Program

(All times in BST / UTC +1)

Friday, April 1

12:45pm - 1:00pm: Welcome

Barbora Vacková (University of Huddersfield), Marta Beszterda (McGill University) 

 

1:00pm - 2:15pm: Keynote lecture

 

Prof. Dr. Nina Noeske (Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg): “Gender Relations in the Musical Life of the Eastern Bloc: GDR (for Example)”

 

2:30pm - 4:00pm

Panel 1: Gender, Art, and Propaganda

Chair: Tereza Havelková (Charles University)

 

Elizaveta Willert (Paderborn University): “Soviet ‘eye-ear’? On the politics of female sound in the mass genre of musical radio theater in the light of socialist propaganda”

 

Joanna Bullivant (University of Oxford): “No(t much) sex please we’re communists: Alan Bush’s East German operas, women, and postwar moral panic”

 

Johanna Yunker (University of Massachusetts Amherst): “The Impact of Socialism and Feminism in the Works and Reception of the GDR’s Leading Female Composer Ruth Zechlin”
 

4:30pm - 5:30pm

Panel 2: Music, Gender, and Identity in Late Soviet / Early Post-Soviet Era

Chair: Robert Adlington (University of Huddersfield)

 

Sam Riley (University of Birmingham): “‘Changing the Music Itself’: Valentina Goncharova and Late Soviet Subjectivity”

 

Phoebe Robertson (Manhattan School of Music): “Sofia Gubaidulina’s 'Music for Flute, Strings, and Percussion': A Study in Androgyny”
 

6:00pm - 7:00pm

Researching Women and Gender in Art Music of the Eastern Bloc: Panel Discussion and Q&A

 

Guest speakers: Elaine Kelly (Edinburgh College of Art), Joanna Kwapień (Glissando Magazine, University of Wrocław), Nina Noeske (Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg)

 

This panel of music researchers will discuss their experience with researching gender culture and musical activities of Central and Eastern European women-identifying figures under state socialism. Special attention will be paid to particular challenges, both methodological and practical, that might be encountered in this area of study, as well as to reflections on the current state of research and directions for the future. The Q&A will provide an opportunity for all conference attendees to ask questions pertinent to their research, as well as to share their own perspectives and experience.

We look forward to having an open, relaxed discussion in an informal environment – feel free to join in with snacks and/or a drink of your choice!

 

Saturday, April 2

 

12:00pm - 1:30pm

Panel 3: Retrieving Forgotten Figures

Chair: Linda Jankowska (Leeds Conservatoire)

 

Ana Popović (Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek): “Dita Kovač, ‘the sister of Leo Mirski’”

 

Kristiāna Vaickovska (Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music / Latvian Music Information Centre): “Lūcija Garūta (1902–1977): one of the first professional female composers in Latvia“

 

Maryna Tokarenko (The Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences): “The Life and Works of Gaziza Zhubanova, Kazakh’s National Treasure”

 

2:00pm - 3:30pm

Panel 4: Gender Roles and Stereotypes Under State Socialism

Chair: Joanna Bullivant (University of Oxford)

 

Martina Bratić (University of Graz): “Ivana Lang (1912-1982) or about freedom of choice”

 

Natia Beraia, Lika Khorbaladze (Tbilisi State Conservatoire): “Two musical realities of Soviet Georgia - Meri Davitashvili and Natela Svanidze”

 

Allison Brooks-Conrad (University of Pennsylvania): “‘What is Talent without Character?’: Soviet Femininity, Labor, and Music in Rabotnitsa, 1970-1991”

 

4:00pm - 5:00pm

Panel 5: Between East and West

Chair: Zachary Milliman (McGill University)

 

Szabolcs Laszlo (Indiana University): “Ambassadors of the Kodály-method: The International Promotional Activities of Hungarian Women Music Educators during the Cold War”

 

Luciana Manca (Tor Vergata University of Rome): “The act of singing for a migrant Moldovan caregiver”

 

5:15pm - 6:45pm

Panel 6: Women in Polish Music

Chair: Christine Fischer (Universität Wien)

 

Monika Woźniak (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań): “Inner perspective of the female world presented by the compositions of Elżbieta Sikora, Hanna Kulenty, Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil and Weronika Ratusińska”

 

Magdalena Bąk (The Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz University of Music in Łódź): “Harpsichord in the Eastern Bloc - the female instrument?”

 

Martyna Krymska (Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław): “Eugenia Umińska's life and work in the state socialist era”

 

6:45pm - 7:00pm: Closing Remarks

Barbora Vacková (University of Huddersfield), Marta Beszterda (McGill University)