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PAN PIPES • SPRING 2018 • sai-national.org 18 FOR MORE INFORMATION visit www.muw.edu/musicbywomen Each day of the festival followed a similar format: four concerts were presented, with lectures and lecture recitals being given in between. Concerts were not separated by style or historical period. Within each concert, one heard music of female composers of the past, such as Clara Schumann and Cécile Chaminade, along with contemporary composers, such as Lori Laitman and Jennifer Higdon. e audience was fortunate to hear Julia Mortyakova perform many of Cheminade's works. Each concert also contained performances of original scores that were selected for performance at this festival. ere were 37 new works programed by 27 living composers. Some of these works incorporated electronic and digital arts with live music, such as Sheila Silver's As the Earth Turns. is piece used electronic music, live clarinet and bass clarinet, and a video. Others followed more traditional genre lines, such as Ellen Gilson Voth's Owl Moon, which was based on the children's book of the same name. Written in 2015 as a 10-minute opera for Hartford Opera eater, it was performed in a concert version at this festival. Lectures and lecture recitals lasted between 25 and 50 minutes. Lecture recitals oen explored the repertoire of women composers. Christina Placilla of Winston-Salem State University presented the lecture-recital "e Life and Music of Julia Klumke and In-Depth Study of Her Lullaby for Viola and Piano" with her colleague, Gregory ompson. Other lectures dealt with topics specifically related to female performers, such as the presentation of the research study "e Care & Rehabilitation of the Professional Postpartum Singing Voice" by Blythe Cates of the University of Texas at El Paso and Orit Amy Eylon of the University of the Incarnate Word. In its initial stages, this will be a multi-year study to investigate an issue for women performers that has hardly been examined. ere were also several interesting presentations on composition. Composers Leanna Kirchoff of the University of Denver and Cherise Leiter of Metropolitan State University of Denver collaborated on a project-turned-lecture entitled "Collaborative Composition: One Poem + Two Composers = Two Songs." ese two composers chose to set the same poem for soprano and piano. ey created identical working conditions, and set a time of one day in which to compose. Aer the work was done, they were not allowed to revise it. ey then performed the works with soprano Melissa Wimbish, and themselves at the piano. e women compared their compositions, and discussed the ways in which they each showed their compositional voices. It was an insightful look into the compositional process and the personal styles of individual composers. Composer Dana Kaufmann presented a paper entitled "Creating Caitlyn Jenner on Stage: Composing for Trans Women Opera Singers," which is based on an opera that she is composing at the University of Miami: "Opera Kardashian." In her lecture, she discussed the creation of the role of Caitlyn Jenner, which will be the first operatic trans woman role to be performed exclusively by a trans woman. She discussed ethical issues and concerns regarding construction of the role, as well as approaches to composing for trans voices. Any undertaking of this scope requires a tremendous amount of support and help, and the 14 student volunteers at this festival certainly were part of its success. ey worked at registration, were session chairs, and served as stage crew. e university also provided incredible support. e original financial backing idea for the festival came from the university president. Funding for the festival is provided by the MUW Foundation with the generosity of MUW donors, grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Leslie F. readgill Lecture and Artist Series, and the Columbus Music Study Club. Additionally, the festival is also funded through private donations, local business sponsorships, and the registration fees. Although only in its second year, the Music by Women Festival is firmly establishing itself as an important festival in the music world. It is Dr. Mortyakova's wish that participants continue engaging with the music from the festival throughout the year. She believes, "We have the power to change the classical music performance canon if all of us take this music back to our communities and our institutions, submit it to conferences and festivals, and teach it in our applied studios." If her goal is to have the festival serve as a catalyst for the spread of music by women composers into the standard performance canon, she is certainly achieving that goal. Soprano Jennifer Piazza-Pick is a performer and educator currently pursuing her Doctorate at the University of Maryland, College Park. She was initiated as an SAI Friend of the Arts by the Mu Beta Chapter at Virginia State University. WOMEN COMPOSERS

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