Playlist: International Women’s Day – 2021 Additions

In announcing this year’s additions to our International Women’s Day playlist, we would like to cast a spotlight on female composers who have created many of the year’s greatest works on PARMA’s labels. Amidst the turmoil of 2020 and 2021, the world has been learning to better embrace “own voices” and women’s perspectives. Here’s more on the stories behind just a few of the noteworthy works by women we have released since March 2020.

Creating some of the best new classical music of the year, Australia’s Zephyr Quartet has a unique style in that the ensemble performs works by its members, all of whom contribute to the repertoire. Their album EPILOGUE took off in 2020, featuring works by Hilary Kleinig, Emily Tulloch, and Belinda Gehlert. Here’s Hilary’s “Inside Story,” where the composer says, “Perhaps in this time of great uncertainty it is of comfort to remember that in fact much about our human existence stays the same and that there is always beauty to be found, peace to be sought and the timelessness of life before and after us to remind us that we are very small in the grand scheme of things.”

AND THE SNOW DID LIE, an EP from composer Hilary Tann, interprets the natural elements of literary lithographs by André Bergeron, expertly performed by Sirius Quartet. Always inspired by representations of nature in words and art, Tann says in her Inside Story, “If a listener wishes to hear only the music — fine, the music will work alone. But if the listener wishes to get the full flavour of the music, then the lithographs will give added context and enjoyment, especially if the listener shares my deep love of the natural world.”

In discussing her album EXTENSION, New York composer Svjetlana Bukvich says, “By busting the preconceived notions of genre and also of gender roles, I realized that I am making political as well as musical statements. At first I thought that the ‘political’ part was unnecessary baggage, but now I embrace it and celebrate it. EXTENSION means a personal confirmation of the things I loved and believed in all along.”

With the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the United States constitution at its center, CENTENNIAL from saxophonist José Antonio Zayas Cabán features music from Shelley Washington, Fanny Mendelssohn, Gemma Peacocke, and Amanda Feery. The collection of works exclusively by women is meant to bring light to the work still to be done for women’s equality.

Composer and pianist Antonija Pacek spoke with us about her album FOREVER, saying, “People’s intensifying concerns about their health, financial outcomes, and disrupted lives make this the most adverse time most of us have ever experienced. The new album arose from the need for something hopeful and relaxing as a counterbalance to this sad and difficult time.”

Argentine composer Alicia Terzian recently recorded her album VIOLIN CONCERTO with Rafael Gintoli and the Siberian State Symphony Orchestra, featuring her very first piece, composed over 60 years ago. She says, “I wanted it to be recorded again so that it would remain as the thought of an 18-year-old Argentine girl who was a professional from the first day of her life and who always wonders… how could I have captured with such precision my musical thinking when I was so young and when I was just beginning to study composition?”