Graz picks feminist American
mainThe styriarte festival in Graz, southern Austria, has named Mei-Ann Chen as chief conductor for the next five years. She will also head the local orchestra.
Chen, who is also music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, has pledged to promote young women composers, Austrians especially.
The first one she has named is the long-forgotten Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868-1941).
==long-forgotten Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868-1941).
On the strength of this quartet, looks a good choice :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhV0DIUE0f8
Very rewarding listening, indeed!!
That str quartet sounds like early Schoenberg, starting from a Brahms sextet but getting into different territory.
No wonder, she was a puil of Zemlinsky, friend and brother in law of Schoenberg. And she was member of the lively music world of prenazi Vienna.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanna_M%C3%BCller-Hermann
“…feminist American”
what’s a “feminist” today anyway? Aren’t most people “feminists” in the same way most people believe in equal rights? I mean, do you go around calling yourself a “suffragist Brit” because (I presume) you have all your life supported women’s right to vote?
It’s a euphemism for activist ‘gay’.
Wrong. Perhaps in a lexicon for homophobes or misogynists.
Equal rights? we should have MORE rights after all those years of suppression!
Sally
I love Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner as well as Verdi, Rossini and Strauss like the next music aficionado. But anyone who promotes forgotten composers, male or female, is welcome nine ways from Sunday. There is so much music out there, and orchestras always play the same stuff.
Years ago, when most of Eastern Europe joined the EU, Andrey Boreyko, then MD of the Jena Philharmonic, welcomed the new members by devoting one of the regular subscription concerts to each country. So we had the chance to listen to music from Cyprus, from Latvia, from Slovakia, from Malta, and so on. It was glorious, and it earned the MD a prize for the best program of that concert year in Germany.
If Ms. Chen wants to promote never (or rarely) heard composers in her new tenure: fantastic! I wish I could be in Graz for her concerts!
Agreed!!!
Chen is American? I thought she was from Taiwan. Anyway, she’s great. Used to be a frequent guest here in Tucson and always exciting, memorable concerts. Her Dvorak New World from several years ago still in my memory – just marvelous. Too bad American orchestras are still unwilling to take up women conductors to the top ranks. Our loss.
Taiwanese-American, according to her website.
“Too bad American orchestras are still unwilling to take up women conductors to the top ranks. Our loss.” Totally agree. The argument that “there just aren’t any really good ones” is getting stale.
Young women composers: Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868-1941)- a mere child!
“GRAZ PICKS FEMINIST AMERICAN”
As opposed to what? “Misogynist American”?
Norman just loves to throw labels around, for clickbait value – and I for one am becoming weary of it.
dear Greg B,
I also find it tiresome and small on his part..not to mention it taps into a very real group of trolls on this blog.
It is a shame because it is often so good and informative.
She has done a good deal with the Chicago Sinfonietta to champion the works of Florence Price.
I look forward to hearing what she finds in Austria and brings back to the concert hall after decades of neglect.
dear NL,
To label her as “feminist” in the title of the post is done by you either 1) trying to push the buttons of the anti-woke, get-a life-ers and get them riled up that the Woke Brigade is ruining culture, or 2) because you think that simply because she wants to promote female composers, she is a “feminist” and is her most headline-worthy feature.
Either way….