Sisters in Sync: 3-2-1 with Alexandra Dariescu

3 Questions - 2 Insights - 1 unique photo with remarkable women musicians

Alexandra Dariescu has established herself as one of classical music's most powerful voices for change, breaking barriers and championing works by female composers that have been overlooked for far too long. From making history with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to introducing a groundbreaking award at the Leeds International Piano Competition, Alexandra is actively reshaping the classical music landscape.

In this candid conversation, Alexandra Dariescu shares her experiences as a transformative force in classical music, from her pioneering performances of works by composers like Nadia Boulanger and Clara Schumann to her insights on building a meaningful career in the industry. Her passion for bringing forgotten masterpieces to light, combined with her commitment to empowering the next generation of musicians, offers a compelling glimpse into how one artist is helping to create lasting change in classical music.

What moment in your career made you feel most empowered as a woman in the music industry?

Every time I perform a piano concerto written by a female composer and it’s a premiere in that specific territory, I feel we are making history together with the orchestra. It’s an incredible honor and a celebration of how far we have come. This happened again on my recent Australian tour—I performed Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and it was the very first time in the 118-year history of the orchestra this concerto was performed! 

Also, this year, at the Leeds International Piano Competition, I handed the Alexandra Dariescu Award for an outstanding performance of a work by a female composer. It was the first time in the 60-year history of the competition that such an award was given. That moment felt incredibly empowering, knowing we’re creating change and shaping the future of the next generation of musicians. 

What's a recent discovery you've made in music composed or performed by women?

The works for piano and orchestra by Clara Schumann, Nadia Boulanger, Dora Pejacevic, Leokadiya Kashperova, Florence Price, Germaine Tailleferre, Amy Beach, Doreen Carwithen. They truly deserve to be heard! 

Who is a lesser-known female musician or composer you believe deserves more recognition and why?

Nadia Boulanger was one of the most influential musicians of all time. Not only did she teach Quincy Jones, Dinu Lipatti, Daniel Barenboim, Aaron Copland but she was also the first woman to conduct the New York and Boston Symphony Orchestras. So it’s astonishing that her Fantaisie Variée did not have its US premiere until 2022, when I performed it with the Houston Symphony. It’s full of original harmonies, with a beautiful middle theme that makes you want to hug the world. And the ending is so triumphant, building to a massive climax.

What's a valuable lesson you've learned throughout your career?

To always stay true to yourself, work hard and dare to dream. Perseverance is key, learn from your mistakes and most importantly don’t give up! 

How do you stay motivated and creative in the challenging landscape of the music industry?

Always create and be creative. Don’t wait for the phone to ring! Be as proactive as you can, start conversations and be brave in creating new collaborations. Be curious and imaginative as this is what’s going to keep you thriving in a long term career. 

Image Description: A split-screen image showing a virtual meeting between two women. In the top half, Alexandra Dariescu, smiles warmly, seated in a room with soft lighting, a piano visible in the background, and shelves mounted on the wall. She wears a light blue shirt with pearl earrings. In the bottom half, Stephanie Nicholls from Mirabilis Collective smiles in front of a framed poster, seated in a comfortable room. She wears glasses, earrings, and a dark grey top, with the edge of a wooden door and a couch in the background. The image captures a friendly and collaborative moment between the two.

Catch Alexandra Dariescu’s Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Debut

Alexandra Dariescu makes her debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra performing Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto under conductor Magnus Fryklund on Thursday, January 9 2025 at 7:30pm.

Tickets are available here.

Sisters in Sync: 3-2-1 with Hannah Lee Tungate

3 Questions - 2 Insights - 1 unique photo with remarkable women musicians

This month's Sisters in Sync features an inspiring conversation with soprano Hannah Lee Tungate of the Boorloo/Perth-based Tenth Muse Initiative (TMI). Tenth Muse was born out of frustration with the lack of diversity often seen in classical music, but Hannah and her team have transformed that frustration into a vibrant collective that shines a light on diverse voices and fresh perspectives. TMI has achieved remarkable success, including an award-winning Fringe show, nominations in the Performing Arts WA Awards, commissions of new works by emerging composers and poets, and concerts that range from opera to intimate gatherings centred around cups of tea.

Hannah’s passion for amplifying underrepresented voices has guided her journey as a producer and advocate for women composers, especially through the Women Composers Project. As TMI’s president and creative producer, Hannah continues to create platforms for new and diverse voices in Western Australian classical music, driving change with her deep commitment to inclusion.

Tenth Muse Initiative's next event, Sapphic Serenade, will be held on Wednesday 20 November at Perth City Farm, featuring beautiful string quartets by sapphic composers and a twilight market with queer-owned businesses. It’s an evening of calming music to celebrate pride—don’t miss it! Click here for tickets.

In this interview, Hannah shares insights into the inspiration behind her career, the importance of mentorship, and how she’s making classical music more engaging and inclusive for future generations.

What’s one piece of advice from a woman in music that has stuck with you?

Back in 2016, the amazing Jessica Gethin was giving a talk at a Women in Music event at UWA, and she said that most people will give you a small amount of their time for a cup of coffee. If there’s someone who’s further along their career than you or that you admire and you’d like to connect with them or learn from them, ask if you can buy them a coffee. A short amount of their time for a cup of coffee, and you just don’t know where it will lead you (and Tenth Muse Initiative actually wouldn’t exist without it).

Who is a lesser-known female musician or composer you believe deserves more recognition and why?

I find it really challenging to choose just one lesser-known woman composer. There are so many out there deserving of recognition, as there have been so many nearly lost to history.

This week I’ve been listening to Henriëtte Bosmans — the incredible Dutch composer who, despite being labelled as an ‘undesirable’ by the Nazi regime & so was prevented from performing publicly, supported herself by performing at secret underground house concerts. Her considerable oeuvre includes orchestral works, chamber music and many songs.

And of course, Barbara Strozzi will always be on my list — though I think (& hope) she’s becoming more and more well known!

How do you think the music industry can better support and uplift women artists and composers?

Acknowledge that there is a lack of gender representation within the sector and then program more music by women, hire more women as soloists, hire more women as conductors, hire more women into creative leadership roles. And then keep doing it. Keep working on removing the barriers that have kept so many artists suppressed.  

How has mentorship, especially from other women, played a role in your career, and what value do you think it brings to emerging female artists?

I’ve been very fortunate to have many amazing mentors and 95% have been other women. The mentorship I’ve received has always come from people I truly admire in the industry, and I’ve been lucky to find many people who want to raise you up instead of tear you down. And I want to continue to do that for other emerging artists that follow me. Mentorship from other women has given me the confidence to keep going, and I know I have a raft of people to support me when I need it.

Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that shaped your path as an artist?

It was at PSO’s inaugural Women on the Podium weekend in 2019, and the incredible Bourby Webster was talking to us about the business side of being an artist, and how she’d founded PSO, and all the steps she took to get there. And in that moment the first spark of Tenth Muse Initiative was born. I was so inspired by the path Bourby had taken that it set a fire in me that didn’t go away, and under a year later TMI was born.

I had known that I wanted to see greater representation in the music industry and had been researching women composers for a while, but it was hearing how Bourby took PSO from concept to what the orchestra is today that it just clicked. Everything I have worked towards as an artist since then has been to build Tenth Muse Initiative and tell the stories of all these unheard voices, and raise up artists whose work deserves to be performed.

This image features two people in a virtual meeting. At the top, Hannah Lee Tungate, Creative Producer at Tenth Muse Initiative, smiles at the camera with curly brown hair, wearing glasses and a black top. Her background showcases a vibrant yellow wattle tree against a clear blue sky. Below her, Stephanie Nicholls of Mirabilis Collective smiles as well, wearing glasses and a colourful floral necklace. Behind her is framed artwork featuring musical instruments, including a violin and piano. Both appear engaged and focused on their conversation.

Sapphic Serenade

Sapphic Serenade is an event for the quiet queers. Join Tenth Muse Initiative for an evening of stunning string quartets by sapphic composers; celebrate pride with calming music for voice and strings.

Tickets are available here.

Sisters in Sync: 3-2-1 with Candice Susnjar

3 Questions - 2 Insights - 1 unique photo with remarkable women musicians

In this inspiring Sisters in Sync feature, we connect with Candice Susnjar, a gifted composer and musician whose work resonates with raw emotion and authenticity. Candice shares her recent musical inspirations, including the works of Caroline Shaw, and her passion for unsung female talents like jazz trumpeter Jessica Carlton. Throughout our conversation, Candice reflects on the importance of female voices in music, the value of mentorship, and the advice she wishes she'd had earlier in her career. Her insights provide a powerful glimpse into the experiences of women in the industry, making this a must-read for aspiring musicians and music enthusiasts alike.

What's a recent discovery you've made in music composed or performed by women?

Caroline Shaw’s album Orange has been a beautiful discovery. Her style of composition resonates with me on a deep level and I love her sense of harmony and the textural elements she embraces in her pieces. It reminds me to push myself out of my comfort zone and explore the instruments I am writing for and venture beyond the sounds I am used to hearing and creating.

Who is a lesser-known female musician or composer you believe deserves more recognition and why?

Jessica Carlton is a wonderful jazz trumpet player and composer who plays and composes with such honesty, integrity and beauty. Her music is so authentic and it’s all about the emotion and conveying a message using music. It’s what I aim to do in my own musical expressions.

In what ways do you believe female musicians can drive positive change within the music industry?

Women who show up and live the musical lives they want to live despite the statistics and inherent challenges of being a woman in the music industry are bringing a positive change to the music industry whether they see it or not. The more we show up and put ourselves out there, the more the younger generations will see that this is something they can do too. It just hasn’t been seen enough especially in jazz and classical music.

What piece of advice specifically tailored for women starting in the music industry do you wish you had received?

Just do your thing. Express yourself authentically and with confidence. You may not feel confident but do it anyway. You have something to say that no-one else has ever said and there are people in the world that want to hear it.

How has mentorship, especially from other women, played a role in your career, and what value do you think it brings to emerging female artists?

Encouragement and mentorship from my mentor Bourby Webster has played a significant role in my career. This incredible woman started an orchestra! Her tenacity and courage has been a reminder that we can do anything we set our minds to. Anything is possible. That’s what I would want to tell emerging female artists. Your dreams and goals are possible. Bourby helped me to see that and create a path that continues to lead me closer to these dreams day by day.

Sisters in Sync: 3-2-1 with Sally Whitwell

3 Questions - 2 Insights - 1 unique photo with remarkable women musicians

We are thrilled to share an incredibly insightful interview with Sally Whitwell, a distinguished Australian pianist, composer, conductor, and educator living and working on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land. Known for her versatility and innovative contributions to classical and contemporary music, Whitwell's achievements include multiple ARIA awards, five solo albums on ABC Classic, and a prolific output of compositions spanning solo piano, choral works, and chamber music. She has created numerous choral works and has worked with renowned ensembles such as the Gondwana Choirs, Adelaide Chamber Singers, and Sydney Children's Choir. Her collaborations extend to visual artists and theatre directors, highlighting her commitment to interdisciplinary creativity.

One of Whitwell’s notable recent projects is Margaret and the Grey Mare, a unique opera and immersive video installation co-created with artist Katy B Plummer. This innovative work features a chatbot coded to act as a channel to an ancient Celtic land spirit. Anchoring the project is a sprawling hour-long video opera, with a score composed and performed by Whitwell. The opera, filmed at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, was produced in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker and video artist Kuba Dorabialski. The libretto was generated using a specially coded machine learning tool designed to simulate conversation with The Grey Mare, treating AI as a mystical link to the collective unconscious.

In this interview, Whitwell explores her experiences of collaboration, the challenges and rewards of creating interdisciplinary art, and her perspectives on the future of classical music.

Can you share an experience where collaborating with other women significantly influenced your work?

Finding the right collaborators is absolutely crucial. Done wrong, it can compromise your voice to a point that it becomes not representative of your work. Done right, their perspective can help you to see yourself more clearly and bring you into worlds where your message will be received more openly. Two cases in point, Katy B Plummer and Rosa Campagnaro, with whom I’ve started writing opera. I never previously thought of writing opera, because that part of the classical sector is so closed. Instead of trying to knock on that door that no one will answer, I made these operas with my fabulous collaborators in their worlds instead of mine. It’s changed my life!

With artist Katy B Plummer, I co-created Margaret and the Grey Mare, a multi-channel video installation fever dream about an opera. Katy commissioned a bespoke artificial intelligence from coder Flora Suen who trained it to speak as a kind of oracle, and we used it to co-write the libretto. It is set during the 17th century European witch trials where Margaret, an imagined ancestor, is visited each night by a mysterious horse ghost The Grey Mare, and each day by a Witch Finder. Accused by the latter of being a witch, Margaret eventually capitulates and gives up the Grey Mare to him.

With theatre director/writer and commedia dell’arte specialist Rosa Campagnaro, I co-created The Attempted Rape of Susanna (or The Marriage of Figaro) an adaptation of the Mozart/Da Ponte opera. Think Mozart meets Kath & Kim meets Emerald Fennel’s Promising Young Woman. Unlike the original Mozart, our adaptation is actually funny, very fast, extremely relatable and finishes more plausibly but more horrifyingly: Susanna raped by her husband Figaro with all the other characters, complicit in the rape culture of the story, looking on.

Stylistically and aesthetically, these operas are chalk and cheese, but they’re about the same theme: how privileged white women capitulate to patriarchal systems in order to keep themselves safe. Such women often think that they benefit from the system, when in reality we all lose. One such system is the opera system, which is why when I invited them to come along, the practitioners there either ignored my work or attacked it. They just don’t like folks who hold up a mirror to them. But the visual arts and theatre sector loved my works. Margaret and the Grey Mare is touring three cities over 2024-2025, and Rosa and I are doing a writing/development residency on our next Mozart adaptation Don Giovanni: Celebrated Sex Pest. The whole situation is kinda bewildering because I am finding the thing opera says it wants i.e. new audiences, but they refuse to innovate to find those audiences. I tried to help them but they won’t accept outside perspectives. Good luck to ‘em!

How do you think the music industry can better support and uplift women artists and composers?

There’s a lot of talk about how we have to have more women at the top. I don’t disagree, but I think for real progress to be made, what we actually need is more feminists at the top. 

Let’s compare two women conductors in Australia right now: Simone Young, Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and Jessica Cottis, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. Both sensational musicians and deeply committed to the music they champion. It’s very impressive that Simone Young is going to conduct The Ring Cycle in Bayreuth. Amazing achievement to be the first woman to do so, but what is it achieving for women? Nothing really. Her programming for SSO doesn’t fill me with much excitement, because I’ve probably seen all the Strauss and Mahler I need to see live in concert in my lifetime. Young has the position to be able to make a difference, but refuses to use it, having absolutely no demonstrable interest in diverse voices. It’s frustratingly disappointing that she’s not a feminist, but that’s her choice I guess. I wish her all the best.

Jessica Cottis, is from a younger generation of women conductors, clearly just as talented, skilled and passionate about music but has also has a clear commitment to diverse programming. She’s Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of my local band, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and programs more Australian music and more music by women than any other orchestra in the country. She’s as happy there are she is in the more traditional repertoire which she conducts all over the world which just goes to show, you CAN do both! The Australian composers’ works in the CSO program are not hidden away like they are in other orchestra’s programming. These composers’ works are held up in the foreground, their creators taken seriously for their compelling and relatable contribution to the repertoire, to what it means to be alive here in Australia in the 21st century. What Jess is doing here for the creatives who actually make the repertoire… this is the future of classical music that gets me excited.

Is there a particular piece of music composed by a woman that energises or motivates you? 

Difficult by Amy X Neuburg, for mezzo-soprano, electronics and cello chixtet. https://youtu.be/n6Bl7eXUXVg?si=_mCVRh1OV313tJ1C There’s one line in this sardonically hilarious song that gets me every time: “Everyone knows that nothing is any good unless it’s difficult”. 

Contemporary classical music is a broad church. At one end of the continuum are the art music crowd, where you’ll find all the wild experiments in noise. I like to play and to listen to this kind of stuff (currently on high rotation, ‘Car Pig’ from Zubin Kanga’s album Machine Dreams https://zubinkanga.bandcamp.com/track/car-pig-composed-by-alex-paxton). At the other end are folks who write approachable, pretty stuff, including pop/jazz cross-over etc. I quite like playing and listening to this stuff too, I’ve friends and colleagues who create it and do a wonderful job, like Nat Bartsch and Sally Greenaway. There is sense that ‘serious’ music folks think the latter are somehow… second rate? Whatever, they’re getting much more airplay than the rest of us, so I reckon they’re pretty happy. Haha.

For myself, I used to write only the approachable stuff, which worked pretty well for me when it got around to airplay on Drivetime/Breakfast radio and votes in the ABC Classic 100 (I was the highest placed Australian composer in the Classic 100 Love at no. 27 for a choral setting of She Walks in Beauty, the first work I ever composed in my life). These days, my work sits pretty much exactly in the middle of those two extremes. No one knows where to put it any more. It’s not ‘difficult’ but it’s much more than just ‘pretty’ because of what it’s communicating, particularly in terms of the texts I write. 

I feel good about this situation, because it means I’ve found my voice, my niche. That it doesn’t fit into any of the existing boxes like ‘difficult’ or ‘approachable’ must mean that it’s all mine. And every time I hear Amy X Neuburg singing about what gatekeepers find to be acceptable or not, I laugh my arse off and get on with writing more of my stories in music.

What strategies have you found effective to overcome creative blocks or periods of self doubt?

In 2020, at the height of the Covid lockdowns, I suffered a complete creative block. It was debilitating, terrifying. I let opportunities slide because, for several months, nothing would come out. It was a conversation with my late mother Hoon Chee that shook me out of it, a conversation about that proverb by Lao Tzu, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. She looked at me sternly on FaceTime and said “When are you taking that first step, Sal?” 

So I started a practice of Daily Composition Exercises. I started on 14 October 2020 and haven’t missed a day since. I salute the morning with a cup of coffee, and sit down at my desk with my favourite black roller ball pen and a Spirax manuscript book, and I write. Each day I set a different task, manipulating motifs, creating modes or harmonic languages, working with ostinati or isorhythms or extended techniques or whatever. I write it and put a double bar at the end of it and call it a piece. Some of them are shit and I never look at them again. Some of them are great and become new works like these:

Tiny Dances https://youtu.be/u1UERAZLK24?si=GB5Zvn1E1INYur7r 

The Lockdown Alphabet https://youtu.be/rMkPVKzeYQw?si=pDOPfCgzWMMchs9G

Pictures at an exHERbition https://nga.gov.au/audio-learning-tours/pictures-at-an-exherbition/

I’m proud of these results, but it’s actually not the result that matters so much. It’s the process of doing it. I have really worked hard at building my arsenal of skills, so I now know that I can always write, even on days when I really don’t feel like it. I might have become a bit superstitious about the practice now? I’ve been known to get up at 4am to make sure it’s done before an early flight. I’ve written in bus stations, hospital emergency departments, during hotel breakfasts, when I’ve been struck down with migraines, and during both times I’ve had Covid. I highly recommend creating a daily habit. Perhaps this is the year I’ll finally start running that 8-week course on how to do it.

What advice would you give to young women aspiring to build a career in music?

Three words: Do Not Capitulate.

I see a lot of young classical musicians in my life, high school age musicians, and they have great politics. They’re thoughtful, passionate, justifiably angry about injustices they see and desirous of effecting change. When they grow up and move into tertiary music education and thence into the professional sphere, they start to separate into basically two groups. 

The first group move into the traditional parts of the sector, orchestras, opera companies etc. and give up all their politics. They become invested in the patriarchal systems of classical music because they believe they benefit from it and the approach to the creative life becomes somewhat superficial. Everything is just ‘beautiful’. They’re like the jocks of our industry, doing one thing very well. I think of one young friend who excitedly informed me that she was booked for her first big role in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte (La Scola Degli Amanti). This opera title translates as “Women Are Like That (or The School for Lovers)”. When I challenged her by asking “Women are like… what, exactly?!” she ghosted me. I’m not hurt. It makes sense for her to capitulate, to embrace the patriarchal misogyny of the canonic repertoire. She’s invested in it because it provides her with a glamorous high profile job, so of course she’s uncomfortable with anyone challenging that. Best of luck to her.

The second group see the problems in the sector and move further into their politics. They tend to do their own thing, work in new music or cross-genre, multidisciplinary stuff. They are more vocal about diversity in the sector and basically try to make a difference. These kids are artists and they give me hope that there is future for the sector.