The London-based Marsyas Trio will be recording a CD “Gates of the Soul,” which will be released with NMC Recordings (one of the leading British labels) in October, to celebrate the centenary of women’s suffrage in the UK. The disc will feature music by six living British women composers, including Judith Weir who is our first ever female Master of the Queen’s Music, and two composers who have spent their lives living in the USA: Hilary Tann and Thea Musgrave.
In conjunction with this upcoming CD recording project is the “Stretch Goal” video recording project of AMY BEACH’s “Pastorale & Caprice (The Water Sprites)” for flute, cello and piano, which were written in 1921, a year after American suffrage was obtained, and so connect with the theme of their CD rather nicely! They have a fundraising campaign to record these two works by Beach, and the URL is www.marsyastrio.com/kickstarter. They’ll be setting visuals made from shadow puppetry to the video, to accompany the music, and this will all be freely available on YouTube or similar. Please consider providing financial support for their project! Their fundraiser runs until March 15.
In the words of the Marsyas Trio cellist Dr. Val Welbanks:
“Women of my generation and younger take our rights for granted and we know very little about how difficult things were before us. So if people can give a little money towards our project that’s great (!) but mainly we’re using this as a way to contribute to the year’s celebration of the strong and creative women before us, and around us, and to participate in the discussion on how we can take the next steps towards equality. And of course this will also be our contribution towards celebrating (albeit a little late) Amy Beach’s 150th anniversary!”