Saturday, February 26, 2005
Music and Politics and Women
A few days ago we were talking about music and politics. One of the ways that music can be political without changing the music itself is in its presentation. The concert series, Women’s Work, presents primarily women composers. Most concert series present primarily men composers. It is a political act to choose music to be performed around a theme such as women composers or French composers or Jewish composers, for several examples. There has been a lot of argument regarding whether or not this is a good idea. I think it is a useful idea to present women composers together and will continue to be useful as long as most concert series present primarily men composers.
When I go to art museums I always look around to see which paintings were painted by women. I am especially pleased when I like a particular picture and discover that it was painted by a woman. One of the great pleasures for me in going to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC is that all the paintings are by women. It is a thrill to see their collection and their special shows. If you haven’t been, you can look around on their site at http://www.nmwa.org/. The NMWA building is pink marble!
In case you are interested in attending the concert series, Women’s Work takes place March 3, 17, and 31 at 8pm, at Greenwich House in The Renee Weiler Concert Hall, 46 Barrow Street in New York City. For information and to see the beautiful poster celebrating this series, call 212.242.4770 and go to www.gharts.org.
Women’s Work 2005 begins on Thursday, March 3 at 8pm with chamber works (string quartets and piano solo music) and songs performed by the Aviva Players, which celebrates its 30th season this year. March 17 is a solo piano concert by Dr. Claudia Knafo. March 31 has the wonderful CASE Saxophone Quartet plus two pianos and cello from Pennsylvania.
posted by Beth Anderson
10:34 AM
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