More Awesome Female Musicians!!

Here are some bios of awesome women in music history because composing and performing were considered mostly the job of men for too long in history and I think women should get more recognition for their accomplishments in music. The list of composers we chose from for our final projects is mostly men so that’s kind of what prompted me to want to shed some light on amazing female musicians.

• Pat Benatar(1953- ) was classically trained as a Coloratura soprano. She sang solos at her elementary school christmas performances, participated in musical theatre in middle and high school, and was actively making music from the age of 5. Most of us, however, know her from her rock music like “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”, and “Heartbreaker” from the 70’s and 80’s. She did mostly classical vocal music with her teacher, but her teacher suggested that, with her powerful voice, she should go into rock and roll. And so she did. And she was really successful and talented.
• Hildegard von Bingen(1098-1179) lived in an abbey in the Holy Roman Empire/Germany from the age of 13, at which point in a woman’s life, if she was not married yet, she was considered useless and was cast off by her family. She was a poet, philosopher, Christian mystic, had frequent ‘visions’, and is considered to be the founder of German natural history. The current Pope at that time heard about her ‘visions’ and instructed her, personally, to record everything about them, as they were believed to be messages from God. She also literally created her own language which she used to write in for mystic purposes. Three or four years ago, PCS women’s choir sang a 3 part arrangement of a gregorian chant she wrote called O Frondens Virga. It is recorded that she apparently would sit in a small room all day with only one small window, and wished not to be disturbed while she cranked out music and poetry like nobody’s business. Also she is formally considered a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church which kind of a big deal.
• Clara Schumann(1819-1896) - Okay she’s not not well-known but she doesn’t get enough credit for what she did for music at that moment in history. Her more famous husband Robert Schumann was also a great composer… but we don’t need to talk about him because he’s just not as cool. From an early age, Clara’s schedule was filled with music training, as organized by her father who was a music teacher. Her education included lessons for piano, violin, singing, theory, harmony, composition, and counterpoint. She was a true prodigy and a master of memorization. Clara set a precedent in her career for the rest of music history that pianists must memorize their music for performances. It makes performance more emotional because the pianist doesn’t get to rely on sight-reading. This is just kind of seen as a standard thing in music now that pianists all know about, but it’s not acknowledged enough that she is the reason for this!

If anyone else wants to research some other awesome women in music history, I’d love to see comments!