Mississippi University for Women will host its fourth annual Music by Women Festival Thursday through Saturday, March 5-7. This international event is dedicated to highlighting the contributions of women composers historically as well as in the present day.
As part of the festival, there will be 15 concerts spread throughout the three days, all free and open to the public. The concerts will take place at 10 a.m., noon, 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Between the concerts, there will be concurrent lecture recitals and papers presented. The public must register to attend these sessions. All events will take place in Poindexter Hall on the W’s campus.
“The public is cordially invited to celebrate Women’s History Month by learning more about women composers and by listening to virtuosic performances of their beautiful music,” said Department of Music chair and artistic director for the Music by Women Festival Julia Mortyakova.
Some of the artists for this year’s festival include music faculty from the Korea National University of Arts, University of Wisconsin, James Madison University, Metropolitan University of Denver, Florida State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Maine, University of Nevada Las Vegas and many others.
The presentation topics include exploration of the life and works of individual women composers from different regions, cultures, time periods and musical genres. Most research presented in the papers and lecture-recitals places the people and compositions discussed in a historical setting, and explores the influences of society, politics, religion and how they had an effect on the composer and her work.
The sessions also analyze the reception of the composer’s work during her lifetime, as well as after her death. While the topics are meant for a musically engaged audience, the subjects will be of interest to anyone studying history in general and the contributions of women in particular. The overarching topic is the status, contribution and the reception of women in general throughout history. “There will be something of interest for everyone,” said Mortyakova.
This project is supported in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. This project is also supported in part by funding from the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy.
For more information, including a complete schedule of events, and to register for the festival, visit muw.edu/musicbywomen.
For questions regarding the festival, contact Mortyakova at [email protected].
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