Women composers in the spotlight at Kings Place's Venus Unwrapped season

1/10
Zoe Paskett27 November 2018

The achievements and contributions of women composers, both historical and contemporary, will come under the spotlight in a new music festival at Kings Place.

With events running throughout 2019, Venus Unwrapped begins with medieval nuns, moving through the 1500s European courts to the groundbreaking technological advances of the 20th century and ending up with the extraordinary female voices we have today.

Take a look at our selection of highlights from the season.

The Local Honeys

This Kentucky born two piece are all about preserving the old and embracing the new. Together Linda Jean Stokley and Montana Hobbs combine fiddle, banjo and vocals for The Local Honeys’ good, old fashioned musical storytelling.

January 11

Laura Mvula and Black Voices

Nick White

Composer and Ivor Novello Award winning artist Laura Mvula is joined by Black Voices, a five piece female a cappella group, to sing the iconic sounds of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Aretha Franklin. Mvula will present her own compositions as well, infusing R&B, classical and her unique voice.

January 23

Legacy: Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby

Jazz harp legends Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby are celebrated in this programme, which sees harpist Alina Bzhezhinska and a group of jazz musicians recreate each of their music. Bzhezkinska couldn’t be more perfect for the performance: her quartet led Coltrane’s 80th birthday celebrations last year, and is currently working on a project dedicated to Ashby.

Feb 20

She Moved Through The Fair: The Legend of Margaret Barry

Irish singer Margaret Barry left her home in Cork at 16 with a bicycle and a banjo to busk her way across the country. Journalist Colin Irwin and singer Mary McPartlan present a musical show using dialogue based on interviews with the people she met along the way.

March 16

Female composers changing the face of music - In pictures

1/5

Vikki Stone: Concerto for Comedian and Orchestra

The musician and stand-up comedian makes her London debut and takes on the role of “soloist” with the London Musical Theatre Orchestra backing her up.

March 30

Kate Rusby

With her distinctive Yorkshire-twang, Kate Rusby is one of the finest artists in contemporary British folk. In this performance, she shares the emotive music from a career spanning more than 25 years.

April 6

Rewriting Herstory in Music

Four speakers discuss a few of the female composers from history that we should know about. Writer Anna Beer talks about the role of 16th and 17th century female aristocrats Francesca Caccini and Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, while Professor Laurie Strass looks at the achievements of Renaissance nuns.

April 27

Nikki Yeoh and Zoe Rahman

Nick White

Two world-renowned pianists and two Steinway concert grands – soloists Nikki Yeoh and Zoe Rahman become a duo for one evening, playing specially arranged music from their albums, Solo Gemini and Dreamland.

May 2

Suzanne Ciani

With 15 albums under her belt, Suzanne Ciani is one of electronic music’s most important pioneers, and one of the few women working in sound design during the 1970s. At this concert, she will be playing on a Buchla 200e in quadraphonic sound.

September 26

Black Flamingo Cabaret

Poet and drag queen Dean Atta hosts a night of gender-defying performances from black and queer artists. Travis Alabanza and Sea the Poet are two of those bringing their poetry and spoken word to this cabaret night.

October 16

Venus Unwrapped runs throughout 2019. For the full programme, go to kingsplace.co.uk

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in