Finding a Voice
Finding a Voice
Organized by Dr. Joe Davies
April 6-7, 2024
Winifred Smith Hall
The Department of Music, in association with the Claire Trevor Society and Illuminations: The Chancellor's Arts & Culture Initiative, is pleased to host a collaboration between Finding a Voice and the Women in Global Music Network on April 6–7, 2024.
The festival features conversations, practical sessions, and a concert celebrating women’s creativity across geographies.
We warmly welcome students, colleagues, friends of the CTSA, and the wider community to join us on this exploration of women in music.
For further details, contact Joe Davies (jdavies3@uci.edu).
This event is generously sponsored by the Claire Trevor Society and Illuminations: The Chancellor's Arts & Culture Initiative.
Schedule
Saturday, April 6
5:30–6:45 p.m.: Panel Discussion – “Defining Voice across the Arts”
Featuring guest speakers David Kasunic (Occidental College), Roisin Maher (Finding a Voice), Kathryn Radakovich (Boulanger Initiative)
Moderated by Joe Davies (UCI) and Nicole Grimes (UCI)
7:30–9 p.m.: Concert – “Yearning”
Aisling Kenny, soprano
Yonit Kosovske, harpsichord and piano
Followed by post-concert conversation with the artists
Please register for the concert here (free entry).
This concert explores the trope of “yearning” in music by women composers through the ages: from Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) and Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677), to Clara Schumann (1819–1896), Amy Beach (1867–1944), Liza Lehmann (1862–1918), Florence Price (1887–1953), Ina Boyle (1889–1967), and Rhona Clarke (b.1958), Susie Vaughan (b.1965), and Fiona Linnane (b.1978).
Sunday, April 7
11.30 a.m.–1 p.m.: Practical Session – “Curation, Collaboration, and Performance”
Aisling Kenny, Yonit Kosovske, and Roisin Maher share their experiences and practical insights into the programming of music by women composers.
Moderated by Joe Davies
About the Artists
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Aisling Kenny, soprano, is a soloist, recitalist and ensemble singer and in recent years has established herself as a specialist in early music. She frequently performs sacred and chamber works of the baroque and classical eras, in particular the music of J.S. Bach. She has sung as a soloist with leading Irish and European ensembles including Collegium Vocale Gent, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Balthasar Neumann Chor, Resurgam, Sestina, Camerata Kilkenny, Chamber Choir Ireland and Irish Chamber Orchestra and has worked with such directors as Philippe Herreweghe, Peter Whelan, Grete Pedersen and Philippe Pierlot. An experienced ensemble singer, she has also sung with Vox Luminis, Gabrieli Consort, RIAS Kammerchor, Zürcher Sing-Akademie, Ensemble Marsyas and Atalante. Performances as a soloist include Johannespassion in Eisenach, the town of Bach’s birthplace and BWV 73 at Bachfest in the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, with Collegium Vocale Gent, directed by Philippe Herreweghe, several projects with Irish Baroque Orchestra directed by Peter Whelan including a solo Bach cantata concert with Irish Baroque Orchestra at the National Concert Hall, Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Mass in B minor, Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Balthasar Neumann Chor and Ensemble at the Laieszhalle, Hamburg directed by Duncan Ward and Spirit and Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas with Collegium Vocal Gent and Ricercar directed by Philippe Pierlot. A dedicated recitalist, highlights include Dowland’s lute songs with Thomas Dunford in Paris and Kilkenny, concerts with historical harpist, Siobhán Armstrong, at Galway Early Music Festival and East Cork Early Music Festival, and a recital at Oxford University with Cecily Lock for Clara Schumann’s bicentenary. In 2022 Aisling curated and performed in a concert of Dowland’s songs in their original settings for multiple voices, alongside Italian madrigals by Marenzio, Monteverdi, and Barbara Strozzi at the Hugh Lane Gallery. Aisling appears as a soloist on Irish Baroque Orchestra’s recording for Linn Records, The Hibernian Muse. Music for Ireland by Purcell and Cousser, with Sestina, directed by Peter Whelan and on Sestina’s debut recording, Master and Pupil with Resonus Classics. |
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Yonit Kosovske performs as a soloist, collaborative musician, and interdisciplinary artist on modern piano, fortepiano, and harpsichord. Passionate about repertoire from the Renaissance through Contemporary, she is dedicated to programming music within and outside of the canon of Classical Western Art Music, including works by female composers from around the globe. As a recitalist of Art Song, Yonit has accompanied acclaimed vocalists throughout Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. Yonit is co-director of the Limerick Early Music Festival and H.I.P.S.T.E.R. (Historically Informed Performance Series, Teaching, Education, and Research), and artistic director of WAVE~LINKS, a video series exploring connections between musicking and artisanry. Yonit has commissioned several new works, including Ailís Ní Ríain's song-cycle Watershed for contralto and piano, as well as contemporary works for harpsichord and other historical or modern instruments, and she has directed two film projects featuring harpsichord and contemporary dance. Yonit is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Limerick, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. She holds a Doctor of Music from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, a Master of Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from Rutgers University – Mason Gross School of the Arts. |
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Róisín Maher is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Finding a Voice, a festival that produces concerts of unforgettable music by remarkable women, around the weekend of International Women’s Day in her hometown of Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland. Since 2018 Finding a Voice has programmed music by more than one hundred and twenty women composers, from the middle ages to the present day. The festival has commissioned and premièred works by leading Irish and international composers, and runs an annual composition competition for emerging Irish composers in association with the Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland. Róisín has been a Lecturer at Munster Technological Cork School of Music since 2004, where she teaches a number of history modules, including one on Women in Music that has been running since 2009. She previously taught at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Limerick, and the National College of Ireland. In a parallel career in arts management, Róisín has worked with numerous arts and cultural organisations including Universal Edition Music Publishers, Opera North, Opera Theatre Company, RTÉ Lyric fm, the Contemporary Music Centre, Crash Ensemble, East Cork Early Music Festival, and the Irish Association of Youth Orchestras. A graduate of University College Cork and the University of Leeds, she is currently a PhD student at Dublin City University. |
Discounted Advance Pre-Paid Parking Permits Reserve at least the day before the event. |
Free admission; open to public.
The 7:30 p.m. concert on Saturday, April 6, requires registration - here.
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