Women Composers Spotlight at The National Library of France

The Elles Women Composers association has partnered with the library to present eight French women composers from across the ages

The Elles Women Composers Association was created to identify and share the work of women composers for greater equality in musical and artistic programming.

Partnering with musicologist Anne de Fornel, the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), and Radio France, the association has worked to digitize and decipher new works. 

Following months of research, a series of portrait concerts have been created around eight French female composers from the 17th century to the present day.

Hundreds of scores were digitized and sight-read for hours by musicians to select those for performance at the Salle Ovale of BnF’s Richelieu space from October 30, 2023, to June 10, 2024.

Around forty works were selected, many of which were drawn from the national collections of the BnF.

Manuscript signed by female composer Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) (Image courtesy: Radio France/Louis-Valentin Lopez)

Musicians for each portrait concert include violinists Renaud Capuçon, Fanny Clamagirand, and Alexandre Pascal; cellists Nicolas Crnjanski and Xavier Phillips; and mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet, among many others. 

Each portrait concert presents the composer in her historical and artistic context, and presents her works with those of contemporaries who knew or inspired her.

The first concert, held on October 30, was a portrait of Hedwige Chrétien, who was born in Compiègne in 1859 and left a catalog of more than two hundred multigenre works upon her death in 1944. 

Upcoming portrait concerts will feature works by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (1665-1729) on November 21, 2023, and Édith Canat de Chizy (1950) on December 11.

The series in 2024 will feature Jeanne Leleu (1898-1979) on January 22; Clémence de Grandval (1828-1907) on March 11; Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) on April 29; Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) on May 28; and Marguerite Canal (1890-1978) on June 10.

Additionally, Elles Women Composers is offering four concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris across the 2023/24 season for the first time. Presented with artists including Elsa Dreisig, Lucile Richardot, and Marie Oppert, the concerts will involve previously unpublished works by composers including Jane Vieu and Liza Lehmann.

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