IN COOPERATION WITH
The ACF Washington is honored to have celebrated the International Human Rights Day on December 10 with the exhibition MusicaFemina and a discussion on how to achieve gender diversity in music to be central in a gender balanced society.
6.00 pm: Exhibtion opening and guided tour by Irene Suchy, co-curator of the exhibition MusicaFemina
7.00 pm: Discussion with Irene Suchy and Penny Brandt
The exhibition MusicaFemina: Women made music – from the shadow to the light is the first artistic music installation from Austria, dedicated fully to female composers and their work. It highlights the substantial contribution women have made to the field of composition throughout the ages.
A selection of Austrian composers, including NS-exiled female musicians, are displayed: Showreel panels give insight into the wide range of contemporary composing, from electronic to improvisation, from symphonic to opera. Female composers of all periods and continents have been the inspiration for poems, written by Austrian poet Sophie Reyer; contemporary Austrian and German female composers turned them into three-minute music performances, a selection of which were presented at the discussion. The life stories and music of several female composers can be listened to at several interactive multimedia stations positioned throughout the atrium of the Embassy.
The contributions of MusicaFemina come from Clarisse Maylunas, stage and costume designer, and Irene Suchy, journalist, musicologist and author. The exhibition was displayed in the imperial garden of “Schloss Schönbrunn”, Vienna, in 2018 and received almost 60.000 visitors. A selection of the original exhibition is shown at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, DC, from December 10, 2019 through January 10, 2020.
Co-curator of the exhibition, Irene Suchy was joining the discussion and presentation by “Whistling Hens” (Jennifer Piazza-Pick and Natalie Groom), and Penny Brandt, representative of the Boulanger Initiative, which promotes music composed by women through performance, education, and commissions.
PROGRAM
Performance by “Whistling Hens”- Jennifer Piazza-Pick and Natalie Groom
Presentation of the project MusicaFemina by Irene Suchy, including selection of music pieces based on poems by Sophie Reyer
Discussion and Q&A with Irene Suchy and Penny Brandt
Performance by “Whistling Hens”- Jennifer Piazza-Pick and Natalie Groom
When: Tuesday, December 10, 2019 | 7:00 pm
Where: Austrian Cultural Forum Washington/Embassy of Austria
3524 International Court, NW, Washington, DC 20008
Ticket: Free admission, registration obligatory
Parking on International Court is available after 6:30 pm (for the duration of the event) or on 36th Street; access to the Embassy through the park behind the building.
A registration is not a guarantee of a seat as these are assigned on a first-come first-served basis. Doors close at event start-time.
ABOUT THE DISCUSSANTS
PENNY BRANDT | Boulanger Initiative
Photo | (c) Karl Brandt
Penny Brandt earned her PhD in Music Theory and History with a concentration in Feminist Studies from the University of Connecticut and now teaches in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Brandt has presented her research on gender, race, and inclusion in music at the national meeting of the Society for Music Theory, the New England chapter of the American Musicological Society, the Women XXI conference in Portugal, and she will be a speaker at the AHRC Research Network: “Representing ‘Classical Music’ in the Twenty-First Century” symposium in London later this year. She served as Artistic Director for the internationally-recognized Women Composers Festival of Hartford from 2013–2018 and is currently affiliated with both the Boulanger Initiative and the Institute for Composer Diversity. Dr. Brandt is also active as a speaker, writer, musician, and mother.
IRENE SUCHY | MusicaFemina
Photo | (c) Johannes Cizek
Irene Suchy earned a PhD of Philosophy and a Master of Arts. She studied musicology and music pedagogy, violoncello and German literature at the University of Vienna and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria, as well as at the Ochanomizu Women’s University of Tokyo, Japan. Among other lectureships she teaches gender musicology at University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and Mozarteum University Salzburg. In her past exhibitions she focused on political and artistic subjects, such as Staatsoperetten Kunstverstörungen – about the political atmosphere in Austria regarding art-scandals in the 1970ies – and Schmuck im Salon – the arts of contemporary jewelry. Dr. Suchy is a distinguished author of books on contemporary history and musicology focusing on gender, forbidden music and history during the Nazi-regime. She was honored by the republic of Austria and by the City of Vienna amongst numerous prizes and awards for her work as a writer, radio-journalist and cultural historian. In 2018 her foundation maezenatentum.at was chosen as an EU Creative Culture Project „MusicaFemina – women made music“, to be the lead partner for two years in a cooperation with Hungary, Germany and Slovenia.
“WHISTLING HENS” - JENNIFER PIAZZA-PICK & NATALIE GROOM | Soprano & Clarinet
Photo | (c) Whistling Hens
Whistling Hens was founded by Jennifer Piazza-Pick (soprano) and Natalie Groom (clarinet) with a vision to celebrate and advance the artistic accomplishments of women through an ensemble performing all female-composed music. Inspired by a quote from a male music critic who said of Lili Boulanger, "women composers are at best whistling hens,” the Whistling Hens duo was hatched. The group performs and commissions music by women composers from around the world. In the past year, Whistling Hens has commissioned four new pieces and premiered three works to expand the soprano/clarinet repertoire