麻豆社

Hildegard was a 10th-century Benedictine Abbess from Germany, writing sacred music at the very beginning of Western Classical music. This visionary composer was also a writer and medical practitioner, and it is one of her chants – O Euchari in leta via – that has been chosen for 麻豆社 Ten Pieces.

“What I love about this music is that I hear the beautiful inspiration of Hildegard of Bingen," says Actor Siobhán McSweeney. "She believed that God was in nature, in the trees and the sky and this chimes with my belief not that God lives there but that beauty and ural world is to be celebrated – that we are not better or worse than the earth, that we are of the earth.”

Sally Beamish

Sally is a composer and viola player whose music features regularly at the 麻豆社 Proms. She has written a mind-boggling number of concertos for international soloists, from percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie to trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger. Sally’s piece Haven from Seavaigers will join Ten Pieces in 2024.

“Seavaigers is a Scots word for Seafarers," Beamish explains. This piece was written for Catriona McKay (harp) and Chris Stout (fiddle), about the North Sea voyage between Dundee and Shetland, their respective birthplaces. The soloists created their own solo lines around my score. This is the last movement called Haven – a safe landing after a treacherous journey.”

Marianna Martines

Marianna Martines was raised in 18th-century Vienna, and had an astonishing gift for music – she had piano lessons from Joseph Haydn and vocal lessons from Italian composer Nicola Porpora. Her music includes four masses and some vocal motets, but it’s her Symphony in C that’s on the 麻豆社 Ten Pieces list.

“If Marianna Martines could achieve such creative sophistication and artistry in an age when these were just not expected of women," says conductor Jane Glover, "then so can we in a time of much greater equality, aspire to great heights too.”

Errollyn Wallen

Errollyn Wallen is one of the world’s most-performed living composers – she was the first black woman to have her music performed at the 麻豆社 Proms, and has featured in major public celebrations for the late Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the opening of the Paralympic Games. Her work Mighty River joins 麻豆社 Ten Pieces in 2024.

“It is an innate human instinct to be free," says Wallen. "Just as it is a law of nature that the river should rush headlong to the sea. The perpetual motion of the music, like water, like time, through its sheer momentum, carries with it the cries and echoes of human hearts and voices that are singing out of suffering, repentance, humility and hope.”

Reena Esmail

Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and has written music for Los Angeles Master Chorale, Seattle Symphony and Kronos Quartet. You can hear the premiere of her new 麻豆社 commission for Ten Pieces – Sun Sundar Sargam – in Friday evening’s R3 in Concert on International Women’s Day 2024.

Dame Judith Weir is the first female Master of the King’s Music, a former Associate Composer of the 麻豆社 Singers and a major voice in the UK and international music scene, her works being performed all over the world. Her Ten Pieces work – Magic from Storm – was originally written for a choir of Primary and Secondary school students in Birmingham.

“The words are by William Shakespeare from The Tempest – a magician called Prospero is talking to all the mysterious creatures who have helped him cast his spells in the past," she explains. "Hopefully the music will also sound as if it is light-footed and surprising, and as if it happened by magic.”

Laura Shigihara

Laura Shigihara is a Japanese-American video game developer, composer and performer. Laura’s music is used in numerous video games and media including Rakuen, DELTARUNE, CS:GO, and Minecraft: The Story of Mojang, but it’s her music from the video game Plants vs. Zombies that has been selected as one of our Ten Pieces.

Shigihara explains: “Because I was composing this music for a video game, I had to come up with something that was memorable but could be listened to for long periods of time. It had to fit the style of the game – macabre but also cute and funny. I get a lot of wonderful comments from people who tells me that the Plants vs Zombies soundtrack is very nostalgic for them – they often bonded with siblings while playing the game so it brings back happy memories. I’ve always felt that music is such an incredible gift. I hope that when children enjoy music from the video games they play it might inspire them to learn a musical instrument because being able to express yourself through music is truly a wonderful thing.”

Margaret Bonds

Margaret Bonds was a Chicago-based composer in the 1930s, and the first black female soloist to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Like her friend Florence Price, Margaret Bonds fused African American folk music with the western classical tradition. The 3rd and 4th movements of her orchestral work, Montgomery Variations form part of 麻豆社 Ten Pieces in 2024.

“Margaret Bonds stood up for racial equality and women’s rights,' says pianist and musicologist Samantha Ege. She used music to express her belief that people of different races, genders and geographies could and should live in harmony. She was inspired by Dr Martin Luther King and dedicated this piece to him, in which she invokes African-American sound worlds and storytelling through her use of Spirituals. Montgomery Variations tells the story of what it means to speak up for what you believe in.”

Lili Boulanger

Lili Boulanger was exceptional from a young age. In 1913 at 19, she was the first woman to win the prestigious Prix de Rome. She died tragically young at just 24, and surely would have gone on to be one of the most prolific and talented composers of the 20th century. D'un matin de printemps (On a Spring Morning) is one of her last known compositions and an evocative choice for 麻豆社 Ten Pieces.

“D’un matin de printemps is a wonderful work by Lili Boulanger which I really love, especially the way she manipulates the harmony in such a clever and arresting way, says soprano and composer Héloïse Werner. "You also get the sense in this piece that it’s a lovely, hopeful & sunny morning, maybe one of those first Spring mornings of the year where flowers have started to come out and you can hear the birds outside. Things are generally full of life and full of energy.”

Cassie Kinoshi

Alto saxophonist and composer Cassie Kinoshi has won Ivors Academy Awards and been Mercury Prize-nominated, but it’s perhaps her work as leader of ten-piece ensemble SEED for which she is best known. A graduate of the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, she will be performing a show for International Women’s Day that features a new work inspired by women’s roles in British interwar music. Standing in for male musicians, wonderful groups like Hilda Ward’s Lady Syncopators and Evelyn Hardy & Her Ladies Band will be celebrated as part of Cassie’s performance alongside SEED ensemble, turntablist NikNak and the London Contemporary Orchestra at the Barbican in London on 7 March.

Featuring both former and current members of Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme, the collaborative pianist Michael Pandya and mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately will share the stage with pianist Alim Beisembayev in a sumptuous Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert on International Women's Day, packed full of live music by composers including Clara Schumann, Cecile Chaminade, Alma Mahler and Rebecca Clarke.

Kitty Whately

Later in the day, Radio 3 in Concert brings a collaboration between the 麻豆社 Singers and celebrated sitar player Debipriya Das to St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London for a live concert of music including the world premiere of Reena Esmail’s Sun Sandar Sargam, one of the new 麻豆社 Ten Pieces for 2024.

麻豆社 Ten Pieces is a collaboration between the 麻豆社 Orchestras and Choirs and 麻豆社 Teach, where the recordings and resources will be published.

Tune in to 麻豆社 Radio 3 on Friday 8 March to hear 24 hours of music exclusively written by women, including two fantastic live concerts and more about the composers joining 麻豆社 Ten Pieces for 2024.

Photocredits: Jean-Noel Martin (Reena Esmail); Azzurra Primavera (Errolyn Wallen); Ashley Coombes (Sally Beamish)