Iain Simmons reflects:

>I can think of many female performers, but very few composers (Amy
>Beach, Clara Schumann....???).  I hope this is not a bias with respect to
>commissions.

I'm looking at my 1995 copy of the Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women
Composers, edited by Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel.  516 pages of
biographical entries with an estimated average of three composers per page.
Not exactly thin on the ground, but recordings of female composers are
still rare enough that a new release involves trumpeting of the same --
i.e.  the January (I believe) cpo release of quartets by Fanny Mendelssohn
Hensel (1805-1847), Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) and Laura Lombardini Sirmen
(1745-1818).  I also remember fondly a two disc set on Lontano Records in
1992 of "British Women Composers", featuring the music of Errolyn Wallen,
Lindsay Cooper, Elizabeth Maconchy, Nicola Lefanu, Odaline de la Martinez,
Judith Weir, Melinda Mxwell, Hillary Tann and Eleanor Alberga -- to drop a
name or two.

Isn't composer Judith Lang Zaimont an occasional poster to this list?
Perhaps she could comment on the paucity of offerings on disc.  There
certainly seem to be more than a mere handful of female composers from a
cursory search of existing resources, but woefully under-represented in
recordings.  I would certainly be interested in learning more.

Tim Mahon
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