Women Of Science And Music

Electric Voice Theatre

Electric Voice Theatre is an acclaimed company that is involved in a number of innovative projects for the arts.

For its latest venture, it is producing a 30-part podcast series called Women Of Science And Music, which examines the lives and stories of British female scientists and their composer equivalents, and any links between them.

The series has grown out of Minerva Scientifica, set up in 2013 to look at the links existing between women scientists in history and the present day, and finding ways of increasing public engagement with not just the science, but the issues encountered by the female scientists, through a parallel exposure to women composers.

As part of the many initiatives of Minerva Scientifica, there has been a UK tour and an Edinburgh Fringe show.

The latest development is the podcast series. In each episode, experts uncover a story from the past, often bringing it into the modern day.

The first episode looks at Shena Fraser, a composer from Stirling.Through two of Shena’s songs, the podcast connects to the lives and work of marine biologist Nora Miller, and astronomers Mary Somerville, Caroline Herschel and Williamina Fleming.

The third episode focuses on two doctors, 100 years apart. Adeline Campbell, born in Kirkcaldy at the end of the 19th Century, was an early volunteer with the Scottish Women’s Hospital in the First World War, whose courage and dedication eased the path for those women who followed in her footsteps, like critical care doctor Thalia Monro-Somerville of St John’s Hospital in Livingston and Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary, who has been on the frontline during the coronavirus pandemic.

The series promises many interesting episodes to come.