Inaugural Women’s Music Festival Debuts in March

In conjunction with Women’s History Month, the Department of Music in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences will host an inaugural, month-long festival from March 5-30 highlighting the major role that women have played in the art of music.

SHE, A Festival of Women in Music will recognize women across the field with an array of music featuring women composers and performers.

“Music often breaks down the barriers that separate us,” said Ronda Mains, the Department of Music’s chair.

Mains said that in a time when society often strains to listen, “SHE makes room for audiences to hear new sounds, to feature composers of fame and lesser-known stature, and to amplify exceptional stories—all drawing attention to compositions by women, works inspired by women, and music for women.”

Mains said that SHE also crosses borders, intends to evoke an emotional response, and will prompt historical and cultural memories for all who attend.

With guest lectures, performances of Western art music and contemporary music, and a one-woman play, the festival is filled with events that will spur thought and excite audiences.

The festival’s events include:

In Collaboration: A Collage Concert Featuring UA Music Faculty
7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 5 in the Jim & Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center
This collage concert will feature the women of the Department of Music faculty. A variety of genres and compositions will be performed with selections by Andrea Clearfield, Alyssa Morris, Lori Laitman, Rhonda Larson, and more. The concert kicks off the month-long celebration with over a dozen faculty performers. Tickets are $10 for general admission; $5 for faculty, staff and students; and $5 for senior. Tickets can be purchased in advance here.

UA Soul Band Tribute to Women in Contemporary Music
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 6 in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall
The UA Soul Band, under the direction of Professor Jake Hertzog, gives a tribute concert to female songwriters, artists, composers and performers. With music by Aretha Franklin and The Supremes and from jazz to pop and beyond, the Soul Band will give a high-energy performance highlighting the vibrant voices of women in contemporary music genres. This event is free.

Guest Lecture: Susan Milan
6 p.m. Thursday, March 7 in the Jim & Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center
Milan’s talk will draw on her experiences as the first woman to hold a principal spot in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as a jumping off point to consider how gender shapes the professional lives of orchestral musicians. She will address changes in orchestras with regard to gender over the past few decades and offer insights from her efforts to navigate the competing demands of professional and family life. This event is free.

The Other Mozart
7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7 in the Jim & Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center
Sylvia Milo’s award-winning ‘The Other Mozart’ is the true, untold story of Nannerl Mozart, the sister of Amadeus. She was a prodigy, keyboard virtuoso and composer, who performed throughout Europe with her brother to equal acclaim, but her work and her story faded away, lost to history. The one-woman drama is set in and on a magnificent 18-foot dress, created to fill and spill over the entire stage. Tickets are $20 for general admission; $10 for faculty, staff and students; and $15 for senior. Tickets can be purchased in advance here.

Guest Artist Recital: Susan Milan
7:30 p.m. Friday, March 8 in the Jim & Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center
Multi-album recording artist and world-renowned flutist Susan Milan will perform a selection of pieces that express a myriad of emotions. Milan will include works by Gaubert, Telemann, Bennett and Muczynski with feature composers Anne Boyd, Katherine Hoover and Cécile Chaminade. Milan’s musicality will shine in these expressive pieces highlighting the complexity of the music and the evocative stories portrayed. Tickets are $10 for general admission; $5 for faculty, staff and students; and $5 for senior. Tickets can be purchased in advance here.

Blue Dreams, Nights…: Miroslava Panayotova
3 p.m. Sunday, March 10 in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall
The centerpiece of this program is a set of pieces from Blue As In My Dreams by Kim Osteen-Petreshock. Panayotova will also perform a series of portraits dedicated to legendary women, including works by Mel Bonis, The Dream Rags of William Albright, and Fandango by Candlelight by Enrique Granados. This event is free.

Her Voice: Theresa Delaplain
7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 14 in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall
Oboist Theresa Delaplain’s concert includes music written by women and music about women, including works by Bacewicz, Hall, Dring, Berk, and a world premiere of “Her Voice” for oboe d’amore and piano by Mueller. The recital will also include a multi-media presentation of a work for oboe, pre-recorded sounds, digital delay and visual projection. Collaborating artists include Tomoko Kashiwagi, Hyun Kim, Ronda Mains, Moon-Sook Park and Robert Mueller. This event is free.

Music By, For and About Women: Moon-Sook Park 
7:30 p.m. Friday, March 29 in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall
Soprano Moon-Sook Park will perform a program of music by women, music for women, and music about women. The eclectic programming will include a collaborative presentation of music by Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, Lori Laitman, Sunae Kim, Young-Lan Park, Stephen Caldwell, Richard Strauss, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf and Andrew Beall, with a world premiere of a work – lonhontsa:te (Mother Earth in Mohawk) for soprano and cello – written for Park by Dawn Avery. Park will be joined by Hyun Kim (piano), Nikola Radan (flute), Dominic K. Na (cello), and Christopher Scherer (marimba). This event is free.

Women’s Voices: A Collage Concert of UA Music Students
7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 30 in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall
This concert features compositions written by women and performed by the Department of Music student musicians. Featured composers include Fanny Cecile Mendelssohn Hensel, Erin Goad, Caroline Schliecher Krämer, Lori Laitman, and UA composition student Elizabeth Greener. Students from more than six studios will perform in this concert celebrating the voices of women. This event is free.

SHE is sponsored by Adventure Subaru of Fayetteville and presented in partnership with the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Program, the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center, and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Arkansas.

More information about this event can be found on the Department of Music’s website. 

About the Department of Music: Fulbright College’s Department of Music, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music since 1951, has been a chartered member of Pi Kappa Lambda since 1984. Home to over 300 music majors and minors and 35 graduate students, the department has a faculty of 50 nationally and internationally recognized scholars, pedagogues and musicians. We offer bachelor and master level degrees and an intensive one-year performer’s certificate. We are an All-Steinway School, and offers students a number of ensembles, many of which have toured nationally and internationally.

About the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences: The J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most academically diverse unit on campus with three schools, 16 departments and 43 academic programs and research centers. The college provides the core curriculum for all University of Arkansas students and is named for J. William Fulbright, former university president and longtime U.S. senator.