10 Badass Women Who Changed the Game in Classical Music

BY MADELINE ROYCROFT

 

In celebration of International Women’s Day, we’re here to offer an inspirational countdown of women who knew what they wanted – and didn’t let anyone stop them.

Finalising this global list ahead of the March 8 event was a painstakingly difficult process, as it encompasses all streams of classical music from performance to musicology, composition to publishing, teaching to conducting across the centuries. But I can now say definitively that the fiercest, most inspirational and revolutionary ladies made the cut – from a founding donor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, to the concert pianist mother of eight children.

Enjoy.

 

10. Patricia Racette

American soprano Patricia Racette forms half of my favourite opera singing power-couple. Alongside her partner, mezzo-soprano Beth Clayton, Patricia made headlines in June 2002 when she came out on the front cover of Opera News. The pair met on a 1997 Santa Fe Opera production of La Traviata, with Patricia as Violetta and Beth playing Flora. It’s hard not to admire Patricia and Beth’s adorable togetherness, knowing the opera world plays host to very few openly gay women. In the aftermath of her cover story, Patricia said in an interview:

I’ve actually had gay people, older gay people, come up to me and ask, ‘Why do you need to come out? Why do you have to advertise it? Just be who you are’. But if someone asks a heterosexual person if they’re married, they don’t say, ‘I’d rather not talk about that’. They say, simply, ‘Yes’. I’m tired of it being this extra issue. I’m also not going to be ashamed of something that’s the best thing in my life.

9. Clara Schumann

Yep, you saw this one coming: just a quick shout out to Clara for simultaneously maintaining a 61-year career as an international concert pianist, giving birth to eight children, and caring for a mentally unstable husband. Clara, you are an inspiration to women everywhere.

8. Louise Hanson-Dyer

Australian-born music publisher Louise Hanson-Dyer was an incredibly generous and powerful patron of the arts throughout the 20th Century. Founded in Paris in 1932, her publishing house Éditions de l’Oiseau Lyre was renowned for its historical editions of music by Lully, Couperin and Purcell. Hanson-Dyer also supported the Australian sisterhood by promoting the works of contemporary composers Margaret Sutherland and Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Hanson-Dyer’s dedication to music and publishing helped forge the international careers of composers such as Georges Auric, Benjamin Britten, Albert Roussel and Darius Milhaud, to name a few. Her generosity is still reflected in the extensive collections bequeathed to the University of Melbourne and the ongoing success of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, of which she was a founding donor.

7. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

Despite some not-so-wise words from her father and brother that home duties must surpass her desire to compose, Fanny Mendelssohn was unstoppable in her musical output. She composed approximately 500 pieces and wrote in a personal letter: “It must be a sign of talent that I do not give up, though I can get nobody to take an interest in my efforts”. Fortunately, in 1829 she married Wilhem Hensel, a forward-thinking court painter who was supportive of Fanny’s musical endeavours. He encouraged Fanny to give her first public performance at age 33, playing her brother Felix’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Wilhelm also encouraged Fanny to disobey the instruction from her father and brother not to publish her works. Fanny began publishing her own music in the final year of her life, aged 41.

6. Sabine Meyer

The beginning of Sabine Meyer’s career as a professional clarinettist could be a case study into the gender bias of international orchestras – if only it were fictional. The notoriously male-oriented Berlin Philharmonic became the last orchestra in Germany to admit women in 1982, when conductor Herbert von Karajan hired 23-year-old Sabine Meyer. We like to think that the man knew what he was doing; however, at the end of Sabine’s probation period, the rest of the orchestra voted against her 73 to four. After enduring nine months of sexism and harassment, she left the orchestra to pursue a solo career and happened to become one of the world’s top woodwind soloists. Fancy that!

5. Chi-chi Nwanoku

Double bassist, teacher and activist Chi-chi Nwanoku is changing the game in Europe by initiating Chineke! – the continent’s first Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) orchestra. Open to outstanding musicians across Europe, Chineke! is designed “to champion change and celebrate diversity in classical music”, aiming to be “a catalyst for change in the industry”. You go, Chi-chi!

4. Louise Farrenc

Nineteenth-century composer, teacher and piano virtuoso Louise Farrenc was greatly admired during her lifetime, yet her name rarely surfaces today. Louise studied piano with J. N. Hummel and composition with Anton Reicha, the Czech-born composition teacher at the Paris Conservatoire. It is suspected that her lessons were given privately, as composition classes at this time were only open to men. In 1842, Louise was appointed to the tenured position of Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatoire, a prestigious teaching post that she held for more than 30 years. Louise was the only female professor employed at the Conservatoire throughout the entire 19th Century. She was paid substantially less than her male colleagues for the first eight years of her employment, but Louise smashed the patriarchy in 1850 when she demanded and achieved equal pay, after the successful premiere of her Nonet for Wind and Strings in Eb, Op. 38 gave her even more exposure and critical acclaim.

3. Susan McClary

Whether you love or hate her, there is no denying the importance of Susan McClary’s work. Susan shook up the academic world in 1991 with Feminine Endings, a revolutionary publication that combined musicology and feminism. By highlighting the sexist and imperialistic elements of traditional music analysis – even the title of the book challenges the outdated synonym for “weak cadence” – Susan marched the feminist flag into territory known today as ‘new musicology’: a field broadly influenced by feminism and gender studies, queer theory and post-colonialism.

2. Marin Alsop

In September 2013, Marin Alsop inspired every woman everywhere when she became the first female to conduct the Last Night of the BBC Proms. Marin’s performance came just days after her colleague Vasily Petrenko, Russian-born conductor of the Royal Liverpool and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestras, claimed that orchestras “react better” to male conductors and that “a sweet girl on the podium can make one’s thoughts drift towards something else”. Marin graciously contested these remarks in her speech made to thousands of cheering spectators, describing the night as a “natural progression towards more inclusion in classical music”. She said:

I’m incredibly honoured and proud to have this title, but I have to say I’m still quite shocked that it can be 2013 and there can still be firsts for women…Here’s to the second, third, fourths, fifths, hundredths to come.

Save the link and watch Marin’s speech next time you’re feeling flat – I find that it has the same restorative properties as Julia Gillard’s misogyny rant.

1. Dame Ethel Smyth

Dame Ethel Smyth tops this list not only for being an esteemed composer and author, but also for being a badass member of the women’s suffrage movement. Her passion for music and activism stems from her teenage years, when her father, a military official, abruptly stopped Ethel’s music lessons to prevent her from pursuing a musical career. The stubborn young girl locked herself in her room and refused to eat, attend church or socialise until her father agreed to let her study composition in Leipzig. Ethel became a suffragette later in life, and took two years away from composing so as to fully dedicate herself to the movement. Her 1911 composition The March of the Women would later become the anthem of the suffragettes.

Another fun, feminist fact about Ethel Smyth is that until recently, she remained the only female composer to have had an opera performed at The Met. This finally changed with the season of Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin, which took place last year.

 

 

In the mood to learn more? Check out this particularly awesome Spotify playlist that has resurfaced on the internet, tracing 1200 years of female composers across 78 hours.

 

Main image by Armando Farel via Flickr CC2.0.