#365 days of performance

#365daysofperformance has come to its end! What a year it was!

SMALL RECAP: I did 264 videos with 264 new (for me) works by 105 (almost exclusively) women* composers, from all 5 continents.

THE STORY BEHIND IT: At the beginning of the year I was pretty disoriented, having low motivation and not too many exciting projects ahead of me. I didn’t know in which direction to think, to grow, to research.

Just about that time I was browsing playlists on Spotify and realised, there is no such thing as a playlist for piano music by women composers. Like many good things, the idea of creating of database of piano music by women came spontaneously, and proved to be since then a very useful resource. Currently there are 2500 pieces with over 140 hours of listening.

Then I decided to take up a challenge, partly inspired by Hilary Hahn’s #100daysofpractice, but also as a platform for myself - to stay fit and to learn new repertoire. At the beginning I wasn’t sure what exactly it is what I want to learn. I had some vague ideas of some dream pieces like Vingt Regards of Messiaen or Beethoven Op. 333. But I felt I was missing something, something important. The sense of it.

The above-mentioned pieces were performed and recorded so often. Who cares if I do another rendering of them? Whereas there is SO MUCH gorgeous repertoire - obscure, forgotten, only heard once or not at all. I looked at my pianosolo playlist and it became clear.

I started 1/1/2024 and finished 31/12/2024. I put a goal to learn one piece (long or short, easy or difficult) every day. The pieces should all be new to me, because if I love something in music very much - it is sight-reading, learning, playing new pieces. Some pieces took me more than one day to learn, of course, so I almost always had several pieces simultaneously at work.

Needless to say, but I will say it anyway - I discovered so much repertoire!

I DISCOVERED SO MANY GORGEOUS PIECES!

THERE ARE SO SO SO SO SO SO MANY GORGEOUS PIECES that never (or very rarely) get to be played in the usual concert programs. About a decade ago (it basically coincided with me finishing my degree) I almost completely stopped playing Romantic repertoire. I still would play some older pieces now and then, if required, but I wasn’t interested at all.

This project changed everything. I was of course sceptical about the Romantic period this time too, being a big fan of the 20th century music and a new music enthusiast. But slowly I discovered some true gems that brought back the joy of playing tonal music.

HIGHLIGHTS: Here are some of my highlights of the Baroque through Romantic repertoire that I discovered this year (in no particular order):

  • Anna Bon di Venezia Sonatas Op. 2 (1757)
  • Agathe Backer Grøndahl Fantasistykker Op. 36 (1895)
  • Elisabetta de Gambarini Sonatas Op. 1 (1748)
  • Luise Adolphe Le Beau 8 Preludes Op. 12 (1872)
  • Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre Pieces de Clavecin (1707)
  • Clara Schumann Variationen Op. 20 (1853), Soirees Musicales Op. 6 (1834-1836), Romanzen Op. 11 (1839), Romanze h-moll (1856), Romanze Op. 5 Nr. 3 (1838), Sonata g-minor (1841-1842)
  • Louise Farrenc Etudes Op. 42 (1854), Melodie (1846-1847)
  • Marie Bigot Sonata (1806)
  • Chiquinha Gonzaga Faceiro (1889), Saudade (1896)
  • Fanny Mendelssohn Das Jahr (1841), Lieder für Klavier Op. 8 (1850)
  • Marie Jaëll (1846-1925) 5 piano pieces
  • Ethel Smyth Sonata Nr. 2 c-sharp minor (1877)
  • Cecile Chaminade Thème Varié Op. 89 (1898), L’Ondine Op. 101 (1900)

My 20th century repertoire highlights (again - only the ones I learned within this year, as my previous repertoire is much larger) include (in no particular order):

  • Charlotte Sohy Six petites pièces (1922)
  • Mel Bonis Salomé, Phoebé, Mélisande (1910-1925)
  • Marion Bauer Six Preludes Op. 15 (1922)
  • Verdina Shlonsky 13 Miniatures (1969), Five Sketches (1949)
  • Ruth Crawford Preludes (1924-1928)
  • Galina Ustvolskaya 12 Preludes (1953)
  • Ruth Schonthal In Homage Of… (1978), Toccata and Arietta (1989)
  • Ursula Mamlok Vogelträume (1944), Panta Rhei (Time in Flux) (1981)
  • Bunita Marcus …but to fashion a lullaby for you… (1998)
  • Amy Beach Hermit Thrush at Eve Op. 92 Nr. 1 (1922)
  • Anne Boyd Angklung (1976)
  • Henriëtte Bosmans Zes Preludes (1917-1918)
  • Elisabeth Lutyens Seven Preludes Op. 126 (1978)
  • Meredith Monk Paris (1972), St. Petersburg Waltz (1994)
  • Lera Auerbach 24 Preludes (1998)
  • Sofia Gubaidulina Toccata-Troncata (1971)
  • Lili Boulanger D’un jardin clair (1914), D’un vieux Jardin (1914), Prélude en Ré bémol (1911)
  • Grażyna Bacewicz Children’s Suite (1966)
  • Elena Firsova Elegy (1979)
  • Germaine Tailleferre 2 pieces pour piano (1954)
  • Louise Talma Six Etudes (1954)
  • Ljubica Marić 3 Preludes (1945)
  • Rahilia Hasanova Jasmine Petals (1998)
  • Grete von Zieritz Präludium und Fuge c-moll (1924)
  • Ilse Fromm-Michaels Vier Puppen Op. 4, Variationen Op. 8 (1918/1919)
  • Vanessa Lann Recalling Chimes (1998)

My 21st century repertoire list grew significantly as well, here are some highlights (in no particular order):

  • Betsy Jolas Postlude (2005)
  • Mayako Kubo Stolpersteine (2015)
  • Errollyn Wallen I Wouldn’t Normally Say (2004)
  • Diana Čemerytė Still (2004)
  • Joan Tower No Longer Very Clear (2005)
  • Eva-Maria Houben Snow (2023), 6 Sonaten für Klavier (2011), Into the Lake of Silence (2023), Meditations sur le piano 16 (2020), Dunes (2023)
  • Linda Catlin Smith Nocturnes and Chorales (2013), Thought and Desire (2007)
  • Ann Southam Returnings I (2010), Returnings II: A Meditation (2010), Simple Lines of Enquiry (2007)
  • Karen Tanaka Techno Etudes (2009)
  • Anny Clyne Red Nines (2021)
  • Rachel C. Walker fú’ou (2016)
  • Chen Hui Jen Preludes (2020)
  • Saskia Bladt Nocturne blau (2018)
  • Aitana Kasulin Piezas Cortas
  • Dariya Maminova Muschel I (2020)
  • katharina Rosenberger Ahom (2002)
  • Aida Shirazi Albumblatt (2020)
  • Nomi Epstein Layers (2015), Till (2003), Solo for piano (2007)
  • Hannah Kendall On the Chequer’d Field Array’d (2013), Processional (2018)
  • Giulia Monducci Klangfarbenkreis (2014)
  • Clare Loveday Johannesburg Etude Nr. 2 (2015)
  • Laura Elise Schwendinger Night Birds (2023)
  • Carolyn Chen Tearing (b) (2018)
  • Nastasya Khruscheva Book of Sorrow and Joy (2024)
  • Aleksandra Vrebalov Danube Etude (2021), Indigo Codes (2019)
  • Karola Obermüller Fusion (2016)
  • Franghiz Alizade Landscape (Rising) (2012)
  • Emily Praetorius Of Being (2018)
  • Roxanna Panufnik When I Wake Up (2021)
  • Wang Lu Lacuna (2020)
  • Liza Lim Winter from Four Seasons (2009)

Even these 264 pieces that I learned in 2024 are just a TINY FRACTION of all great music composed through centuries by women composers for piano solo (and how much more there is for other instruments and settings!).

Some of those pieces I managed to incorporate into concert programs. I did a wonderful “Fanny & Clara” recital, played a set dedicated to the mythical female characters Seven Sisters, recorded and album, researched and presented a 1920-es program, but of course my biggest achievement 2024 was the

PIANO MARATHON!

Piano Marathon 2025
Piano Marathon Poster 2025

I played (as a single pianist) 24 hours straight a marathon consisting only of music by women* composers.

There has been 20 premieres and about 300 pieces by 100 composers.

The idea of 24 hours Piano Marathon came in exchange with Teresa Reiber and Mareike Hein. We created a wonderful space filled with music, poetry, feminist texts, drawings, movement, meditations, and of course a lot of listening. We were lucky to be supported by Musikfonds e.V. and Kulturbüro Elisabeth, but most of all by a very agile interest - people would stay for a while, then go, then come back and bring friends; some stayed with us through the night. I had the greatest feeling after completing this milestone, pure happiness of staying awake and managing a huge beautiful repertoire.

Here a small idea how it was to be performing for 24 hours only music by women composers:

Premieres that I played within the marathon were composed by:

  • Kristen Baum Book of Evening (2020)
  • Laura Elise Schwendinger Long Road to Freedom (2018)
  • Olga Rayeva Sadko am Ilmensee (2024)
  • Sarvenaz Safari For K.G. (2023)
  • Ana Beyron Kyomu (2023)
  • Sarah Blair Uncovered Paths (2023)
  • Charlotte Botterill Contemplations (2024)
  • Helena Cánovas Parés It’s Almost Practicing (2018)
  • Marleen Dupont Iris&Orchis (2022)
  • Nigar Suleyman Esoteric (2024)
  • Adrienne Inglis Canoe (2022)
  • Liz Dilnot Johnson A Quiet Moment at Dusk (2020)
  • Jobina Tinnemans Seven Sisters (2020/2021)
  • Bethany Wakim Barcarolle No. 3 (2023)
  • Amy Reich Children Pieces for Piano (2020)
  • Sarah McMahill Undoing of the Three (2024)
  • Ya-Tzu Cheng Again and Again (2016)
  • Kari Besharse Neonympha Dorothea (2015/2024)
  • Allison Cameron Chive Noses (2005)

Thanks so much for trusting me the first performance of these pieces, this means worlds to me!

All the happier I am to announce that in 2025 there will be Piano Marathon Vol. 2: “Room Full of Voices” with Teresa Reiber, Mareike Hein and Nina Guo kindly supported by inm! This will happen on 17th / 18th of May in Elisabeth Kirche Berlin! SAVE THE DATE! Get all updates

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