Dame Ethel Smyth fought hard for recognition of her music. As the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs prepares to perform her Mass in D and The March of the Women, Clive Paget traces the career of the formidable, trailblazing British composer and suffragette.
In 1934, England celebrated the 75th birthday of Ethel Smyth, a composer who for half a century had coaxed, cajoled and harangued conductors and concert promoters to ensure her music got some kind of a hearing. Across three months, London audiences and listeners to the fledgling BBC had the chance to hear a selection of works, a handful of which had tentatively entered the repertoire.
The Smyth-fest culminated...
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The première of Ethel Smythe’s Mass in D in Australia occurred in Melbourne on Sunday 9 October 2022, performed by the Camberwell Chorale and the Camerata Orchestra, conducted by Douglas heywood, OAM.
The concert also included a performance of the Smythe’s March of the Women. See: https://www.camberwellchorale.org.au/ethel-smyth-mass-in-d-sunday-9-october-2022/