Utah State University piano department holds “A Celebration of Women Composers”
The work of female composers was highlighted at Utah State University’s first themed, multimedia recital, on Monday in the Russell/Wanlass performance hall.
The concert was the result of a discussion that took place in the spring in one of Professor Kevin Olson’s piano classes. Olson, the interim piano program coordinator, discussed with his students a lack of pieces by women in traditional piano repertoire. He and his class also discussed the existence of bias. The students were later dispatched to find pieces by females composers and research the history of both the piece and the composer.
The recital and its focus came in the wake of allegations made by former USU piano students regarding sexual harassment and assault by faculty in the piano department. The investigation ended in April but there were new sexual assault allegations against another piano professor, Dennis Hirst, in September that sparked a new investigation into him and caused another piano professor to resign in protest of the university’s handling of the situation.
“Back in spring there was a lot of controversy in the piano area and it really hit our students pretty hard,” Olson said. “They were just thinking of ways they could make things better around here and this was an idea that came in one of the classes we had, to show the value of women composers and the way much of that music has been neglected over the years.”
Sarah Bakker, one of USU’s music professors, remembers seeing the listing for the concert and getting excited because in her own classes she has always worked to incorporate music by women as well as people of color. Bakker contacted Olson to contribute by having her music theory students write programs notes about the pieces and their composers for the recital.
“The curriculum I went through as an undergraduate music major included only music by white men. It didn’t even attempt to justify why that was,” Bakker said. “It was apparently a self-evident truth, completely unexamined. That attitude has never sat well with me, and I vowed to learn about and share music by underrepresented composers with my students.”
There is a hope to continue these “themed” recitals, potentially making them tradition, and to further provide music students with opportunities to perform literature that they select themselves and with which they have formed a connection.
“I think it’s important to have conversations about bias against women in music so that we can encourage more women, and people everywhere, to pursue their passions,” said Erin Huld, a junior studying piano pedagogy. “I think that discussing the struggle that women have had throughout history also makes us more appreciative of the beautiful music that we have from female composers.”
lydia.velazquez@aggiemail.usu.edu
@lydmvel