A Necessary Awakening
Being a woman in the world of the arts – and beyond – has too often been difficult or even impossible. Their presence as mere muses was reductive. Their conditional acceptance in spaces labeled as “feminine” was far too little for tenacious women like Augusta Holmès, a 19th-century Parisian composer, nearly erased from history and now reclaimed in this concert series. Casa da Música celebrates women in music, whether as composers, conductors, or performers, as protagonists of artistic creation – an endeavor that does not end here and is increasingly reflected in the annual programming.
This narrative opens on March 8, International Women’s Day, a date that recalls the historic struggles of working women across the world: fights for labor rights, suffrage, and a future free from hunger and war. Ustina Dubitsky, winner of the Orchestra Prize at the 2022 La Maestra Competition, will lead the opening concert, featuring South Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son, renowned for her impressive technical control and deep emotional connection with the works in her vast and remarkable repertoire. On the same day, Digitópia presents XX, a performance dedicated to exploring different generations of female composers who played a central role in transforming electronic music. The concert features two Portuguese performers, Stephanie Wagner and Sofia Costa, and a live act by Francisca Martins.
The programme continues with a concert led by Ana Maria Ribeiro, flutist of Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, as a soloist in a work of great poetic beauty, widely admired by flutists. In another event, Remix Ensemble hands the baton to Susanne Blumenthal, one of the most versatile conductors of her generation, effortlessly moving between contemporary music, improvisation, jazz, interdisciplinary projects, and more conventional orchestral programmes.
The repertoire would not be complete without works by female composers. Our Symphony Orchestra pays tribute to Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), a genius lost too soon. A child prodigy, she grew up in an intensely musical environment, just like her sister, Nadia Boulanger, who would become one of the most influential composition teachers of the 20th century. In 1913, Lili made history as the first woman to win the prestigious Prix de Rome with Faust et Hélène, a work composed in just four weeks. Also in the French repertoire, the programme revives the music of Augusta Holmès (1847-1903), whose path starkly contrasts with Lili’s. Unlike the Boulanger sisters, who had strong support, Holmès faced intense family opposition. Despite the challenges, she managed to establish herself as a composer in her time. Her grand, epic works often drew inspiration from classical mythology, and she even wrote librettos for her choral, vocal, and operatic pieces. The vigorous and energetic nature of her music led critics of the time to describe it as “masculine” or “virile” – labels that reflect the prejudices of her era.
But this series is not limited to the past. Shifting to the present, it explores the work of Liza Lim, Casa da Música’s Composer-in-Residence in 2025. Lim’s work is centered on collaborative and transcultural music-making, exploring themes such as beauty, rage, noise, ecological connection, and female spiritual lineages. The first piece presented, Sappho/Bioluminescence, is part of an orchestral cycle that will be performed in full throughout the year in Sala Suggia: Annunciation Triptych: Sappho, Mary, Fatimah. On this occasion, the score evokes Sappho, the celebrated Greek poet whose fragmented verses have survived the passage of time, preserving a beauty that continues to inspire artists across generations. Still within Lim’s universe, Speak, be silent challenges the very definition of a “concerto.” It is a work for an ensemble of 15 musicians, with the violin as the soloist. The programme also includes the world premiere of the unreachable shore by Yiran Zhao, whose compositional approach explores the physicality of performance, incorporating the human body and unconventional objects as sonic elements. The series culminates with a piece by Olga Neuwirth, often regarded as the enfant terrible of the contemporary Austrian music scene. Internationally recognized for the versatility of her musical language, Neuwirth pushes boundaries to explore new sonic possibilities and chart the unknown. Over the past 30 years, her compelling and relevant work has established her as one of the most celebrated figures in contemporary art. In the piece performed at Casa da Música, Neuwirth pays tribute to one of her idols, Klaus Sperber (known as Klaus Nomi), the iconic queer singer famous for blending new wave aesthetics with operatic elements.
In this cycle, men also take part in celebrating women: Leoš Janáček told the tragic story of Jenůfa, a woman loved by two men; Beethoven placed Leonore at the center of Fidelio; and Mark- Anthony Turnage composed an opera about the tragic figure of Anna Nicole Smith.