Scala Radio and Donne Highlight 10 Women Composers in February

Scala Radio and Donne, Women in Music are working in partnership to highlight women composers who have never been played on the station before, with Scala Radio selecting 10 pieces to premiere each month. Initially a three-month partnership, the campaign aims to introduce a wider audience to these women composers and ensure that their work can be enjoyed by all.

Discover more about Donne, Women in Music

Marianne von Auenbrugger (1759-1782)

Marianna Auenbrugger was an Austrian pianist and composer. She was the daughter of the doctor Leopold Auenbrugger and his wife Anna von Priestersberg and the younger sister of Katharina Auenbrugger. Although already sickly as a young girl, she received a comprehensive education like her older sister with Antonio Salieri, for whose opera Der Rauchfangkehrer his father Auenbrugger wrote the libretto. In addition, regular musical matinees were held in her parents' house, with some distinguished guests including Joseph Haydn as well as Leopold and W. A. ​​Mozart. It can be assumed that both sisters appeared regularly in these matinees. In a letter to his wife, Leopold Mozart mentions “2 daughters, both of whom are special: the older one is incomparable, and completely owns the music”

Biography sourced from Donne. Read more here

Marie Bigot (1786-1820)

Marie Bigot was a French pianist and piano teacher. As a composer she is best known for her sonatas and études.

Marie was born on 3 March 1786 at Colmar in Alsace. After marrying M. Bigot, she moved to Vienna in 1804, where she lived for five years. She was highly accomplished at the keyboard and played for Haydn, who exclaimed, "Oh, my dear child, I did not write this music – it is you who have composed it!" He wrote on the sheet from which she played, "On 20 February 1805, Joseph Haydn was happy."

Biography sourced from Donne. Read more here

Rachel Bruerville (b. 1991)

Australian composer Rachel Bruerville writes music for many purposes: to entertain, to educate, and to explore. She calls Adelaide her home, and is active in the musical community as a composer, arranger, cellist, singer, and writer.

Rachel is honoured to have been commissioned by The Hush Foundation for the Hush18 National Composers Project, mentored by Elena Kats Chernin, composing new music to reduce stress and anxiety in children’s hospital environments. She is also completely ecstatic to have been awarded a 2019 Carclew Fellowship, supporting her role as Young Adelaide Voices’ Composer in Residence. Her work has been performed by ensembles including The Australian Chamber Orchestra Collective, The Endeavour Trio, Gondwana Voices, the National Youth Choir of Australia, Sydney Children’s Choir, and the Adelaide Wind Orchestra.

Biography sourced from Donne. Read more here

Emilia Giuliani (1813-1850)

Emilia Giuliani was the daughter of the celebrated Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829), whose compositions and performances had a similar impact in their day to Segovia's in the 20th century. Sadly for Emilia, by the time she launched her own career, interest in the guitar had wained and she struggled to emulate the success of her father. She travelled widely throughout Central and Southern Europe, making a considerable impression on those who heard her perform. She even shared the stage with Franz Liszt and was judged his equal by audience and critics alike. Sadly, she was never able to attract a large following or a substantial market for her compositions.

Her Six Preludes op.46 are a unique contribution to the classical guitar repertoire. While much guitar music inhabits a world of measured charm, endeavouring to delight rather than agitate the listener's senses, Emilia demands immediate and complete attention.

Biography sourced from Donne. Read more here

Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935)

Chiquinha Gonzaga was a pioneer in both her professional and social life. She was the first female composer, conductor, performer, music teacher and writer in Brazil to live by her professional work.

Born in Rio de Janeiro during the time of Brazilian monarchy and slavery, she faced the prejudices of a patriarchal and sexist society. She fought for social independence and actively participated in the abolitionist and republican movements.

Gonzaga composed many pieces, included 77 works for the stage. Over 300 of her compositions, blending Brazilian and European musical traditions, were published during her lifetime. Her courage and determination made her a personality ahead of her time. Her life story is an example of perseverance, struggle and success. Chiquinha Gonzaga composed until the end of her life.

Biography sourced from Donne. Read more here

Augusta Holmès (1847-1903)

Augusta Mary Anne Holmès was a French composer of Irish descent, who had to fight for the right to become a musician — her mother actively discouraged it, and only after her death was Augusta able to take music lessons. By 1875, her compositions were performed in France, and she became a celebrity in Parisian cultural circles. A disciple of César Franck, she was also a close friend of Franz Liszt, who admired her work and encouraged her to keep composing. She corresponded with the cultural elite of Europe, and held her own very popular salon from an early age.

Biography sourced from Donne. Read more here

Hiromi (b. 1979)

Hiromi Uehara, known professionally as Hiromi, is a Japanese jazz composer and pianist. She is known for her virtuosic technique, energetic live performances and blend of musical genres such as stride, post-bop, progressive rock, classical and fusion in her compositions.

Hiromi refuses to define herself or her music. She prefers to play and let her audience make up their own minds about what to call her music, saying, “It’s just the union of what I’ve been listening to and what I’ve been learning.”

Biography sourced from Donne. Read more here

Margarita Lecuona (1910-1981)

Margarita Lecuona was a Cuban songwriter and singer of great successes in the first half of the 20th century. It was her artistic taste that led her to the piano, the guitar, the dance and to cultivate her voice.

In 1930, while still studying, she wrote Soñadora which she sang playing the guitar. In 1942 she formed together with Alicia Yanes (guitar and second) and Coralia Burguet (guitar and cousin), the group Lecuona Cuban Girls, debuting at the National Casino, they also achieved performances at the Hotel Sevilla, in Sans Souci, on the radio, and in the Encanto and Campoamor Theaters, immediately obtaining a contract in the interior and abroad.

She was a multi-talented artist. In her show Tabú she was both the composer and performer, the costume designer, the manager, the number editor and the director.

Biography sourced from Donne. Read more here

Sarah Quartel (b. 1982)

Canadian composer and educator Sarah Quartel is known for her fresh and exciting approach to choral music. Deeply inspired by the life-changing relationships that can occur while making choral music, Sarah writes in a way that connects singer to singer, ensemble to conductor, and performer to audience.

Her works are performed by choirs across the world, and she has been commissioned by groups including the American Choral Directors Association, the National Children's Chorus of the United States of America, and New Dublin Voices. Since 2018 she has been exclusively published by Oxford University Press, and she continues to work as a clinician and conductor at music education and choral events at home and abroad.

Biography sourced from Donne. Read more here

Otilie Suková (1878-1905)

Otilie Suková was the daughter of Antonín Dvořák and the wife of composer and violinist Josef Suk. A gifted musician, she played the piano and wrote several compositions of her own, inspired by her musical surroundings. Suková did not become a professional musician, but despite this, was immersed in music throughout her life.

In a letter printed in Zlatá Praha in 1909, her husband Suk writes about Suková’s compositions: "Once, after my return from travelling, Otilie confessed to me that even she had composed several “little pieces for piano”. Initially, she felt embarrassed to play them for me but when I finally persuaded her to play, it caused her great joy when, during her second play through, I stood up with a pencil in my hand and wrote down everything just as I had heard her play it. She clapped her hands and laughed a great deal when I advised her on something and she was very surprised it had not occurred to her."