Some thoughts on International Woman's Day!

Happy International Woman's Day!

International Woman's Day is a slightly "different" concert day compared to other concert days. Why? Because this is usually the only day in the year where you are likely to come across concert programs consisting of only female composers, while all other days of the year it is the norm to come across concert programs with only male composers.

If you would make every week a concert, and only this week included female composers, that is more or less also what the statistics for the world would be, around 1.9 percent. According to a survey of the 22 largest American orchestras, women composers accounted for only 1.8 percent of the total pieces performed in the 2014-2015 concert season. In the last years the numbers have gone slightly up, so maybe like adding a second all female concert on Mother's Day.

After knowing these not so encouraging numbers, it is therefore heart warming to see everyone who is trying to bring change. Thank You!

Thank you to 

Kokonainen

 for making concert series striving for equality. Thank you to the founders and artistic directors 

Linda Suolahti

 and 

Mari Viluksela

 for keeping up this wonderful work for already 5 years now! Thank you to 

Hbl - Hufvudstadsbladet

 and 

Wilhelm Kvist

 for questioning these norms and lifting these uncomfortable discussions up to light, and asking the questions about representation. Thank you to the research association 

Suoni ry

 , which seeks to advance musical practices and music research as a site for societal discussions. Thank you to the Swedish organisations 

KVAST

 and 

Konstmusiksystrar

 who have have had an enormous impact on that the Swedish music scene for the better. Thank you to every single person and organisation, who is working for a more equal concert music scene. Thank you! 

Very happy to this year be performed in an online concert by 

Den akademiska damkören Linnea

 conducted by the fantastic 

Merete Ellegaard

. This concert consists of compositions composed by both women AND men, just as it should be, today and also all other days of the year. We are in this together. 

The piece "hjärteblad" is the third movement of my cycle "Vidkänning", composed to amazing poems by 

Henrika Ringbom

 and can be heard at the very end of the concert (at 58:25 min). If you understand Swedish, I of course strongly recommend you to listen to the whole concert!

https://youtu.be/BKX6dUh9nc8?t=3504 

Composer Cecilia Damström. Photo by Marthe Veian 2017.