Listening to Ladies

Series produced by Elisabeth Blair

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Interviews with women composers of contemporary classical music.

Each episode of Listening to ladies features excerpts from interviews with one composer who is a women, interwoven with audio samples of her work. Interviewees include established, emerging and under-recognized composers from the USA, Canada, Argentina, Israel, Iran, Scotland, England, and Australia.

Each interview covers two main themes: the composer's experience of being a woman in this field, and the composer's music & aesthetics.


12 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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Composer and improviser Lauren Sarah Hayes on making and experiencing sound — in a mausoleum, next to a waterfall, and through specially built furn...

  • Added: Oct 13, 2017
  • Length: 27:55
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Composer Aftab Darvishi Composer Aftab Darvishi speaks about blending musical traditions, having her work deemed "feminine," and the state of new m...

  • Added: Aug 29, 2017
  • Length: 24:17
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Composer Beth Anderson on phoning up John Cage, not "looking like" a composer, and the collage that is life. 

  • Added: Aug 29, 2017
  • Length: 27:19
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Composer Mari Kimura on growing up in an experimental solar house, taking care of a terrified audience, and improvising as a way to find one’s self.

  • Added: May 09, 2017
  • Length: 30:20
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New York City-based composer and conductor Whitney George talks about rebellion in the bathtub, the relative loudnesses of sexism, and the beauty i...

  • Added: May 09, 2017
  • Length: 24:19
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Composer Dolores White talks about some of her experiences of segregation, the importance of having access to a broad cultural education, and why e...

  • Added: May 08, 2017
  • Length: 30:20
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NYC-based composer Lainie Fefferman talks about being the only girl in math class, helping audiences get to know performers, and the problem with t...

  • Added: May 08, 2017
  • Length: 27:00
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Composer Jessie Montgomery speaks about identity, patriotism, and music as a catalyst for physically bringing people together.

  • Added: May 08, 2017
  • Length: 29:50
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Octogenarian composer Augusta Cecconi-Bates talks about growing up a member of "the lost generation," hearing melodies in the written word, and whe...

  • Added: May 08, 2017
  • Length: 25:42
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Composer Anna Höstman speaks about composing as a child, her love of works by painter Emily Carr, and a fascination with moths that drink tears.

  • Added: May 08, 2017
  • Length: 29:01
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Composer Pamela Z lets us know what a phonolog was, how great the Museum of Jurassic Technology is (about which she co-wrote an opera), and how to ...

  • Added: May 08, 2017
  • Length: 29:30
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Composer Ingrid Stölzel talks about annoying church bells, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and the importance of mentorship.

  • Added: May 08, 2017
  • Length: 23:54