Women in Music: A Musical Dialogue between the United States and Spain

The concert features musical pieces by women composers inspired by Shakespeare and Cervantes.

Women in Music / Mujeres en Música showcases music composed by women from the United States and Spain based on William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes. This is the second part of a two-part concert series, the first of which took place at the International Institute in Madrid, Spain, in May 2017. The concert features two young female composers from the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program, so the event supports not only women but also young girls empowerment in the area of classical music composition.

In 2016, the New York Women Composers, Inc. awarded mezzo soprano Anna Tonna and pianist Isabel Pérez Dobarro a Seed Money Grant for increading awareness of women composers worldwide.

Women in Music

• Music by Alexa Babakhanian, Consuelo Díez, Mary Ann Joyce, Diana Pérez Custodio, Marga Richter, Rosa María Rodriguez Hernández, Pamela Sklar, and Mercedes Zavala.
• Performers: Anna Tonna, mezzo soprano; Isabel Pérez Dobarro, piano.
• Guest artists: Nan-Maro Babakhanian, mezzo soprano; 2Flutes: Pamela Sklar and Laura Falzon.
• With the participation of students from the Very Young Composers program of the New York Philharmonic.

Anna Tonna and Isabel Pérez Dobarro are the founders of Women in Music, which aims to reduce the existing gender gap in classical music composition by commissioning and presenting works composed by women in concerts around the world. Tonna and Pérez Dobarro have already presented this project at the International Institute (Madrid, Spain), in collaboration with American Spaces Madrid and the U.S. Embassy in Madrid.

Mezzo Soprano Nan-Maro Babakhanian has worked with opera companies and orchestras around the world. She is the director of Project Canción Española and the founder of the Interpretation of Spanish Song International Festival. Nan-Maro has been on the faculty of the Mannes School and Saint Louis University. She has performed in the U.S., Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Europe in recitals of art song in Spanish with guitar and with piano, as well as with the Alaria Trio in Carnegie Hall. She has recorded several CDs including one with Arte Nova/BMG of works by Tulio Peramo, and Esparzas, Susurros y Sueños presenting works by women composers.

2Flutes is Laura Falzon and Pamela Sklar, who have performed a wide spectrum of works ranging from classical, contemporary, rock, pop, folk and jazz, and performed concerts throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Morocco, India and Japan. Steeped in distinctly varied musical backgrounds, 2Flutes perform music ranging from newly written works to standard repertoire and arrangements of classics.