ADORATION

The works of female composers are still significantly underrepresented in the commonly performed classical music repertoire, and we see it as our mission to diversify mainstream programming by shining a light on this eclectic range of music.

Growing up as free and independent women it is one of our deepest desires to draw attention and awareness to the works of female composers who didn’t have the opportunities to live a self-determined life as we do now.

‘Adoration’ includes works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, Rebecca Clarke, Florence Price, Amanda Röntgen-Maier and Clara Schumann – an international roster of extraordinary composers, whose pieces combine to create a distinctly colorful program. It was important to us to include a contemporary voice in our album, and we asked the Singaporean composer Cheng Jin Koh to be part of the project. Her commissioned work ‘Dancing Marionettes’ for Violin and Piano gives the album an additional color and creates a link between female composers past and present.

The title of the album is taken from Florence Price’s eponymous piece, but also expresses the admiration and gratitude for all the female artists who came before us, and who courageously paved the way to more equality, freedom and independence.

Fanny Fheodoroff & Camille Lemonnier

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)

🇬🇧 Rebecca Clarke wrote over a hundred pieces in different 20th century styles such as Impressionism, Post-Romanticism to Neoclassicism. Only 20 of her compositions were published during her lifetime, and even today some of her works have yet to be published and premiered.

After being thrown out of the house by her father in 1910, she had to abandon her composition studies at the Royal College in London and earn her living as a performing violist. She soon established herself as an integral part of several ensembles and toured through Europe and the United States.

In 1919, her Viola Sonata (which she later modestly called „my one little whiff of success“) won second prize at an American competition, though a rumor went around that she could not have written it herself. Several press articles even claimed that the composer Rebecca Clarke didn’t exist and it was instead a pseudonym for Ernest Bloch or Maurice Ravel.

„Midsummer Moon“ for Violin and Piano was written in 1924 for violinist Adila Fachiri.

Clara Schumann (1819-1896)

🇩🇪 Clara Schumann did it all - she was a composer, pianist, professor, editor, and mother of eight children. Her marriage with composer Robert Schumann was sometimes challenging, but was overall a complimentary artistic relationship. Clara was his muse and he saw her as his equal musical partner. ‘We will also publish many things in both our names’, Robert Schumann wrote. ‘Posterity should regard us as one heart and one soul and not find out what is by you and what is by me.’

Although Clara’s diaries show us that she doubted herself as a composer at times, (‘I once believed that I had creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not wish to compose…’), she was ranked among the great exemplary female figures of her century, and has been honored and praised both as an exceptional pianist and a composer.

The Three Romances for Violin and Piano from 1853 are dedicated to violinist Joseph Joachim.

Amy Beach (1867-1944)

🇺🇸 Besides being known as the first American woman to write a symphony, Amy Beach published around 300 works including chamber music, songs, choral works, sacred music and a chamber opera. An exceptional pianist, she also gave concerts in the US and Europe performing her own compositions.

After getting married, her husband Henry Harris Aubrey Beach only allowed her to perform once or twice a year. She then mainly focused on composing, but had to publish her works under the pseudonym ‘Mrs. H. H. A. Beach’ - her husband’s initials. Restrictions like these were common for middle and upper-class women at the time.

She composed her Romance for Violin and Piano in 1893.

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)

🇵🇱 Grażyna Bacewicz was one of the most important female representatives of Polish music, and paved the way for many other women to thrive in the conservative, patriarchal music world of the 20th century.

Bacewicz graduated from Warsaw Conservatory in 1932 in composition and violin, and continued her education in Paris, studying with composer Nadia Boulanger (Lili Boulanger’s sister) and violinist Carl Flesch.

During the Second World War, she continued composing while living in Warsaw. Unlike other artists, she didn’t engage in political movements, but took part in secret underground concerts held in cafés and private apartments.

The war caused irreparable damage and the loss of countless cultural treasures, but there was a big effort to revive Polish culture and art after years of oppression. Bacewicz composed ten works in 1945 alone, including her second violin concerto and her first symphony, while also performing as a violinist and working as a teacher.

She died in 1969, leaving a catalogue of more than 200 works including five symphonies, seven violin concertos and other instrumental concertos as well as numerous chamber music works, songs and a cantata.

She wrote her Violin Sonata No. 2 in 1946.

Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)

🇫🇷 Despite her tragic early death at the age of 24, Lili Boulanger gained international recognition as a composer during her lifetime.

When she was just 19 years old, she was the first female winner of the Prix de Rome, a prestigious composition prize previously won by composers such as Hector Berlioz and Claude Debussy. Together with the prize, she received a scholarship to study at the famous Villa Medici in Rome, but soon had to return to Paris due to her lifelong chronic illness and the outbreak of the First World War.

Lili Boulanger died in 1918, leaving behind over 50 pieces including piano trios, hymns, choral works and a cantata. To this day she is considered one of the most gifted French composers of the 20th century. Her sister Nadia Boulanger, also an influential musician and teacher, survived Lili by 61 years and tirelessly advocated for her music to be performed.

‘D’un matin de printemps’ was written in 1918, and is one of the last pieces Lili completed before her death.

Cheng Jin Koh (*1996)

🇸🇬Singapurean composer Cheng Jin Koh graduated from The Juilliard School in 2021 and is currently pursuing her PhD at New York University. Being a Chinese and Western trained musician, her works incorporate various influences from these worlds and reflect her passionate enthusiasm in unifying colorful music idioms:

‚Dancing Marionettes’ is inspired by Chinese marionette (string) puppetry. It is one of the earliest genres popular in Tang Dynasty, where characters in richly embroidered costumes are manipulated by a group of strings, and demonstrate realistic movement capabilities of a human through the stories told on stage. My Chinese music-influenced, short miniature strives to convey their multi-faceted narratives through lively gestures, a more intense, emotional section and a rather euphoric dance-like finale.

Composing is something I cannot do everyday as it absorbs so much soul and energy. ‚Dancing Marionettes’ is around 4-5 minutes but took me around two months to write in midst of adjusting to first-year doctoral life. Imagining wonderful musicians’ interpretations of my music (despite its challenging prospects) is always a great motivation for me to push on and not give up. I always write with my players in mind - I owe my creations to them and their artistry.

Amanda Röntgen-Maier (1853-1894)

🇸🇪 Amanda Röntgen-Maier was the first woman to graduate with a degree in music direction from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, alongside studying violin, piano, organ, cello, composition, and harmony.

She then moved to Leipzig where she focused on her violin and composition studies, and where she also met her future husband, the German-Dutch composer Julius Röntgen. After their marriage, her public appearances as a violinist almost entirely came to an end. Instead, the Röntgens organized small house concerts, inviting fellow composers such as Edvard Grieg, Johannes Brahms, and Clara Schumann, who became Amanda’s friends and colleagues.

Besides her Violin Concerto, which is sadly not performed often, the Violin Sonata in B minor (1878) is one of her most famous works.

Florence Price (1887-1953)

🇺🇸 During a time where a career in classical music seemed impossible due to racial segregation and discrimination, Florence Price was the first African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer. Among her 300 works are four symphonies, four concertos, numerous choral works, piano and organ pieces, and chamber music.

She studied composition, organ, and orchestration in Boston and then Chicago, where she ended up living for most of her life. Her breakthrough as a composer came in 1932 when she won the Wanamaker Prize for her symphony in E minor. It was premiered at the 1933 World's Fair by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which made Price the first African American with an orchestral work performed by a major American orchestra.

Despite her successes, she was not granted a place in the canon of American music history during her lifetime. It was not until the 1970s that her pieces began to be recorded and the interest in her work started growing. Even today, there is still a lot to be discovered and performed.

‘Adoration’, written in 1951, was originally a piece for organ but has been arranged for several ensembles. The arrangement for Violin and Piano is by Elaine Fine.

Rebecca Clarke - Midsummer Moon

Grażyna Bacewicz - Violin Sonata No. 2. I. Allegro

Lili Boulanger - D'un matin de printemps

Cheng Jin Koh - Dancing Marionettes

Amanda Röntgen-Maier - Violin Sonata in B Minor. I. Allegro

Florence Price - Adoration

Amy Beach - Romance, Op. 23

Clara Schumann - Three Romances for Violin and Piano Op. 22, I. Andante molto