Sylvia Hinz – recorder: the sadly unknown

women in art. a political view on female artists

women composers are still a minority, their works mostly and sadly unknown by the public and by

performers, too. their music is almost never taught in universities or academies, nor performed by

orchestras, ensembles or soloists. very few names are familiar to the world: Kaija Saariaho, Chaya

Czernowin, Rebecca Saunders, Pauline Oliveros, Sofia Gubaidulina, …

women are still not encouraged to compose, as they were not in the past. if they wrote music at

all, their works were seen as “amusements” or just inferior to the works of their male colleagues.

you can spot it in pictures in social media or newspapers, too: every time there is a conference / a

festival / etc., there is a bunch of guys supporting other guys – and one woman, at the most.

this has to change – right now. there is so much quality among women composers and i want to

present their work in my programmes. i would also like to present the stunning sound of the totally

underestimated instrument recorder, which is still seen as an unfit instrument for contemporary

music. hence this proposal.

in my performances and concerts, i am going to work closely with women composers on new works for recorder, with or without voice and / or sound objects, with or without electronics. i hold contact to many women composers and include at least one work by a female artist in every concert i am curating. in addition, i want to proceed with my research for pieces by women composers in the renaissance and early baroque era.

at some point in the future, there is going to be a presentation concert, videos and a cd featuring all of the works made possible with the support of the fellowship. to gain more visibility for those works, i will set up a data base connected to my website, so others can find them, too.

the composers i would like to work with:

Núria Giménez Comas (1980, ES), Angelica Castello (1972, MX), Gloria Coates (1938, US), Ailís Ní Ríain (1974, IE), Alexandra Fol (1981, BG), Carolyn Chen (1983, US), Suzanne Giraud (1958, FR), Keiko Harada (1968, JP), Füsun Köksal (1973, TR), Helga Arias Parra (1984, ES), Morgan Krauss (1985, US), Helena Tulve (1972, EE).

this is a unique and forward-looking project, aiming at the ongoing disproportion regarding the visibiliy of art by women. the venue for the concert will ideally be e.g. a gallery displaying art by women artists.