Helene, tell us about your early years in music
This was a fascinating and most rewarding time! Being self-employed allowed me to oscillate almost daily between chamber music projects and teaching early years music. The children’s curiosity and lively responses inspired me to watch out for the fundamentals in our classical scores: How does a truly enthralling diminuendo come about? What are the essentials that drive breath and pulse in a busy texture, and how to do justice to the many voices that all want to be heard simultaneously? While drawing inspiration from the freshness of children’s perspectives, I also found innovative ways to engage them with high quality music: they even started adopting classical composers as their personal heroes.
That sounds both fascinating and absorbing, so how did you become an organist, too?
Our local organist, a renowned organist and retired school musician in a village near Frankfurt am Main became interested in my work with children. We shared a common concern about children’s exposure to high quality music in times of increasing pressure on families, the challenges triggered by new technologies and various other societal changes. He was raising money for a new organ so we collaborated: I visited him in the organ loft with my classes where he would introduce the organ to the children with his magical improvisations, which they loved! In return he offered platforms to young instrumentalists and to my children’s choir. At this point I began formal training with a church music school in Limburg, Hesse. Having settled in London I later took up organ lessons with the RCO.
Before you joined SWO you won a prize for your research on “forgotten” female composers. What prompted that research?
In the early 1990s a colleague and I felt - together with many contemporary scholars and authors - that there was still a lot of discrimination against both female composers and performers. After submitting an assignment about the German composer Johanna Kinkel, my colleague created an entire programme of women composers’ music for flute and piano comprising all styles from Baroque to Modern Music.
We started offering our programme to concert organisers. Audiences welcomed this unfamiliar repertoire, and this encouraged us to keep expanding it. Interestingly, our programmes also enjoyed recognition from local politicians, women rights campaign groups, and the Women’s Group of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany who awarded us ‘Musicians of the Year’
In 2020 you volunteered to establish a Directory of women composers for SWO...
I saw the opportunity to combine the search for vibrant church music with the search for forgotten women musicians. Our initial team formed within two months. We agreed on a format for the Directory and allocated the work among five volunteers. We also contacted living composers who submitted biographies and work catalogues, and who updated us about first performances.
Although handbooks, various websites and a handful of specialised publishers of women composers’ works were available, a whole new world opened when we assembled information, often from remote and hidden sources. SWO became a consolidating platform where our research fell on fertile ground: SWO members could discuss, use, and test our findings.
The Directory inspired the first Woman Composer Sunday and informed the seasonal repertoire lists for ‘Advent to Candlemas’ and ‘Pentecost to Holy Trinity’.
Your commitment, together with that of your co-leader Alana Brook, has remained vivid. What have been the main joys and challenges of this work?
The main joys were the discovery of so many previously unknown composers and their backgrounds. At times, these findings would even redefine our current understanding of music history. It was wonderful to find a colleague in Alana Brook who was equally committed, and to work with growing numbers of researchers who all brought their own expertise to the project. New discoveries would span from ancient to contemporary music, often displaying folkloristic influences, always original, authentic, surprising. I think each of us spent many hours listening, comparing and admiring music samples.
It has also been a joy to communicate with composers, publishers and readers, to sense a need and appetite for our research and to recognise an increasing interest in our subject-matter, which culminated in wonderful performances on Woman Composer Sunday both in the UK and overseas. Meanwhile, women composers of liturgical and organ music have increasingly featured in many broadcasts and even in the BBC Proms.
One of the main challenges was to keep a team of volunteers together in challenging times, also to navigate and defend this major project without academic backing and public funding.
Although we are very sad that you need to step down from your role leading the Directory, we appreciate that you have new commitments. Please tell us what these are.
This year I got involved with two institutions that offer the type of music education in which I had originally specialised. Both are led by visionary musicians. I apply Kodály-inspired teaching methods and the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS) musicianship training programme, which I find highly effective. Covering classes from the age of 4 to 16 and teaching piano to children and adults requires a lot of preparation time. I am truly excited about being ‘back-to-the (my) roots’. At some point, I am sure organ playing and liturgical will be re-integrated into my activities.
We are so pleased that you will continue as a SWO member. What prompted you to join several years ago?
As previously mentioned, I always felt that women’s worlds still require attention due to the historic gender imbalances and their far-reaching impacts. As a proponent of the (seven) liberal arts in which music used to play a fundamental role I am convinced that addressing and tackling women’s neglected and discriminatory positions in humanity’s education could take us to new levels of aspiration and achievement. After all, women still bear major responsibilities for the upbringing of humans. It is obvious that the organ, as such a sophisticated, challenging, delicate and powerful instrument, could play a central role in women’s music education with potentially far-reaching effects for schools, communities and individuals.
When joining SWO I had just experienced four fruitful and peaceful years as organist and choir master in a small church in Camden; I also remembered the strength and reassurance my earlier research conferred on me in my capacity as female musician and music educator while raising two daughters. Hence, I was very excited when SWO began and I continue to love its openness and wide range of activities.
Gender disparities have largely disappeared in my teaching environment, and most children enjoy the equal contribution of their parents and carers. Women, if competent in their fields, seem to enjoy appropriate recognition of their work. However, the generosity, warmth, wholeness and fairness that might evolve through the true achievement of gender equality have not yet materialised. I wonder whether we are still failing to create and nurture environments where girls/women naturally and self-evidently excel, including girl/women organists ? Research on women composers reveals many examples of women composer who were apparently able to find and create such environments, regardless of societal and personal hindrances.
Helene, we are all so proud of the Directory and deeply grateful to you and Alana for having produced such a wonderful resource. The work goes on under the leadership of Alana and Marsha Brook. Meanwhile, we wish you every joy and fulfilment in your new work. Thank you!
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