Women Composers I

If only Fanny Mendelssohn or Clara Schumann had been fortunate enough to have a group like the Ensemble Für Neue Musik Zürich (ENMZ) from Switzerland champion their works! While the days when women composers hovered in the shadow of their male colleagues are thankfully over, the playing field is perhaps not yet entirely even. In the 1980s, the ENMZ (whose members are all men) realised that music by contemporary female composers was not receiving its rightful attention, so they decided to help remedy the situation. For several decades the group has been performing and recording pieces of diverse aesthetic styles by talented women composers, commissioning new works and supporting the women in their artistic endeavours. The Ensemble performed music by Liza Lim (Australia), Noriko Hisada (Japan), Ada Gentile (Italy), Carmen Maria Cârneci (Romania), and Katharina Rosenberger (Switzerland) during a tour called "Komponistinnen II" in Switzerland in 2009 and in 2010 at the 16th. International Festival of Modern Art in Odessa "Two Days and Two Nights of New Music". With this recording, the Ensemble cements its commitment to these composers.