Women Composers

This was a week filled with "women in music!" In class we've progressed to women during the renaissance.  In my "engaging analysis" class, taught by professor Carey, we we're discussing a work for voice and piano by Josephine Lang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_lang), a contemporary of Schumann and the Mendelssohns.  Dr. Carey promptly turned the class into a discussion of women during this time and women composers.  We discussed the acceptability of a female composing piano pieces but not in composing orchestral works. We also brought up the fact that Felix published many of Fanny's works under his name, not to profit from it and sell it as his own, but to have her music be made available to the world.  For the next class we were told to listen and research a female composer.  I chose Karen Amrhein.

I had the privilege of performing with an orchestra Ms. Amrhein's "Symphony of Seasons." It's quite a lovely piece of music, and I find I enjoy listening to it now, much more than I did playing it several years ago...my how much I've grown! Symphony of Seasons is 4 movements and begins with Autumn, progressing through winter, spring and summer with a return to the Theme of the 1st mvt (autumn) to represent the cyclical nature of the seasons.  Karen is an alumni of the Peabody Conservatory and holds a Bachelor's degree in Medieval History from the University of California, San Diego.