We begin 2020 by celebrating the centennial year of the 19th Amendment. Our concert SUFFRAGIST is all about trailblazing women, from innovative female perspectives in modern composition, to suffrage songs that women sang beginning in the late 1800s as they fought for the right to vote.
David Brower Center, Berkeley | Saturday, February 1, 8pm | Single Tickets
St Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco | Sunday, February 2, 4pm | Single Tickets
The British press coined the term suffragette to mock the movement for women's rights, intending the suffix -ette as a diminutive. But some activists embraced it. The Women's Social and Political Union named their newsletter Suffragette, saying that "the Suffragist just wants the vote, while the Suffragette means to GET it.” However, in America, is was most commonly used to condescend.
In the spirit of celebrating of these activists - and all women trailblazers, Clerestory is re-naming our concert SUFFRAGIST. Hear the voices of these women through the suffrage songs they sang, and through the music of generations they continue to inspire.
An Interview with Ann Callaway, composer
Clerestory: What does it mean to you to be a composer of music who also happens to be a woman? In other words, what, if anything, does this concert theme mean to you?
Ann: My first thought was, This is a really admirable project. I mean, that is cool! But I don't really think of myself, in the 'ground of my being,' as a female composer per se. I think it’s a hard thing to address—there are so many angles to it. I know that, i as a woman, I have benefitted from the progress of women’s rights and the feminist movement. This has helped me get my work out there.
At the same time, when I compose, I just come to it as an unself-conscious person who’s trying to get an idea down, work with it, have it performed, and look forward to hearing it live. That’s what drives me.
I’m putting my music out there, but don’t think about myself particularly. Although I still like other composers who are out there 'breaking things,' saying something, being eloquent.
Clerestory: What other composers have inspired you or felt like trailblazers to you?
Ann: The person who most made me a musician was Grace Newson Cushman, who founded the Junior Conservatory Camp in Vermont. This program became the Walden School in New Hampshire. She was instrumental in how I think of music. She preached total musical freedom, but only after getting a full grounding and understanding of music’s history.
Another person who gave me courage to "be on my own” as an artist was Louise Nevelson. We never met, but were in Manhattan around the same time. She is so weird, but her works are so unique and really speak to me. She was one of a kind and very into women’s rights. She was a strong personality and there’s a piece of her in me.
I saw a Walt Disney biography documentary about Beethoven on TV when I was 13. I was playing piano at the time, just kind of making up things, and I thought: Oh! A real person with real feelings wrote this from their heart! I think that means I’m a composer, too.
To hear Ann’s piece Silvery Blue, please join us in Berkeley or San Francisco this weekend!