden stories that affect a large population of people; the stories of the silent majority. Whether that is the stories of addiction, or the transformation of love in all forms, Ally seeks out art that generates the feeling of community in a unique way. When not storytelling, you can find Ally training for the Chicago 2022 marathon,

Congratulations, Alexandra!

21/11/2022

The Columbian Centinel of Boston reported on November 21, 1792, one of the first public keyboard performances by a young woman, a subscription concert that included “A Sonata on the Piano Forte by a Young Lady.”