Women's Studies Research Center celebrates women making music

Concert and talk honor 25th anniversary of Judith Tick's 'Women Making Music: The West Art Tradition 1150-1950'

Judith Tick

The Women and Music Mix, a group of musician-scholars within the Women’s Studies Research Center, in collaboration with numerous dignitaries of the Boston music scene, will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Judith Tick’s groundbreaking anthology, “Women Making Music: The Western Art Tradition 1150-1950" on Sunday Feb. 3.

The day’s events include a free 3:30 p.m. public talk by Judith Tick at the WSRC, Epstein Building (reservations are required and can be made by emailing info@wammix.org, and a 7:00 p.m. gala concert at Slosberg Recital Hall.

Tickets for the performance are  $20; $15 seniors and Brandeis Community; $5 students and can be purchased by calling (781) 736-3400 or online at Brandeis Tickets.

The afternoon talk will feature Tick, a professor at Northeastern University and winner of the Deems Taylor Award from American Society of Composers and Publishers for her biography of composer Ruth Crawford Seeger, speaking on the legacy of women making music, and her recent work on Ella Fitzgerald, with accompanying music by Fitzgerald (performed by singer Claire Dickson with pianist Michael McLaughlin and Vivian Fine with pianist Emily Corbato. A reception with jazz will follow.

The evening concert will celebrate historical and contemporary works by women, featuring excerpts from Maria Teresa Agnesi’s opera La Sofonisba, premieres of Ruth Lomon’s oratorio Rebekah and of Dana Maiben’s song cycle The Green House, songs of Fanny Mendelssohn accompanied on the Brandeis 1827 Viennese fortepiano, and Ruth Crawford Seeger’s searing violin sonata of 1926. The works will be performed by some of Boston’s best: pianist Sarah Bob, male soprano Robert Crowe, mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal, violinist Gabriela Diaz, conductor Jane Ring Frank, gambist Laury Gutierrez and La Donna Musicale, the Mockingbird Trio (alto Elizabeth Anker, pianist John McDonald, and violist Scott Woolweaver), fortepianist Vivian Montgomery, violinist Dan Stepner and more. 

The Women and Music Mix was initiated at the Women’s Studies Research Center, (Shulamit Reinharz, Founding Director) to study the contributions of women to the field of music as composers, performers, teachers, scholars, and sponsors; to bring their work to a wider public through lectures, concerts, conferences, publications and recordings that highlight and explore issues of women and gender. The Women and Music Mix consists of 10 acclaimed Visiting and Resident Scholars who have committed themselves to advancing women’s music and bringing their pioneering work to a wider public. The group is made up of composer Ruth Lomon, composer/violinist Dana Maiben, conductor/pianist Jane Ring Frank, musicologist/activist Liane Curtis, keyboardist/musicologist Vivian Montgomery, violist da gamba Laury Gutierrez, conductor Amelia LeClair, actor/director Alexandra Borrie, pianist/photographer Emily Corbato, music therapist Suzanne Hanser, and musicologist Arianne Johnson.

For more information on all activities, visit the Women and Music Mix website.

Categories: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Research

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