Who´s Afraid Of…?

Nine impressive works by various female composers from a period of 450 years shed light on the different ways in which women were able to fulfil their potential in their respective times. The composer Elfrida Andrée (1841–1929), for example, went against the social conventions of the time and worked as an organist at Gothenburg Cathedral. To this day, she is the only woman in Sweden to have worked as an organist at a cathedral church. In contrast, Fanny Hensel (1805–1847) was unable to step out of the shadow of her brother Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The family had both siblings educated musically, but could only envisage a career for the son. This was despite the fact that the daughter was just as talented as her brother. She composed over 460 works and successfully performed countless concerts as a pianist and conductor. Surprisingly, however, there were women who were able to consistently pursue an artistic path long before Fanny Hensel and Elfrida Andrée. Vittoria Aleotti (1575– 1646), for example, was able to dedicate her entire life to music and even publish her own madrigals thanks to the support of her father. It is all the more astonishing that the works of the composer Lili Boulanger only became known to the general public in the 1960s, although her sister, the important music teacher Nadia Boulanger, spent her whole life championing her sister´s works after her early death. The life and work of Maria Theresia Paradis (1759–1824), who undertook a major concert tour of Europe as a pianist despite her blindness and had her own music typewriter for composing, is also fascinating. Or the French chansonnière Barbara (1930–1997), who made a significant contribution to international understanding and reconciliation between France and Germany after the end of the Second World War with her song “Göttingen”. The Boulanger Trio found many interesting women whose music should be played and whose stories should be told. That´s why two other female artists are represented on the digital album: Icon Kate Bush, who invented the headset almost incidentally because she needed more freedom of movement on stage. And the Armenian singer Rosa Linn, who set TikTok alight in 2022 when the video of her Eurovision Song Contest song “SNAP” went viral.