Sunday, March 8th, is the 115th annual International Women’s Day. The day was inspired by a political movement among working-class women in New York demanding better pay, better working conditions, and the right to vote in the early twentieth century. This movement gained international traction, and several countries subsequently marked the first International Women’s Day in 1911.
WXXI Classical has long used the occasion to celebrate music written by women composers. Well, this year we wanted to go all out and have our live hosts play nothing but music by women. There was one catch, though: this year, International Women’s Day falls on a Sunday, so our weekday hosts couldn’t participate on-air in the celebrations. Instead of letting that stop us, we decided to think even bigger.
So tune in starting March 6th for not one, but three straight days of music by women composers from our live, local hosts at WXXI Classical.
These selections span the full range of time periods and genres, dating all the way back to the medieval period with sacred music written by Hildegard of Bingen, which you can hear when Mona is on the air Friday evening. Hildegard, a nun famous for her ecstatic visions, has become one of the most recorded composers of Medieval music.
Or perhaps you’re a morning listener—Brenda will bring us into the baroque with the music of Francesca Caccini, a composer from the early seventeenth century who was at the center of a revolution in music.
Records show her in the middle of the action in Florence during opera’s invention, and she may also be the first woman to have written an opera herself with La Liberazione di Ruggiero in 1625.
On Friday afternoon, Steve brings us to the mid-twentieth century with a new recording of Margaret Bonds's Montgomery Variations, written at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
Bonds's music grew out of her activity in the Chicago Black Renaissance and reminds us of the overlap between the many different struggles for justice in our world.
If you like to tune in for the Saturday operas, share the afternoon with Marianne, who brings in some Classical-era music with a brand new recording of one of Marianna Martines’s piano concerti.
Martines was a beloved piano soloist in Vienna around the same time as Mozart, and was even personally invited to play for Empress Maria Theresia.
If you’re an early riser on Sundays, John will take you to the Romantic with the music of American composer Amy Beach, the first American woman to have a symphony premiered by a major symphony orchestra. She was a key member of the Second New England School, a group of composers whose main goal was to create a uniquely American classical style.
Joshua Bassette will round out our celebrations on Sunday afternoon with a Rochester connection through the music of Barbara Harbach, an Eastman alumna known both for her evocative compositions and her skill as a harpsichordist.
And don’t forget to tune in Sunday at 2PM for a special program, Distinguished Rebels, honoring women throughout classical music history.
These are just a few of over eighty selections you can hear throughout WXXI's celebration of International Women's Day this year. Make sure you tune in to hear more about these incredible women and their stories. We are proud to celebrate the women who made, and continue to make, classical music history, and we look forward to you joining us for the festivities this weekend!
