by Jonty Watt One of the more exciting projects to come out of RAM recently was Mia Serracino-Inglott’s performance of her own composition at the Southbank Centre, titled Five Period Songs. Mia is a mezzo-soprano who regularly performs and creates new music, and who is challenging conventions of what it means to be a classical…
Read MoreInspiring composer: Grażyna Bacewicz
By Emily Trubshaw Although many YouTube comments are encouraging and supportive of Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz’s music, there is also a wide spread of those that criticise her ability to produce more than just a well-executed musical structure. Rather than moving her audience, Bacewicz is often perceived as being clinical and unoriginal. ‘Her generativity lacks…
Read MoreInspiring artist: Paula Rego
By Emily Harrison Back in 2019, my mum, aunt and I went to see a retrospective of Paula Rego’s work at the MK Gallery. I don’t think I had, and haven’t since, left a gallery feeling so uncomfortable. Yet, simultaneously, so inspired. Paula Rego (1935-2022) is a Portuguese artist exploring themes of, as the title…
Read MoreSue Lawley – Broadcaster
By Declan Hickey There is no greater reservoir of satisfaction than the BBC Radio 4 archive, suffering only from its incompleteness. Fortunately, the channel’s enduring contribution to mankind, Desert Island Discs, is among its better-preserved programmes. Better still, the golden age of 1988–2006 survives fully intact, no record or luxury spared. Devoted listeners will know…
Read MoreInspiring Primatologist: Jane Goodall
By Kiersten Gustafson When Jane Goodall, primatologist and anthropologist, came to speak at my undergraduate university, I was prepared to be impressed; as a young woman, she had been a trailblazer in a male-dominated field, with her research on chimpanzees challenging common notions of what it meant to be human. I was not prepared, however,…
Read MoreInspiring DJ: Honey Dijon
By Toby Anderson 2022 was the year I started seriously thinking about house music. At the centre of that was the fabulous, ethereal, mesmerising DJ Honey Dijon. As a black trans woman, Dijon places the queer utopianism that gave birth to house music at the centre of her craft, weaving stories of queer empowerment and…
Read MoreMy Nana, Molly
By Ruby Howells One of the most inspirational women in my life is my grandmother – or Nana – Molly. For her whole life, she has always helped others, and is the most selfless person I know. When she worked, she was a carer for adults with severe disabilities, many of whom she became friends…
Read MorePauline Viardot: Inspirational Diva
By Mia Serracino-Inglott When we think of an inspirational woman, do we think of a ‘diva’? Certainly, the term diva has undergone quite the negative rebranding in recent years, often being used to describe women who are over-dramatic, bossy, or rude. But back in the opera houses of the nineteenth century, to be called a…
Read MoreWho Resurrected Carmen?
By Kennedy Blair Miller Artwork by Jess Bull Anderson The doors to the Opéra-Comique theatre opened to a bustling crowd of eager Parisians on 3 March 1875. Well-dressed socialites, composers, and artists presented their tickets to the ushers with an air of superiority. They had been invited to the premiere of a new opera, Carmen,…
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