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By Lanita Withers Goins, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-3890
Posted 5-13-09
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The University of North Carolina at Greensboro will host a global conference exploring the intersection of music, gender, sexuality and feminist theory May 27-31, 2009.
The International Feminist Theory and Music Symposium, a biennial event being held for the 10th time, will include a keynote interview with members of the Darlinettes, an all-female swing band made up of students from Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now UNCG) during a time when such acts were rare. All conference keynote addresses are free and the public is welcome.
The event will also feature three nights of concerts that are open to the public at no charge.
The symposium, which is hosted by a different city every cycle, is a way to bring light to the ways gender and sexuality inform musical composition, performance and institutions, said Dr. Elizabeth Keathley, organizer and an associate professor in the School of Music.
“It might seem that we are deluged with ‘women and music’ – Britney Spears, Beyoncé and other female performers are ubiquitous on the air waves, electronic downloads, on the covers of tabloids and in the blogosphere,” Keathley said. “But female composers are rare on concert programs – even at UNCG where well over 50 percent of our students are female. People tend to accept this as the ‘natural’ order of things: composers are men, while women sing and shake their ‘thang.’ But things are that way for reasons, and those reasons are one object of inquiry of feminist theory.”
In addition to scholarly presentations, the symposium will also highlight women’s musical activities in Greensboro, the Piedmont Triad, and the American South.
Members of the Darlinettes will be interviewed on stage at 5 p.m., Thursday, May 28, in the School of Music’s Recital Hall. Group members were students at Woman’s College who rehearsed secretly in the basement of Brown Building and performed for campus dances, USO dances and at military bases. The group performed for more than a decade during the World War II era, blazing a trail for women in the field of jazz.
The symposium’s nightly concerts will be held on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, May 27, 29 and 30, starting at 8 p.m. Highlights of the concerts include the world premiere of three scenes from "Criseyde," a feminist re-telling of Chaucer's medieval romance "Troilus and Criseyde;" works for electronics and trombone, played by Monique Buzzarte; Boston composer Beth Denisch's song cycle for soprano and small ensemble, "One Blazing Glance;" Sabrina Peña Young's multimedia work, "World Order #5" and Mayumi Osada's performance of Louise Talma's first piano sonata.
Registration for the scholarly sessions is $130 for the entire conference or $35 per day. Registration forms and a full program of events are available online at www.uncg.edu/mus/FTM10.
For more information, contact Keathley at (336) 334-5911 or elkeathl@uncg.edu.