I was about to send this email when I saw my name come up, in the email 'from' field. Anne V. You see my mother chose Anne, my father chose Virginie, and without a hyphen in the middle, at school, I got called 'just' Anne. With a surname as long as mine, I stuck to Anne when I moved to London. At home, I'm still Virginie. I chose to hold on to the V, a signal of that extra identity.
So here I was thinking: what if the V stood for... Visibility?
Women composers? I heard the two words combined and my eyes opened wide. Are there any? Pause. Brain scrambling to find a name, any name. None came to mind. Eek.
That was me, in the middle of a Zoom conversation with dramatic soprano Amelia Feuer, before welcoming her to a salon I hosted, in the presence of a group of fifteen guests, this past Tuesday.
The accomplished singer turned artistic director and cultural project manager was booked to speak about her experience of growing up into a classical music career, what it takes to use one’s voice, and not just for the purpose of singing arias on stage.
She empathised with my brain freeze.
“Right, that’s what I felt like too! I did remember Clara Schumann, that was about it.“
I opined vigorously. Right, yes, I know her! My father gave me her biography. It’s somewhere in my apartment. Did I read it, I asked myself silently. I was 17. No recollection whatsoever. Must find the book.
This felt concerning for multiple reasons, mainly because I studied classical piano for 10 years and that my family was (at times problematically) a 95% classical music household. If I’d never heard of any, who has?
Can you name a woman composer?
A few hours before our meeting, I sat in front of the same screen to read and listen to my guest, and look up some of those forgotten talents which her festival, Les Inoubliables, focuses on. I found myself on some dusty website, and clicked on an embedded player.
Music swelled from the monitor in front of me. Beautiful.
Then I had a mortifying thought:
“Oh, it’s good. It’s as good as…” My eyebrows raised high on my forehead. I didn’t let myself finish the thought, but I knew what it implied. As good as men composers, my mind was telling me.
I didn’t see that coming. A part of me, under the surface of my awareness, believed that if these women had been forgotten, it was probably due to lack of talent. Like I said, mortifying.
In talking to Feuer, what surprised me the most (beyond discovering my own beliefs) was to learn that many of these womens’ music was played widely, that they were celebrated in their day. And that later, a confluence of factors, mostly familial and societal, drove them to disappear from history.
Feuer’s work as both performer and artistic director is driven by this question: who gets heard, who gets remembered, and how can programming change the stories our cultural institutions tell? "Rather than treating music by women as a separate category, she seeks to integrate overlooked repertoire and new creation into ambitious, multidisciplinary programmes capable of reaching audiences well beyond those already engaged with questions of representation."
Feuer is careful to note that she is not a music historian, but in conversation with her, I felt an echo of my work.
Namely: how to share stories that resonate, that leave an echo, a trace. There are many strands of our conversation that I want to continue to unpick, ahead of my upcoming new masterclass, aptly named Authored.
Before going further, there’s an analogy I come back to regularly to explain how I view story/ies that I want to share:
I think of story as a conduit between us. Language may feel like it is a conduit, but I disagree. Abstractions don’t move us, do not put us in our senses, nor activate our imagination and our empathic response the way stories do.
Without stories how can we feel for another? (There are answers that come through our senses: images, art, music) Why are we all glued behind Netflix, or a book? Stories satisfy us because they offer us a ‘how to’ guide to navigate our own life. As I wrote a few months ago, books are maps.
If stories are how we learn from each other and some are erased from history, like those of these women composers, this leads me to question: what do we need to hear/learn to navigate through life that wasn‘t made available to us?
This is why those women composers’ recovered story feels like a warning, not just a reclaiming.
Beware of whose stories disappear.
I want to paint a danger sign on my website. On my Instagram. Outside the halls where these women pieces will be played next week. Who gets to be remembered vs forgotten is something we all have a stake in.
If it happened to women who were celebrated in their lifetime, think of the stories that were never told. A story cannot be remembered if it’s not shared. Including ours.
Most of us won’t leave a body of work behind, or a legacy that outlives us, but in sharing stories, we can set ripples in motion that will spread through the people who carry them.
Whose stories have you benefited from that you'd want to make sure aren't forgotten?
I think that’s why the topic of these forgotten women composers continue to press on my heart and mind, leaving a sore note behind.
When I was putting together my first Story of You Workshop, I went in search of powerful quotes, peppering them throughout, to affirm the points I was making thanks to third party story-endorsement.
One such quote is by Steve Jobs.
“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.”
The forgetting doesn’t have to be final. Next week, thanks to Amelia and her team, the venues, and the musicians joining her, past and present women composers will find themselves in the limelight. Because Amelia found their music and their stories worth sharing.
Her work meets mine here: I think of myself as a story catalyst. Beyond the ones I write, I create the conditions for stories to emerge and travel. In my salons, in my podcasts, masterclasses and workshops. And with my clients, whether the work happens at the individual or organisational level. And by creating more opportunities for guests whose story and expertise deserve further reach.
Thinking about visibility and who gets to be heard, you’ll find options below to explore stories and how to disseminate, from owning your narrative to how to share it with the world, to exploring the stories of two of my recent guests, Bianca Barratt and Kulsum Sadab Wahad, and of course, Les Inoubliables Festival and Amelia Feuer’s work (for non French-speaking readers, you'll find the festival press kit with the full programme, attached).
With that, let me ask this from you.
Commit to listening and sharing stories. Choose one of the options below and take that step this week.
Happy listening, happy discovery, happy sharing.
GUEST MASTERCLASS WITH JOURNALIST, WRITER AND CO-FOUNDER BIANCA BARRATT
How to get featured in the media (without hiring a PR agency)
October 13th - 10am PT | 1pm ET | 6pm BST | 7pm CEST - Pay what you can ($35 suggested, start at $1)
Journalists aren't waiting to discover you. But they are actively looking for the right story, told at the right moment, by someone who understands what makes it newsworthy. This masterclass is about becoming that person, without outsourcing it.
Bianca Barratt is a journalist who has spent the last eight years writing for some of the world's most recognised publications, including Vogue, The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan and the BBC, as well as sharing her insights on programmes such as Sky News. For over five years, she was a Senior Contributor to Forbes: a title held by only a handful of their writers and one that gave her an unrivalled inside view of exactly what gets pitched, what gets published and what ends up in the bin.
By the end of this session, media coverage will feel less like a lottery and more like something you can go and get. Because it is.
Can’t make it live? You’ll get the recording the following day (30 day replay access)
Details and registration here.
AUTHORED (missing subhead)
October 15th - 9.30am PT| 12.30pm ET | 5.30pm BST| 6.30pm CEST - Free with 7 day replay
(90min)
PODCASTS
THE METTA INTERVIEW
Bianca Barratt (mentioned above) talks to me about her quest for authenticity, her vision of creative commitment, along with her thoughts on storytelling, and why we all need to look for our tipping point.
She also shares her big ‘alive’ question with me: How can we make sure to live up to our potential? Happy listening! Listen here
OUT OF THE CLOUDS
My latest guest is the philanthropist and social entrepreneur Kulsum Shadab Wahad. Based in Bangalore, India, Kulsum is the visionary behind the impact-couture brand Ara Lumiere, a fierce advocate for women victims of acid attacks, and the director of the Hothur Foundation. Kulsum is relentless in her support for those women whose attackers set out to erase them: from extensive surgeries to mental health, her goal being to restore their dignity and visibility. Listen to her explain how she went from meeting an acid attack survivor to launching a small brand that would garner worldwide recognition and put those very survivors on stage at Milan Fashion Week.
OFFICE HOURS
Story is the strategy
October 6 - 8.30am PT | 11.30am ET | 4.30pm BST | 5.30pm CEST
Stuck in your Story of You development, or have questions about how to turn storytelling to your unique advantage? Bring me your questions and let’s explore what is possible, together, on Zoom.
Please make sure to send your question via this form 12 hours in advance.
Download the calendar invitation