My musicological interests lie in researching, programming, and interpreting the song and chamber music repertoire of historic women composers, particularly those from the nineteenth century. By challenging gendered historiographical narratives that surround “canon” creation, I wish to question, analyze, and reveal the socio-cultural constructs and biases that demean, diminish, and exclude the historic contributions of women creators within the field of classical music.
Through my experiences as a vocalist and concert curator, I find that the medium of the song recital is a nuanced performance forum to highlight notions of “canonicity.” By exposing performers, collaborators, and our audiences to repertoire by historic women composers, we labor to create a more inclusive and more accurate historical “canon” narrative. To this end, I will focus my Doctoral lecture recital research on the Lieder repertoire, both published and unpublished, of German composer Luise Adolpha Le Beau (1850-1927).
With a generous Graduate Award from The Presser Foundation, I will travel to Berlin, Germany from mid-March to early June 2022. I plan to mine Le Beau’s public archives at three German state libraries for Le Beau’s unpublished Lieder manuscripts and other primary source material relevant to the compositional and performance practice of her Lieder.
Follow my newest updates as I search for the unpublished Lieder of Luise Adolpha Le Beau!
