WNPR To Air Program Celebrating Women's History In Music
WNPR To Air Program Celebrating Womenâs History In Music
HARTFORD â In 1981 the National Womenâs History Project successfully lobbied Congress to declare a Joint Congressional Resolution for National Womenâs History Week. Congress expanded the celebration to an entire month in 1987. WNPR will join in that celebration when it airs the special program âInstrumental Womenâ on Friday, March 9, at 9 pm.
WNPR can be heard at WPKT 90.5 FM, Hartford/New Haven; WNPR 89.1 FM, Norwich/New London; WEDW 88.5 FM, Stamford/Greenwich; W258C 99.5 FM, Storrs/Mansfield; and WRLI 91.3 FM, Southampton, New York.
âInstrumental Womenâ follows the rise of female artists in classical music over the course of the 20th Century, a history told in the words of the women who lived it.
In the early 1890s, women were active as promoters and benefactors for professional ensembles, but they were largely excluded from performing. By the 1930s they began to organize their own orchestras, and in the â40s were called to fill seats in symphonies as male musicians left for war.
But when the men returned from the war, the women artists were once again unemployed, having to fight stereotypes, discrimination and unfair hiring practices.
Fifty years later, women could be found in every section of the orchestra. Today, womenâs compositions are increasingly featured on concert programs, and women conductors take the podium before some of the best ensembles in the world.
âInstrumental Womenâ host Lauren Rico speaks with an array of musicians, conductors and composers about their experiences, and she relies on historical documents and the insight of music historians to provide perspective on women artists from the early 20th Century.
These stories and interviews are woven among musical performances by female soloists, all-women ensembles, and female composers and conductors. Contributions include Gail Williams, a retired associate principal horn of Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and former artistic director of the St Louis Symphony Tim Page; Marie Speziale, president of the International Association of Women in Brass; and conductors Jane Glover and JoAnn Falletta.