BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
A concert featuring music by women. Only women.
Are we ready for it? Why do we need it? Will it make a difference in the broader scheme of gender equality?
I don’t have all the answers – but Ensemble Goldentree seems to comes pretty close. The Melbourne group has chosen to program all-women composers (some even still alive!) in its upcoming performance Con Femine.
The concert spans music by women from 1151 right through to the present day, featuring two world premiere performances of works by May Lyon and Jessica Lindsay Smith.
We chat with Ensemble Goldentree’s co-artistic directors Tim Hannah (horn), and Alison McIntosh-Deszcz (soprano) about gender equality in live performance.
Hi Tim and Alison, thanks for the chat! What’s Ensemble Goldentree all about to you?
Tim: Alison and I have spoken a lot about what Ensemble Goldentree is since we founded it in 2015, so it would come as no surprise that we have very similar ideas. The ensemble started off as a project for us to explore the repertoire for horn and voice, because those are our instruments. After we’d started performing, we found that many people hadn’t heard of the music or composers we were exploring, and that excited us! So over time, the ensemble has evolved to become less specific in its focus on instrumentation, and more focused on bringing music that is unknown to audience’s awareness.
Alison: I think Ensemble Goldentree is a conduit for communication between the unknown and the audience. As musicians, we interpret what is on the page. A composer has their life experiences, opinions, and sound worlds, and are influenced by the society and environment around them. They distil all of that to the page and we, as musicians, are the channel to deliver that to audiences. As the composers and works that we perform are largely unknown, we have a greater responsibility to ensure we bring these works to life. Ensemble Goldentree is also about friendship and positive relationships between the musicians involved. We’re not an ensemble that turns up, rehearses, and leaves. There’s chatter and banter…
T: And food!
A: Yes, and food! The music we create comes from a place of real togetherness.
Your group is pretty dead set on supporting works that are new, and have only been rarely performed. Why did you decide you’d be a group that breaks away from tradition?
T: Firstly, we play an unusual arrangement of instruments. Starting off as an ensemble for horn, soprano, and piano, there were only one or two works written for the combination that audiences might have come across, being Schubert’s Auf dem Strom and maybe one of the works by Berlioz, Lachner, Strauss or Gounod. For us, there is something special and exciting about playing music that people haven’t heard. The instruments at our disposal in many ways define the repertoire that we tackle, but it’s also about bringing out the voices of these lesser-known composers who were writing great music, but just weren’t writing it in the popular forms of their time.
A: Or, as is the case for so many composers, they were writing in popular forms, but because they didn’t have one of the ‘big names’, their music hasn’t been performed in the centuries since.
T: And interestingly, that’s what has lead us to look at this current program, Con Femine. When you look at rare music or music that isn’t performed often, it so frequently includes works by female composers.
And indeed, Con Femine does feature women composers – exclusively. Why?
A: As wrong as it is, the representation of female composers in concert programs sadly mirrors the representation of women in leading roles in broader society. Women are present, sometimes in a tokenistic way, but we’re not present as equal partners everywhere, yet.
Earlier this month, we had International Women’s Day. And while Con Femine isn’t officially part of IWD 2018, we are putting it on in the same month when we have a heightened sense of social awareness around what we can do to work towards gender parity.
IWD 2018 has its #pressforprogress campaign, which encourages us to maintain a gender parity mindset, challenge gender stereotypes and bias, forge positive visibility of women, influence others’ beliefs and actions, and celebrate women’s achievements. Through this concert, I feel that we are doing all these things, but especially forging positive visibility of women by making female composers central to the program, and extending opportunities to female composers first.
It’s important to assume that women want opportunities until they are declined. This concert is primarily a celebration and telling of these women’s stories.
T: We hope people come to this concert to hear really good music by really great composers. We want people to leave their expectations of what ‘women’s’ music is, or perception that this is a ‘women’s concert’ outside and come along to appreciate these works for their ability to stand up on their own as great music that should be heard and seen more often.
How do you feel the challenge of women composers has progressed since 1151 to today – an era spanned in your concert program?
T: All the composers we have chosen for this concert have really interesting back stories. These stories always influence our programming, because we are always seeking to communicate real human experiences through our music.
To answer the question, it hasn’t been a linear history of women starting at the bottom and climbing to the top. For example, Hildegard von Bingen became not just one of the powerful women of her day, but one of the most influential religious figures in medieval Europe. Fast forward to Ethel Smyth and Amy Beach, who faced very similar challenges to each other in their domestic and professional lives and dealt with them in very different ways: Smyth becoming a significant figure in the Suffragette movement, and Amy Beach conforming to the social norms of domestic life – but both whilst continuing to compose!
A lot of these societal pressures and expectations still exist for women today. Sadly, we still see this expectation that women should be composing ‘pretty’ or ‘nice’ music, or music for a domestic setting. It’s interesting how many of those attitudes do still exist.
A: I feel that the challenge of having music performed with a women’s name at the top of the pages has somewhat lessened. Think of some of the 19th Century composers that couldn’t get their music published under their own name. It would be published under their husband’s or brother’s names. However, if you look down a list of composers and you have a male name and a female name, a cognitive bias still leads people to choose the male name over the female name, even without hearing the music. We still have this cognitive bias in society – in all fields!
What impact do you imagine concerts like yours should have on Australia’s music scene? And how long until we’ll be able to truly reach a level of equality – and program women alongside men, rather than in a concert of their own?
A: Honestly, I feel like equality of programming – including not just women, but also those who identify as gender diverse and from culturally diverse backgrounds – is already starting to gain traction among chamber ensembles and small ensembles like our own. There is more risky and diverse programming happening in this area. I think it will have to be a push from small, flexible ensembles before the larger companies reach that point. It will have to filter upwards. How fast this happens will be informed by how quickly society changes.
T: Small ensembles are more active in pursuing some of these changes, but larger changes won’t come until audience expectations change. It is our role, and the role of smaller groups like ours, to start making audiences more aware and informed of this music so that they can demand it of our larger organisations. We are aiming to educate audiences, so they know what to ask for.
You’re offering an incredible opportunity for new, living Australian composers. What’s it been like working with May and Jessica on the world premieres?
A: Tim and I have worked quite closely with May because she has written a duet for horn and soprano, specifically for us as the performers. It’s been a real privilege! The workshopping process has felt very collaborative because May has been very clear in her intentions for the atmosphere and sound that she wants. It’s wonderful to be able to play something two ways and see what she prefers. She’ll often come back and say, ‘What works best for you?’.
T: I’ve been really impressed that both composers have gone in completely different directions. May has written a duet and Jess has written a piano quintet! I’ve also been impressed with the enthusiasm that both composers have brought to the project and their willingness to engage with the rehearsal and creation process. It’s been lovely to have two equally passionate composers who are enthusiastic about making sure that the music we are performing meets their expectations and aspirations, but also our capabilities and wishes as an ensemble. Both pieces contrast stylistically, from complex to meditative. Audiences will hear two very different voices from two very different women at different points in their careers and lives.
What advice would you offer other contemporary ensembles looking to curate their concert programs?
T&A:
- Research! Go to the university library and pull out catalogues. Find doctoral theses and masters projects. From there, you will find another composer, or an ensemble that has recorded a CD with other works. Keep following the trails and you will get a better understanding for what has been done in Australia and internationally and you’ll have your eyes opened.
- Network! A lot of the music we perform has been recommended by our peers, or composers we’ve worked with, or their friends. Your colleagues will see opportunities for you and will help you. Don’t be afraid to go out to this network and ask for help and recommendations! We have found so much music this way. The international music community is such an amazing and supportive place.
- See live music! You will be inspired by other people’s projects. It’s another way of seeing what has been done and what is missing in our artform. See orchestral concerts, chamber music concerts, theatre and visual art exhibitions. All of these will inspire your own artistic practice.
- Find your people! We started with two people, but we’ve expanded to find our tribe. Make sure the people you work with are a cohesive group. When someone else in the ensemble suggests someone, listen to them. Music is about listening and you need to listen to everyone else’s voices more than your own.
- Communicate! Get a website and work out how to talk about your projects and your music. Audiences really appreciate it when you are able to communicate to them on the same level, and it makes it so much easier to apply for grants and promote your art if you know how to articulate the ideas behind it.
Anything else you’d like to add?
T: We’re really excited about this project. There is so much variety in instrumentation and style. We think people will be inspired to go and find out more about this music and we’re really looking forward to presenting such an eclectic and interesting program.
A: All of our concerts include homemade scones! I’m reliably informed that this is one of the reasons people keep coming back. We always have an opportunity at the end of the concert to mingle and chat with the artists over a cup of tea and some food. It’s a great way to engage with the music on a casual level.
Catch Ensemble Goldentree presenting a line-up of female composers in Con Femine at Carlton Church of All Nations, 24 March.
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