A cultural evening full of empowering stories about women artists from different times, genres and continents
Again this year on the occasion of the International Women’s Day we were honoring women artists with a cultural celebration at the Austrian Embassy on March 5.
Our guests enjoyed a cross-over evening involving a multi-media installation– dedicated to the first female member of the New York Philharmonic, the Viennese harpist Stephanie “Steffy” Goldner – as well as a panel discussion on the role of women as musicians and artists over time, comparing genres and continents, enriched with inspiring music by performance ambassadors of the Boulanger Initiative.
ABOUT THE INSTALLATION
Photo | (c) Chris Lee
The Special Case of Steffy Goldner – The New York Philharmonic’s First Woman is a multimedia installation designed by the Swiss/Austrian artist Nives Widauer in collaboration with the Philharmonic Archives. It was developed in the context of the launch of Project 19, a multi-season initiative of the New York Philharmonic to commission and premiere 19 new works by 19 women composers, to commemorate the ratification of the 19th Amendment granting American (white) women the right to vote 100 years ago.
With still and moving images projected onto the inside of Goldner’s travelling harp case – recently rescued and given to the Philharmonic Archives by a North Carolina furniture restorer – the installation examines the challenges women faced at the time of the universal suffrage movement, specifically in connection with the New York Philharmonic. It will also shed light on the little-known story of one of the Philharmonic’s first female pioneers, the first woman to be a member of the Orchestra, Stephanie “Steffy” Goldner.
ABOUT THE PANEL DISCUSSION
Following the presentation and opening of the installation, the ACF Washington is honored to host a panel discussion addressing the historical stories of women in music and the arts, such as “Steffi” Goldner or Nanette Streicher, the female piano builder of Beethoven, who spent most of her career in Vienna. The Austrian artist Nives Widauer, the designer of the installation, and Gabryel Smith, Director of the Philharmonic Archives, will be joined on the panel by Anne Midgette, former classical music critic of The Washington Post, as well as Laura Colgate, violinist and founder of the Boulanger Initiative, a DC based organization to promote music composed by women through performance, education, and commissions. The conversation will be moderated by Claire Huschle, arts manager and founder of Scaffold, LLC.
The evening will be enriched with inspiring performances by local female musicians acting as ambassadors for the Boulanger Initiative.
IN COOPERATION WITH
When: Thursday, March 5, 2020 | 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.
STEPHANIE “STEFFY” GOLDNER
Photo | Stephanie Goldner collection on Eugene Ormandy, 1911-1982, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania
Stephanie “Steffy” Goldner (1896-1962) was a New York Philharmonic harpist from 1922 to 1932. She immigrated to New York from Vienna in the early 1920 and soon became the first female member of the New York Philharmonic, performing under Mengelberg and Toscanini. After marrying Eugene Ormandy, she resigned from her career in 1932 when Ormandy became principal conductor in Minnesota. After Goldner´s tenure, the Philharmonic would not hire another woman for nearly 30 years.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Laura Colgate | Violinist and Founder of the Boulanger Initiative
Photo | (c) Feole Images
Violinist Laura Colgate enjoys a versatile career as a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist, educator, and innovator. Having performed worldwide across Europe, Asia, and North America, she has been on stages such as the Barbican Centre, Kennedy Center, and multiple appearances at The Carnegie Hall. Laura currently works as concertmaster of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina. After finishing her Master’s degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, she completed her Doctorate from the University of Maryland (UMD) School of Music, focusing her thesis on Women Composers. Laura is passionate about being an innovator in the world of classical music and in March 2018 co-founded the Boulanger Initiative, an advocacy organization for women composers based in DC. The Initiative champions the works of women composers through consulting, performance, education, and commissions, and launched its performance series with the Women Composers (WoCo) Chamber Music Series Festival in DC in March 2019.
Gabryel Smith | NY Philharmonic Archives
Photo | (c) Chris Lee
Gabryel Smith is Director of Archives and Exhibitions for the New York Philharmonic, where he has worked since 2009. He has curated over 30 exhibits for the Orchestra at David Geffen Hall, including two on pioneering women at the Philharmonic. He has lectured about the New York Philharmonic’s history for audiences at Princeton, Juilliard, New York University, and around Lincoln Center as well as at conferences such as the Society of American Archivists. He has written articles for Playbill magazine, SAA’s Performance!, and regularly contributes to the Philharmonic’s weekly programs. Gabryel received his Master’s in Archival training and history from New York University.
Claire Huschle | Arts Manager and Founder of Scaffold, LLC
Photo | (c) Heidi Wagner Photography
Claire Huschle received her MA in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin and her BA degree in Art History from the University of Michigan. She is the founder and director of Scaffold, LLC, a project support firm for artists and arts organizations. Her diverse portfolio of projects and collaborations includes those with the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities, the Urban Soils Institute, and Insight Property Group, among others. Her work with individual artists includes identifying funding and residency opportunities, grant writing, and budgeting and business support. Claire has over two decades of arts management experience with leadership positions across the visual and performing arts.From 2012 to 2017, she served as Director of George Mason University’s Arts Management program, where she has been an adjunct professor since 2007. An active member of ArtTable, she served on the Washington, DC Chapter’s Executive Committee for many years. She has served on numerous grant review panels around the Washington, DC region. As a curator, her exhibitions have been reviewed in The Washington Post and ArtPapers.
Anne Midgette | Journalist and Author
Photo | (c) 2020 Anne Midgette
Anne Midgette was the classical music critic of the Washington Post for 11 years before resigning the post last November. A graduate of Yale University, where she majored in Classical Civilization, she lived in Germany for 11 years after college, writing travel guidebooks and reviews about music, the visual arts, theater, dance and film. In 2001, after moving back to New York, she became the first woman to review classical music for The New York Times on a regular basis. She has also written about music, the visual arts, dance, theater and film for The Wall Street Journal, Opera News, and many other publications, interviewing everyone from Spike Lee to Twyla Tharp, Marina Abramovic to Plácido Domingo. She is co-author of the biographies “The King and I” and “My Nine Lives” and is currently working on a historical novel about the woman who built pianos for Beethoven.
Nives Widauer | Artist
Photo | (c) Daniel Gebhardt De Koekkoek
Nives Widauer, born in 1965 in Basel, Switzerland, is a visual artist based in Vienna. In 1990 she graduated from the class for audiovisual arts at the Schule für Gestaltung in Basel, Switzerland. Parallel to first exhibitions, consisting of video installations, she created live video sets for various theatres, opera houses, and independent semi-documentary movies. Various art awards, scholarships and numerous exhibitions followed. Over the last twenty-five years Nives Widauer’s cosmos grew in somehow concentric circles up to her resent work, where she plays with the interface between analogue and digital means. In the last couple of years, she expanded her work to painting and sculpture. Her works have recently been shown at the Kunsthaus Zurich, Museum Belvedere Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, and the SPSI Shanghai among others.