On July 16 and 17, 2026, I joined scholars from several countries at University College Dublin for the symposium Music, Autobiography, and Constructing the Self. Over two days, the event explored a fascinating question: how do musicians create and communicate a sense of who they are? The programme moved across centuries, genres, and disciplines, showing … Continue reading “Finding “A Voice of My Own”: Reflections on Music, Identity and Natalia Kurakina”
Month: July 2026
Women composers are finally being rediscovered – so why is the Romantic canon still so hard to change?
This year’s BBC Proms continues an encouraging trend by featuring numerous living women composers and new commissions. Yet one area remains comparatively unchanged. Within the nineteenth-century Romantic orchestral repertoire, the familiar names still dominate: Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Mahler, Berlioz and Scriabin, while composers such as Clara Schumann, Louise Farrenc and Emilie Mayer remain rare in … Continue reading “Women composers are finally being rediscovered – so why is the Romantic canon still so hard to change?”