Women Composers in Their Own Words
Listen to female composers speaking in these exclusive archive recordings.
Thea Musgrave—Music Matters
Tom Service talks to composer Thea Musgrave.
Release date:
Dame Ethel Smyth talks politics in 1937
In 1937, Dame Ethel Smyth describes meeting the Kaiser, and getting 'Der Wald' performed.
Only undertake music, Nadia Boulanger says, "if you'd rather die than not to do music."
Nadia Boulanger explains her views on music to Bernard Keeffe. Broadcast in 1973.
"...the feeling that I should scream if I heard a cadence again." Elisabeth Lutyens' discovery of Serialism - recorded in 1969
Lutyens speaks to Bernard Palmer. Broadcast in 1969.
Composers' Rooms: No. 2 Kaffe Matthews
We explore the relationship between workspace and composition with Kaffe Matthews.
Composers' Rooms: No. 5 Tansy Davies
Sara Mohr-Pietsch travels to Kent, and visits the Georgian home studio of Tansy Davies.
Composers' Rooms: No. 7 Hanna Tuulikki
Sara Mohr-Pietsch meets the Glasgow-based composer and visual artist Hanna Tuulikki.
Composers' Rooms: No.10 Roxanna Panufnik
Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits composer Roxanna Panufnik and her creative space.
Composers' Rooms: No.13 Laura Bowler
Sara Mohr-Pietsch meets the young composer Laura Bowler
Composers' Rooms: No.15 Judith Weir
Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the new Master of the Queen's Music, Judith Weir.
Composers' Rooms: No.16 Claudia Molitor
Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the home of Claudia Molitor on the Sussex coast.
Composers' Rooms: No.20 Emily Hall
Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores the urban workspace of composer Emily Hall
Composers' Rooms: No.23 Liza Lim
Sara Mohr-Pietsch meets Liza Lim in her Manchester home
Composers' Rooms: No.24 Charlotte Bray
Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the composing environment of Charlotte Bray
Composers' Rooms: No.26 Rebecca Saunders
Sara Mohr-Pietsch travels to Berlin to visit Rebecca Saunders
Composers' Rooms: No.28 Jennifer Walshe
Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the north London home of Irish composer Jennifer Walshe
Composers’ Rooms: No.30 Errollyn Wallen
Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Errollyn's composing studio in Trinity Laban Conservatoire
Composers’ Rooms: No.31 Betsy Jolas
Sara Mohr-Pietsch heads to Paris to visit the home of Betsy Jolas
Anna Meredith's first postcard from China
Reporting from the British Council Chinese Residencies Project
"Everything comes from a very internal place, to become a form that is unique and has its own integrity."
The American composer and performer Meredith Monk turned seventy in November 2012
"You'll only get married and never write another note!" Elizabeth Maconchy and Nicola LeFanu speak about their lives composing
Talking about their careers as composers, and their relationship as mother and daughter.
"I think for composers the most important thing is to have good friends as performers." Thea Musgrave talking in 2014
Tom Service meets Thea Musgrave, now in her eighties, and finds out what drives her.
"The music has its own life, and its own story." Elena Kats-Chernin speaking in 2008
Jenni Murray speaks to Elena Kats-Chernin for Woman's Hour. Recorded in 2008.
Elizabeth Maconchey talks in 1983, stating that composing is "one's reason to be alive"
Elizabeth Maconchey talks about her music, composing is: "one's reason to be alive".
