Struggle, clichés and uncompromisingness

On the one hand, it was about fascinating pioneering achievements and exciting life stories of female musicians, but on the other hand it was also about aspects of oppression, challenge, equal rights and equal opportunities for women in music. All the speakers were concerned with dignity, dialog and respect in the artistic and professional collaboration of musicians of all genders.

Eva Weissweiler gave the keynote speech at the start of the congress with her "Review of a pioneer". Numerous musicological publications and books on women composers, the founding of the working group "Women and Music" and the organization of many festivals and concert series are at the heart of Eva Weissweiler's CV. It is probably exemplary for the artistic and political work of women of her generation, and shows the tireless, internationally networked commitment to the self-evident fact that women are actively involved in the contemporary and classical music scene. In an uncompromising manner, she described the difficult conditions for female musicians, composers and musicologists in the German and European public sphere in the early 1970s: "... that at times I got the reputation of a witch and was no longer greeted by my doctoral supervisor on the street because he was ashamed to have nourished such an adder on his non-existent bosom." Today's conditions are no longer comparable with the hostility towards women of the male generation of that time, and yet Weissweiler proved with impressive statistics that there is still a great deal to be done at all levels: "I can therefore only conclude with an urgent appeal: Let us not only research, but also demand! Let's make our issue a political one! I don't dare to believe it, but it would be a dream come true if one day only a third of all Swiss and German female musicians stopped playing, singing, teaching or conducting for just one week. Because then the rest of humanity would finally realize: without us, it will be quiet, damn quiet!"

In the following lecture, pianist Kathrin Schmidlin portrayed two important female composers of the early 20th century: Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) and Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915-1940). Both composers managed to find their own unmistakable musical language under difficult circumstances: Boulanger - influenced by her French surroundings - with a deep, poetic intensity of timbre, Kaprálová - a student of Martinů - with expressive conciseness in rhythm. Schmidlin drew from the full in her varied performance, not least with examples from her recently published, highly acclaimed CD publication Women's voices (with Anna Fortova, violoncello, released on the Claves label, Review), and awakened the audience's desire for further exploration of both composers and their environment.

Sabine Kemna, speaking from Kassel, presented the history and philosophy of Furore-Verlag after the lunch break: It has been publishing works by female composers since it was founded in 1986 and has now published an impressive number of over 2000 compositions. A truly pioneering achievement, which earned founder Renate Mathei the German Federal Cross of Merit in 2012.

The crisp short film Woman & Piano by Austrian Sebastian Leitner (SLfilm) gave rise to a lively and controversial discussion about images of women in music. To what extent are clichés permissible or useful? What significance do clothing and styling have for women (and men) on stage? What expectations does which audience have? How to deal with sexist reactions?

The discussion led seamlessly into the second keynote speech "Hammer, high heels and calculation" by Esther Flückiger. The pianist and composer, who is also one of Switzerland's leading creators of electronic music, took the audience on a 200-year journey through the history, background and challenges of female pianists on the world's concert stages using numerous videos. Beginning with questions of Biedermeier decorum, Flückiger followed "the path to freedom" through to today's bold and uncompromising female classical piano stars. The portraits of jazz pioneers such as Dorothy Donegan, Carla Bley, Aki Takase and Myra Melford must have been particularly new to many in the audience. Based on her work as a composer and performer and as a co-founder of two women's organizations (Frauenmusikforum Schweiz, 1984, now ForumMusikDiversität and Suonodonne Italia, 1994, Rome), Flückiger offered insights into her wealth of experience in terms of "being a woman" and "being a man" at the piano - politically, artistically and in publishing. The lecture was a passionate homage to piano playing.

The EPTA conference, which was originally planned to take place on the premises of the Baar Music School, had to be held online at short notice. This made it possible to welcome guests from all corners of Switzerland and also from neighboring countries. The discussions following all the presentations were therefore particularly enjoyable and productive. The congress day was framed by beautiful video contributions from two young music students (Sophie Hohl, Brugg Music School; Pauline Schielke, Baar Music School) on the piano. Finally, the traditional, thematically free "Members' Podium" took place. Pianist Annamaria Savona dedicated it to a pedagogical topic: she gave insights into the "Song leading" research program of the Swiss National Science Foundation, in which the use of the piano in school lessons is being scientifically investigated. Using video sequences from teaching situations, she demonstrated the practical and pedagogical challenges of using instruments and digital media to rehearse new songs with children and young people.