“Last May the announcement of the Composing the Island festival was followed by an outcry about the representation of women in that survey of 100 years of music in Ireland,” writes Michael Dervan in Wednesday’s (4/19) Irish Times (Dublin). “In January, [Irish broadcaster] RTÉ announced Nathalie Stutzmann as principal guest conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra with effect from September. At the end of last month [Dublin’s] National Concert Hall unveiled its Female Conductor Programme, a 10-month project… ‘designed to … promote talented female conductors at the outset of their careers.’ ” At National Concert Hall, women conductors to appear in 2017-18 include City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s new music director, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla; Emmanuelle Haïm, leading the ensemble Le Concert d’Astrée; and Stamatia Karampini, conducting the new Würth Philharmoniker. “The Composing the Island outcry was about the representation of female composers, not female conductors. And none of the new developments has yet done anything to address that issue. Just one female composer features in the programmes so far announced for the International Concert Series. Nox Vitae, by the Ukrainian-born, Estonia-resident Galina Grigorjeva, features in the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir’s programme under Kaspars Putnins on January 31.”
Posted April 24, 2017
