La Compositrice - early and contemporary women composers
With this program we want to draw attention to the importance of women in the composition of music in the past and present
Ensemble Phoenix Munich builds a bridge between works of Italian women composers of the early modern period, dances from a tablature book of Henriette Adelaide and music of three contemporary women composers, integrated into a multimedia video production.
The inspiration for this program idea "La Compositrice" was the discovery of a tablature book for guitar in the Bavarian State Library from the possession of Electress Henriette Adelaide of Bavaria (1636-1676). This art-loving Turin princess, it is said, brought Italian art and culture to the Bavarian court. She self-confidently presented herself in ballet productions before the court; some dances from the aforementioned tablature book will underscore this connection in concert.
The participation of music-making and composing women in the high culture of the Renaissance began in northern Italy. At the courts and in the monasteries of Ferrara, Mantua, Milan or Siena, highly respected female musicians such as Francesca Caccini, Barbara Strozzi, Maddalena Casulana as well as the nuns Isabella Leonarda, Vittoria Raffaella Aleotti, Caterina Assandra or Lucia Quinciani were active. Their works in the demanding genres of opera, madrigal, motet or sacred concerto have survived in numerous prints.
La Compositrice - this multimedia concert brings together female music of the early modern period and commissioned works by three female composers of today. In three chapters, the concert explores the visibility of women in music. In its transdisciplinary orientation, the interweaving of music with film, the project also addresses the visibility of the female in her ambivalence between iconization and idealization on the one hand, and in the possibility of expression on the other.
Ensemble Phoenix Munich commissioned Dorothea Hofmann, Helga Pogatschar and Catalina Rueda to write new works for this concert.
Photo: Josef Bairlein
Musicians: Alena Hellerová – soprano | Kamila Mazalová – mezzo | Colin Balzer – tenor | Jan Čižmář – theorbo, guitar, lute | Ryosuke Sakamoto – lute, guitar, viola da gamba | Joel Frederiksen – bass, lute, archlute, direction
Josef Bairlein - film/direction | Ulrike Keil - program idea, project management
Supported by
