Orchestra Moderne NYC: Women Warriors: The Voices of Change in Review
Amy Andersson, Founder and Music Director
Composers: Nathalie Bonin, Miriam Cutler, Anne-Kathrin Dern, Sharon Farber, Mandy Hoffman, Penka Kouneva, Starr Parodi, and Lolita Ritmanis
Guest performers: Sonita Alizadeh, Isolde Fair, Nathalie Bonin, Gillian Hassert, Riga Cathedral Girls’ Choir TIARA, The Visionary Singers
Honorary speaker: Masih Alinejad
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
September 20, 2019
Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall was the venue for Orchestra Moderne NYC’s Women Warriors: The Voices of Change, a multimedia symphony concert celebrating women activists who are fighting for social justice. I’m certain the hall and the date had to be secured at least a year ago or more, but it seemed eerily apposite that this thrilling, innovative orchestral concert was given on the day that millions of people, many of them schoolchildren, called a “climate strike” in protest of the political inaction on an issue that threatens the very host we all rely on: Earth.
Any fears I had about the event being more “agenda” than “art” were quickly allayed by two things: the quality of the performances, and the sheer emotional power of the coordinating images. How many times do you get to witness an Afghan young girl, exiled to Iran, who has been sold into marriage twice (age 10 and 16), and is now a rapper?
I wish one event like this could move the hearts of those whose hearts need moving, but alas, humans never seem to learn. All the issues on this powerful affirmation of women’s strengths are still, sadly, pertinent and unsolved. Basic freedom, AIDS/HIV, LGBTQ rights, war/peace, religious clothing requirements, climate change, clean water, child brides, police overreach, gun violence, sexual assault, reproductive choice.
This made for an evening that would have been hard to take were it not for the superlative assembly of much-awarded women composers for film, television, and even video games. Add to that a well-curated visual screen behind the performers, with documentary stills and moving footage of historic women’s rights figures and current events.
This concert event should be required viewing at the U.N. general assembly that begins in New York on Monday; and it should be done in every high school and college domestically and worldwide.
The concert was divided into “chapters,” each dealing with a different social issue. I understand that Amy Andersson, the founder and music director of the Orchestra Moderne NYC, worked on realizing the concept for two years. Those are two well-spent years. The number of world premieres in one event was stunning.
For way too long, the female element has been marginalized: composers, conductors, performers (except perhaps in opera) have not been represented with the same privilege as their male counterparts, and it continues. But events like this go a long way toward redressing that. May there be many more.
