In the canon of the classical guitar repertoire, the term "underrepresented" is still a rather euphemistic way of talking about female composers! Why is that?
Well, we can thank the 19th century in particular, where the bourgeoisie with its patriarchal structures assigned women a very limited place in society: namely children, cooking, church. Most structures in the classical music industry emerged during this period and remained the same until today. All areas of music theory and practice, from orchestras and academia to musicology and music reception were male-dominated, and so was the canon of works. Much has changed, but if one looks at a typical exam program today, one will only sporadically discover a work by a female composer.
Vermehrt machte ich mir zu solchen Themen Gedanken – es gab ja wenig Ablenkung. Ich verschlang einiges an Büchern, die mich bewegt haben, z. B. Invisible Women von Caroline Criado Perez – eine Empfehlung meiner argentinischen Kollegin Carolina Folmer. Aber der Blick in die Gitarrenszene und auf die Programme in Konzerten, Wettbewerben und bei Festivals hat mir nicht mehr gefallen. Irgendwann stand dann die Frage im Raum: Warum spiele ich eigentlich so gut wie nie ein Werk von einer Frau? Und was bedeutet das für mich, als Musikerin?
An intimate and personal performance that took place in the middle of the Corona pandemic, so it is even more meaningful to share this video with you here…Staged during the Fall of 2020, this performance is very meaningful to me on so many levels. It starts out with me paraphrasing and humming Bach´s famous choral melody “Wie soll ich Dich empfangen?”, included in Cantata 5 of his Weihnachtsoratorium, a melody of hope, grief, resurrection and expectation all at once.
