Voices of Women
International conference to strengthen the female presence in the music world
Songs by female composers in the context of social and political circumstances - this is the motto under which musicians from various countries will meet at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar from 10 to 12 April.
The "Voices of Women" conference as part of the transnational ERASMUS+ project will bring them together for concerts, masterclasses, keynote speeches and discussions. Together, students and professors will address questions about women in the world of music and look for ways to raise the profile of female musicians and composers.
All events take place in the Am Palais hall at the Weimar Music university. Voices of Women" is organised and managed by Lena Haselmann-Kränzle, Professor of Singing and Voice Training at the Weimar University of Music. She will open the conference on Wednesday, 10 April at 11:00am with a Lied masterclass. Professor Clemens Tiburtius from Weimar will host a "Jazz Vocal" masterclass on the same day at 3:00pm. Two further masterclasses will be taught by professors from Norway: Professor Bettina Smith from the University of Stavanger on Friday, 12 April at 10:00am and Professor Anne-Lise Sollied from Tromsø on 12 April at 1:00pm.
Public concerts with works by female composers will take place on Wednesday, 10 April at 6:00pm and on Friday, 12 April at 7:00pm in the Saal Am Palais. The detailed programme of the conference can be found on the website of the Weimar Music university. Admission to the conference and the two concerts is free. Digital conference participation via Zoom can be registered at friederike.wrobel(at)hfm.uni-weimar.de.
Students at the Weimar Music university have already been researching women in music before the conference and will be presenting their findings in lectures. Constanze Zacharias, for example, will speak about women in jazz on 10 April at 2:00pm. Jana Herold's subsequent contribution will also deal with women in jazz and the gender imbalance in the German scene.
On 11 April at 11:15am, Stefanie Dzjubak will talk about feminist practice in music lessons. At 12.15pm, Anna Grünhardt will talk about "male vs. female genius". This will be followed by Friederike Wrobel with a historical lecture on composition lessons at the Weimar Music university and its gender relations.
Female professors from various universities are also invited to give talks: Prof. Dr Lise K. Meling from the University of Stavanger, Prof. Dr Lilli Mittner from the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø - and Prof. Dr Petra Broomans, Prof. Dr Janke Klok and Dr Kristin McGee from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The contributions will deal with topics such as the social conditions of women in composition, the work of Fanny Mendelssohn and women's voices in jazz.
As part of the conference, there will also be a tour of the city on 11 April at 6:00pm and a memorial event with a lecture on the Jewish singer, artist and educator Jenny Fleischer-Alt (1863-1942), who lived in Weimar as an exceptional singer and educator with great influence - and took her own life out of fear of deportation by the National Socialists.
Voices of Women (VOW) is a transnational educational project funded by the ERASMUS+ programme. The project connects students and teachers in order to strengthen and secure the rightful place of women in historical, contemporary and future art production.
VOW contributes to the EU's shared values of cultural awareness anchored in historical heritage, giving women's works their fair share of attention, analysis, interpretation and performance.
The project activities aim to perform and promote repertoire created by women composers in Europe with a focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. A further aim of VOW is to build a transnational network of artists, researchers and stakeholders who want to help ensure that women are given their rightful place in the world of music.
In spring 2023, Voices of Women was already represented with masterclasses and workshops at the Weimar Music university. A delegation of students also visited the University of Tromsø in winter 2023 as part of the project. The final conference of the VOW project is planned for November 2024 at the University of Stavanger in Norway.
Further information:https://site.uit.no/vow/
[8 March 2024]