#4088: Composer/Vocalists Who Happen To Be Women
Someday, we’ll reach a point where it’s not worth mentioning, but until that happens, hear an hour of music by vocalist/composers, all of whom happen to be women.
Listen to music by Atlanta-based Hanna Benn, a vocalist and composer who inhabits the musical space between worlds of electronic music, contemporary classical, and pop, with a song from her recent EP, Divide. Also, hear music by French-based harpist/vocalist/composer Laura Perrudin, who is classically-trained and jazz-informed, but also has an interest in a wide array of genres from electronic and traditional folk music, to soul and hip-hop. Then, hear the French singer/composer/vocalist/electronic musician Colleen, and her older work, which has clarinet, harp, accordion, and her voice, called “Moonlit Sky.”
Composer, vocalist, and keyboardist of the Philip Glass Ensemble, Lisa Bielawa, has also served as the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, collaborating with leading artists, ensembles, and organizations as a matter of course. Hear the SF Girls Chorus in this performance of Lisa’s video and online opera called “Vireo, The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser,” which also features Kronos Quartet. Sample music from the South African a cappella women’s choir, Afrika Mamas – yes, all women’s voices, composers too – in a work by Sister Zungu, from their latest record, Iphupho. There’s also music from Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq, and her darker, urgent form of the traditional throat singing, in a song called “Uja.”
Then hear Norwegian vocalist and composer Susanna Wallumrød covering Elizabeth Cotton, with a deep, dark approach, featuring baroque harp player Giovanna Pessi, Ida Løvli Hidle on accordion, and fiddle player Tuva Livsdatter Syvertsen. Hear music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/vocalist Caroline Shaw, recorded at a New Sounds Live event at Merkin Hall in 2017. It’s from Shaw’s work inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest, written for vocal octet, Roomful of Teeth. Rounding out the show is the band Pavo Pavo, whose lead singer, Eliza Bagg, is also a member of Roomful of Roomful of Teeth, with a song called Ran Ran Run. -Caryn Havlik
PROGRAM #4088 Women Composer/Vocalists (First Aired: 3/8/2018)
ARTIST: San Francisco Girls Chorus
WORK: Lisa Bielawa: Opening: Forest (from Vireo The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser) [1:30]
RECORDING: Final Answer
SOURCE: Orange Mountain Music
INFO: orangemountainmusic.com
ARTIST: Hanna Benn
WORK: A Guest House [5:01]
RECORDING: Divide
SOURCE: This Is Meru
INFO: hannabenn.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Laura Perrudin
WORK: Mesopelagic [3:14]
RECORDING: Poisons and Antidotes
SOURCE: Volatine: CD 12P4C3T4
INFO: lauraperrudinmusic.com
ARTIST: Colleen
WORK: Moonlit Sky [5:09]
RECORDING: The Weighing of the Heart
SOURCE/INFO: colleencolleen.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Susanna
WORK: Elizabeth Cotton: Freight Train [3:19]
RECORDING: Go Dig My Grave
SOURCE: SusannaSonata SONATA039
INFO: susannamagical.com/
ARTIST: San Francisco Girls Chorus
WORK: Lisa Bielawa: Opening: Forest (from Vireo The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser) [5:37]
RECORDING: Final Answer
SOURCE: Orange Mountain Music
INFO: orangemountainmusic.com
ARTIST: Afrika Mamas
WORK: Sister Zungu: Imbokodo [2:49]
RECORDING: Iphupho
SOURCE: ARC Music EUCD2771
INFO: arcmusic.officialstore.co.uk
ARTIST: Kaleema Ft. Chancha Via Circuito
WORK: Anima [4:12]
RECORDING: Nómada
SOURCE: TTR 029 Tropical Twista Records
INFO: tropicaltwistarecords.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Roomful of Teeth
WORK: Caroline Shaw: The Isle: Ariel, Caliban [5:26]
RECORDING: New Sounds Live, March 12, 2017 at Merkin Hall
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: carolineshaw.com
ARTIST: Pavo Pavo
WORK: Ran Ran Run [3:58]
RECORDING: Young Narrator in the Breakers
SOURCE/INFO: pavopavo.bandcamp.com
