SHE: Festival Of Women In Music Starts Today On UA Campus

The SHE: Festival of Women in Music starts today on the campus of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

“We had an idea five years ago as a way of helping more music by women be performed, because traditionally composers have been men. Even as more women started composing more, performances have been of works written by men. So this was a way of helping more women’s works come to light,” says Theresa Delaplain, assistant professor of Oboe at the University of Arkansas.

In the early days, the festival consisted of a “collage” concert — of many different works and styles — by University of Arkansas students and a concert by the faculty. “Anybody who wanted to play work written by a woman could be on that concert, and then we also had guest artists coming in,” Delaplain explains, to lead master classes or give presentations.

“Then this year, we changed the format, we opened it up to call for presentations and performances from all over the country. So now this year, we have people coming from all over the country to give some presentations — academic presentations about things related to music theory or musicology as well as performances from outside performers. And then we also still have our current faculty collage and student collage concerts.”

This year she says there will be five concerts.

“Two of those are UA students and faculty, one students and one faculty. Then we also have some lecture recitals where a person might be talking about some theoretical or historical aspects of their work as well as performing the work,” she adds.

The festival has also grown to include performances and lectures focusing on the careers and music of those who identify as non-cis-male. In 2020 the festival was stopped in its tracks by the pandemic and last year it took place virtually. Delaplain says that they are excited to meet in person again, especially with the new format as the festival has grown.

“I would say interest in performing music by women and by more diverse composers has grown around the world, and so opening our festival up to outside performers and presenters was a way of helping the momentum of that growth,” says Delaplain.

(Courtesy Photo) SHE: Festival of Woman in Music starts today on the University of Arkansas’ Fayetteville campus. Pictured are Miroslava Panayotova (left), Tim Thompson, Manchusa Loungsangroong, composer Katherine Murdock, Ronda Mains, Lia Uribe and Theresa Delaplain. The festival returns to an in-person format this year with presenters and performers coming in from around the country.