Women performers were accepted well before they were recognized as authors or composers. Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn are cases in point who achieved success more for their performing than music writing. Amy Cheney Beach defied traditional conceptions. She became

Composer Gabriel Fauré, once called Marguerite Long, “a shameless woman who uses my name to get on.” Nonetheless she became the foremost woman pianist of France during the first half of the twentieth century, performing and teaching at the Paris

When I was a budding young cellist my father took me to play for the grand-dame of the cello, Zara Nelsova, who was in town to perform as soloist with the Toronto Symphony. She was known for her extraordinary cello

Virtuoso, musicologist, distinguished author, a woman who was, “in love with her audience,” Wanda Landowska’s dynamic and powerful playing single-handedly revived interest in the harpsichord. Her performance of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations at New York’s Town Hall, in 1942 was

Can you be a true artist without reflecting the times, without a compelling message? Nina Simone, the “High Priestess of Soul,” was one of the first African American women who openly expressed her feelings and philosophy through her music during

How did a young woman who played the piano and violin become a “king/queen maker” of such distinguished artists as pianists Murray Perahia, Emanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Richard Goode, the Tokyo, St. Lawrence, and Borromeo Quartets, violinists Pinchas Zukerman,

With regal bearing and a voice of rich intrinsic beauty, contralto Marian Anderson was one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century but she had to struggle to overcome racial prejudice that was rampant during the time she

Big hair, eclectic jewelry and high heels are her trademark. Ida Haendel is considered one of the greatest violin soloists of the twentieth century— born to play the violin. When she appeared earlier in my career with the Minnesota Orchestra