Archives For Royal Academy of Arts

In Tune with Feminist Time

March 10, 2019 — 34 Comments

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) collaborative event with Royal College of Music (RCM) entitled ‘In Tune with Feminist Time’ held in The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, at Burlington Gardens. It was a wonderful use of this space as the musicians transformed what is normally an intellectual venue into a room full of colour, texture and emotive sounds. Behind the performers were projected self-portraits from renown RA academicians, one that struck me in particular was the artist Angelica Kauffman.  She was a prominent English Artist of the 18th century, one of only two founding female members of the Royal Academy of Arts and the last woman to be admitted until 1922.

In her self-portrait ‘Hesitating Between The Arts of Music and Painting’ it revealed that she was a talented opera singer, struggling between devoting herself to a career in music or art. I found this fascinating and thought it was a wonderful link to International Women’s Day as women are capable of possessing many talents and with the right opportunities can achieve success and explore their abilities to the fullest.

All the performers in this event were fantastic and revealed new music, tales of history and interesting poetry inspired from the female hand. The composers that were represented were: Barbara Strozzi, Judith Weir, Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger, Maria Rodrigo, and a premiere by living composer Hayat Selim.

Maria Gîlicel (violin), George Todica (piano), Jobine Siekman (cello)

I particularly enjoyed the event as it continued the theme created by the inaugural event last year that I performed in: ‘In Touch with Feminist Futures’ which was created as a platform for myself and my fellow colleagues to present our research and performances from our Women in Music module led by the charismatic and formidable duo Diana Roberts and Natasha Loges.

Maria Gîlicel (violin), George Todica (piano), Jobine Siekman (cello), Hayat Selim (composer/singer), Ana Beard Fernandez (soprano), Diana Roberts, Ana Fernandez Guerra (soprano), Judith Le Breuilly (mezzo soprano), and Lucy Colquhoun ( accompanist )
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The Art of Singing

March 11, 2018 — 48 Comments

I would like to thank Diana Roberts of the Royal College of Music for inviting me, and my fellow ‘Women in Music’ students, to perform at the Royal Academy of Arts last Friday. The event entitled “In Tune with Feminist Futures” was supported by Dasha Shenkman and we were all thrilled to see how well attended the recital was.

 

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Diana Roberts, Dasha Shenkman, Leanne Singh-Levett, Esme Hurlbert, Me, Lisa Burgess, Katy Thompson.  My thanks to Esme for sharing this photograph.

 

My friend Jane had traveled from Manchester to London for the weekend and it was lovely to spend time with her before the recital and to see her in the audience.  After the event, there was a drinks reception and we got the opportunity to mingle with the audience and spend time talking with them.

The recital was held in The Reynolds Room in the Royal Academy of Arts which housed some amazing paintings, we were not allowed to take pictures in the room itself but if you are visiting London I would recommend adding the Royal Academy of Art to your places to visit.

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Sonia Lawson – Behind is the picture “Night in a private garden”

We were asked to select a work by one of the artists from the Royal Academy to be displayed whilst we performed. I chose a picture by Sonia Lawson “Night in a Private Garden” which she painted in 2010. Sonia Lawson was born in 1934 and has had a prolific career, she was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1991 and at 84 continues to paint in her studios in Bedfordshire and North Yorkshire.

The songs that I chose for the evening were “In Meines Vaters Garden” and “Laue Sommernacht” by Alma Mahler whose father, Emil Jakob Schindler was a famous Austrian Landscape painter who greatly influenced her work.

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Leanne Singh-Levett and Me

 

A big thank you to Leanne Singh-Levett for accompanying me, it was lovely to work with her again for this recital having performed with her the previous day for my “Women In Music” lecture-recital.

Thank you to everyone who joined with me to celebrate my blogging anniversary last week, it was lovely to read all your comments.  I will be drawing up a list of everyone who liked or comment on the post during the coming week and then select 3 people at random to receive a signed copy of my “Haugtussa” album.

I would also like to share with you the news that I will be performing the role of ‘Maria Bertram’ in Waterperry Opera Festival’s production of Jonathan Dove’s opera ‘Mansfield Park’.  The performances will take place at Waterperry House, Oxford on the 18th and 19th August 2018. I am really looking forward to meeting and working with the rest of the cast and taking this production to this picturesque venue.

Waterperry Opera

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Women In Music

January 29, 2018 — 68 Comments

To add to existing knowledge of women’s work in music in history I decided back in September 2017 to take a programme in my Master’s studies called ‘Women in Music’.  Women are stepping forward more into the spotlight and news, just now I read that the American Conductor Marin Alsop has been appointed the first female artistic director of the Vienna orchestra.  I just hope that at some point in the future this isn’t front page news, why is it so rare?  She was also the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms and the first woman to lead a major US orchestra, let’s hope she’s not the only woman able to break through.  Read this article:

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It’s quite shocking that a female harpist spent 26 years in the orchestra but was never acknowledged and only her hands were shown on tv broadcasts.

I was assigned a professional female mentor after submitting a list of people I would like to work with to get a better understanding of what a professional career in Music looks like and to gain an awareness of issues and experiences female musical professionals may encounter whilst studying an introduction to current gender theory.  This project will be coming to fruition over the next two months with a project I’m submitting mid-February and a performance lecture-recital I will be presenting at the RCM on 8th March 2018 based on one female figure breaking through a glass ceiling in music – I chose Kaija Saariaho, a Finnish composer based in Paris, France.

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I’m hoping that I can share my slides with you all after the event and if you’re in London as part of this project I will also be performing at the Royal Academy of Arts on the 9th March , which I am really excited about, as you know I like to see art and music combined.

During my research I studied female composers through the ages one thing stood out to me and that was I don’t sing any of their music in all of my years training their songs did not form part of the exam syllabus or the A-level music I studied, then I looked at the wider music industry as women forged ahead in some areas more than others.  I tried to find parallels and I asked my family and friends back at home who their top female musicians were and when, how and what influences did they use to break through in their genre: from Dolly Parton (unique, trailblazer), Madonna (revolutionary), Kate Bush (ahead of her time, original, innovative, arti), to Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross and current big-name stars like Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Katie Perry.

Then I wondered do people outside of the classical music world know the celebrated female stars of opera – if so why did Maria Callas have to be played by Meryl Streep when there are so many superb actress/singers in the world of Modern Opera such as: Renee Fleming, Anna Netrebko, Angela Gheorghiu, Joyce DiDonato, Jessye Norman when you google search ‘top female British Opera singers’ we get Lesley Garrett and Sarah Brightman followed by Dame Janet Baker, what do you think?  Who would you put at the top of a list of female singers still alive today that could be counted as role models for today’s students?  Can you tell me who your choice of a female musician that has broken through and is a household name in the Classical music world?

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