“There are no women composers, never have been and possibly never will be,” Marshall said.
A Celebration of Women in Music, a concert featuring ASU’s Music Ensemble and the Feminist College Ensemble, aimed to disprove Beecham’s statement. Each piece performed during the evening was written by a female composer, including artists from ASU.
The concert was also organized to coincide with the Feminist Theory and Music Conference held in the School of Music in partnership with the School of Social Transformation’s Women and Gender Studies department.
Music school professor Jill Sullivan, who planned and hosted the conference and concert, said women from seven countries and more than 70 universities attended the conference, which ran from Thursday to Sunday.
The concert’s music choice was diverse; the ensembles performed everything from “Parallel Play,” a composition for a saxophone quartet composed by internationally acclaimed artist Judith Lang Zaimont, to “Cowboy Songs,” a piano and voice duet composed by Grammy award winner Libby Larsen.
“I think the choices show how independent–minded female composers are, and that they’re willing to take on any kind of music,” said Judith Tick, music historian and professor at Northeastern University in Boston. She also pointed out that almost half of the audience was children, indicating music is still important to today’s youth.
Another piece performed was “The Shaman Speaks for Clarinet Choir,” composed by Vivian Fung, whose music has been performed around the world.
Marshall’s opinion of the concert was summed up in one word: “Stunning.”
“It would be hard pressed to find another university who could put this together,” she said.
Reach the reporter jasmine.barta@asu.edu
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