DAME ETHEL SMYTH - UK
BORN 23 APRIL
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth attained prominence as one of the most accomplished female composers in a male dominated environment, and as one of the main representatives of the suffragette movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas.
Ethel Smyth pursued a career in music, first privately, and then at the Leipzig Conservatory. Her persistence led to a successful music career, although some critics complained that her music was “too masculine.” In recognition for her work as a composer and writer, Smyth was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1922...the first female composer to be awarded a damehood.
Dame Ethel was an extremely accomplished and fascinating woman who had a bit of a defiant streak. As a child in Kent, England she took part in unladylike activities like hiking and bike riding. As a young woman, she defied her father's wishes and studied music composition, even enrolling in a German music conservatory in 1877. The conservatory was too dull for her, so she opted for private instruction. Smyth rubbed shoulders with the likes of Johannes Brahms, Antonin Dvorak and Clara Schumann. She went on to make a career for herself writing German lyrical poems, violin sonatas, piano music and eventually operas. In 1906 Germany, Smyth halted the run of her opera, Standrecht on its opening night after discovering that one of the acts had been significantly cut against her wishes.
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EMILIA GIULIANI - ITALY
BORN 23 APRIL
Emilia Giuliani was the daughter of the famous Mauro Giuliani, played duets with her father and was known throughout Southern Italy as a guitar virtuoso until she died tragically early for unknown reasons. In one occasion she even shared the stage with Franz Liszt and was judged his equal by audience and critics alike.
As a composer, Emilia Giuliani’s work only superficially resembles her father’s. Even in his most extended and adventurous pieces Mauro, ever the craftsman, stays within the harmonic and formal boundaries of Viennese classicism. Emilia, however, explores the outer reaches of her singular harmonic imagination with a fresh and daring disrespect for convention. Her Sei Preludi op.46 are a unique contribution to the classical guitar repertoire. While much guitar music inhabits a world of measured charm, endeavoring to delight rather than agitate the listener’s senses, Emilia demands immediate and complete attention.
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