When people think of classical music composers, they often recognize male names, such as Mozart and Beethoven, but female names usually don’t bring the same familiarity.
Situations like this are the reason some BYU-Idaho students are organizing the school’s 5th Annual Eliza R. Snow Women in the Arts Festival.
The festival will give students and the community the chance to explore women’s work in many areas, including writing, art, dance, theatre and music.
BYU-Idaho student Elizabeth Jones is the student director for the festival. She is also a cellist in the BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra who grew up studying music mostly written by men.
Jones said the reason why there is not more music written by women is because of the judgment women received when they published their own creative works. Women throughout history would often publish music under the name of a male relative instead.
She said she is hopeful for the future as she sees more women receiving recognition for their compositions.
“This festival is not in any way trying to be pessimistic about the future or about where things are currently, because what is so encouraging is that there’s countless women composers who are able to publish their work,” Jones said in an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio.
As the Music Department is focusing on celebrating women’s compositions, she has learned more about the women in music and said there will be more opportunities to learn about female musicians and composers during the festival.
She said the festival is also a good opportunity network with other women in the arts as well.
“The goal is to bring women artists together to network with each other, because, in college, a lot of us have an incredible amount of performance opportunities and creative opportunities, but I think when you go out into the communities, we might notice a little bit less of that. It’s important to know and be connected with the other female artists around you,” Jones said in the interview.
Jones said the festival is completely free, with no need to reserve tickets for the concerts as well.
She did recommend audience members to arrive early for these concerts in case seats run out.
The Opening Gala Concert is Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Barrus Concert Hall of the Eliza R. Snow Building on campus.
There will also be an art exhibit from Monday through Saturday in the building’s lobby.
The Closing Gala Concert is on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Barrus Concert Hall.