A focus on women composers and poets: London Song Festival returns

Nadia and Lili Boulenger, photographed in 1913.

Nigel Foster’s London Song Festival returns next month for a season of 10 concerts exploring the work of women composers. As ever, the concerts are at Hinde Street Methodist Church and things kick off on 17 October with Nigel Foster being joined by mezzo-soprano Katie Bray and tenor Guy Cutting for songs and song cycles by Nadia and Lili Boulanger.

Then soprano Francesca Chiejina and mezzo-soprano Lea Shaw explore African American women composers and the struggle for Civil Rights with music by Florence Price, Brittney Elizabeth Boykin, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Margaret Bonds, Jacqueline Hairston, Betty Jackson King and Nkeiru Okoye, and by the Native American composer Martha Redbone. Music and words from Ethel Smyth and the Suffragettes are the subject of soprano Ella Taylor and mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts Dean’s recital, 

Subsequent recitals examine the contribution made by women immigrants and refugees to the UK, celebrate of the life and loves of the American poet Sara Teasdale, and give us a taste of the vibrancy and joy of Latin America. Then there are songs from films and shows written by women, including Marguerite Monnot, Mary Rodgers, Amanda McBroom, Kristen Anderson, Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden, Carolyn Leigh, Marilyn Bergmann, Diane Warren, Barbra Streisand and Dolly Parton.

The poet Christina Rosetti is the focus for soprano Susan Bullock’s recital with Janine Roebuck as speaker.  A performance of all 27 songs Debussy wrote for Marie-Blanche Vasnier, with whom he enjoyed a 7-year-long affair from the age of 18, will be presented by the winners of the 2024 London Song Festival Schubert Song Prize. Kitty Whately then joins Nigel Foster for Cross-Channel Currents, an overview of songs written in England and in France with words or music by women.    

Full details from the London Song Festival website.