Classical and Jazz: Latest News > March 3
Published: 3 March, 2011
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
IT may be the centenary of International Women’s Day (IWD) on Tuesday. But it’s only the second year that the contribution of women to music is being celebrated as part of the annual IWD festivities. A year ago, a concert was arranged on HMS President on the Embankment to mark the involvement of women in music as part of the IWD celebrations for the first time.
This year, a variety of concerts and workshops are taking place. On Saturday, the London Festival of Women in Music kicks off with a concert at St Stephen’s in Pond Street, next to the Royal Free Hospital.Acclaimed pianist Cathy Nardiello is playing a selection of new pieces by women composers. These include Diana Burrell, now a teacher at Guildhall School of Music and artistic director of the annual Spitafields Festival, and prolific London composer Antoinette Kirkwood.
Other concerts on HMS President and elsewhere celebrate music in films directed by women, the contribution female artists to improvised music, and the key role played by women in South African music, notably Miriam Makeba and Doreen Theobekile, who died last June.
On Thursday, oboe player Catherine Pluygers is giving a lunchtime recital at St Pancras Parish Church in Euston Road. She’ll be playing her own Improvisation for Cor Anglais alongside music by Peter Maxwell-Davies, Philip Glass and Howard Skempton.