Press release submitted by Indian Hill Music
Maestro Bruce Hangen and the Orchestra of Indian Hill will celebrate women composers on Saturday, March 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Littleton High School Performing Arts Center, 56 King Street, Littleton, MA. Tickets are $20, $35, and $50, free for Indian Hill Music School students. Purchase online at www.indianhillmusic.org, by phone at (978) 486-9524 x116, or at the door. This concert is sponsored by Enterprise Bank, and supported by Scheier Katin & Epstein, P.C. and a grant from Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy.
Maestro Hangen carefully curated a program of women composers through the centuries with whom we should be more familiar: Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Dame Elizabeth Machonchy, Lili Boulanger, Amy Beach, Peggy Stuart Coolidge, and Clara Schumann, whose Piano Concerto in A Minor will be performed by guest soloist and acclaimed pianist, Janice Weber.
"National Women’s Month is celebrated here performing music only by women composers!” said Maestro Hangen. “Taking our cue from Anna Beer’s book, 'Sounds and Sweet Airs – The Forgotten Women of Classical Music,' the program features Felix Mendelssohn’s sister, Robert Schumann’s wife, and several others, including two women from Boston. Really delightful, romantic, wistful, expressive, and joyful music abounds in this concert of composers unfamiliar to most listeners. The brilliant multi-talented Janice Weber is guest pianist."
Bostonians Amy Beach and Peggy Stuart Coolidge made their mark on music history. A child prodigy from an artistic family, Beach made her concert debut in 1883 at age 16. She later starred in the final performance of the Boston Symphony's 1884–85 season. Her Gaelic Symphony, premiered by the BSO in 1896, was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman; and she was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music.
A Swampscott native, Peggy Stuart Coolidge was one of the first female American composers to have a recording devoted to her symphonic works, and the first American composer (male or female) to have a concert devoted entirely to her works presented in the Soviet Union. She conducted an all-woman ensemble; and was pianist and assistant conductor of the Women’s Symphony of Boston. In addition, she founded the Junior League Orchestra in Boston and conducted it for seven years. Her works have been performed worldwide.
Janice Weber. (Courtesy photo)
A summa cum laude graduate of the Eastman School of Music, guest soloist, pianist Janice Weber has performed at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, National Gallery of Art, and Boston's Symphony Hall. She has appeared with the Boston Pops, Chautauqua Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Hilton Head Orchestra, Sarajevo Philharmonic, and Syracuse Symphony in concertos of Hanson, Sowerby, Stenhammar, Bernstein, and Leroy Anderson as well as the standard repertoire. She has performed at the Bard, Newport, La Gesse, Husum, and Monadnock summer festivals and has twice toured China under the auspices of the American Liszt Society.
Now in its 32nd year, Indian Hill Music is a thriving non-profit regional center for music education and performance serving 79 communities from Greater Boston to Southern New Hampshire. We are motivated by the belief that music inspires both our hearts and our minds, encourages the growth and development of the “whole person,” and is integral to the lives of the individuals and communities we serve.
As a result of generous contributed revenue, Indian Hill Music is thrilled to move forward with an exciting new phase of the organization’s future. Anticipated to open in late 2020, the new Music Center at Indian Hill in Groton will integrate a wide range of performances with our educational and outreach programs to ensure everyone can access the many facets of music. For more information about the Orchestra of Indian Hill and Indian Hill Music, visit www.indianhillmusic.org.