Projects
Her Stories Unsung
HerStories Unsung tells the stories of marginalised women through contemporary piano music, composed by Kevin Malone and performed by Lana Bode. Each piece explores an aspect of the marginalisation of women through an historical figure, as well as exploring seldom-used techniques of piano playing.
HerStories Unsung Vol. 1
In 2016, Kevin Malone composed a suite of five virtuosic piano pieces HerStories Unsung Vol. 1 (premiered by Diana Lopszyc). The suite featured Lilith, Ada Lovelace, Julia Pastrana, Emmeline Pankhurst and Delia Derbyshire.
HerStories Unsung Vol. 2
In 2022-23, Malone and Bode will devise HerStories Unsung Vol. 2, a suite of 20 piano pieces for Grades 2-7. This project highlights the value of piano music as a medium for storytelling and activism, and will introduce performers to some of the under-recognised women who have shaped our modern world. Valentina Tereshkova, Rosalind Franklin, Bessie Coleman and Sister Corita Kent are a few of the women whose stories will feature in HerStories Unsung Vol. 2.
The project includes:
· Educational workshops on music and storytelling with children in primary and secondary schools
· Videos of live performance uploaded to YouTube as a free educational resource
· Concert performances and a CD release of HerStories Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
Virginia Woolf & Music
The Virginia Woolf & Music project features a series of concerts exploring the role of music in Woolf’s life, its influence on her work, and the many ways in which her writing has inspired a musical response. Founded by Professor Emma Sutton and Lana Bode, the project has resulted in concerts of newly-commissioned music and little-known music by women composers.
In 2015, Lana collaborated with Prof Emma Sutton (University of St Andrews, School of English) to found the Virginia Woolf & Music concert project. The project features a series of concerts exploring the role of music in Woolf’s life, its influence on her work, and the many ways in which her writing has inspired a musical response. The concert programmes include new commissions, world premieres and little-known music by women composers.
Outreach activities and educational resources have been central to the project since its inception. These range from workshops with mental health reading groups, to painting workshops with pre-school children, to online materials for scholars and schools.
Woolf (1882-1941) was a knowledgeable, almost daily, listener to classical music, fascinated by the cultural practice of music and by the relationships between music and writing. Towards the end of her life she famously remarked, ‘I always think of my books as music before I write them’. Her writing continues to inspire composers who have set her words or responded more obliquely to her work.
Within its first eighteen months, Virginia Woolf & Music commissioned the following three works:
A London Street in Winter – song – Jeremy Thurlow
Memory is the Seamstress – string quartet – Jeremy Thurlow
Woolf Letters – song cycle – Richard Barnard
It also premiered the following works:
The Lonely Mind – song cycle – Jan-Willem van Herpen
String Quartet No. 3: Portrait – Elliott Schwartz
Virginia Woolf & Music is grateful to the following institutions for their funding and support: Arts & Humanities Research Council, Leeds Trinity University, Robinson College (University of Cambridge), Stanza Poetry Festival, and University of St Andrews.
Listen Again
Mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons and pianist Lana Bode worked in residence at The Red House, Aldeburgh throughout 2018. Their work focussed on analysing various techniques of programming and performance practice, in order to understand which approaches are most effective in engaging an audience.
In 2018, mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons and pianist Lana Bode were artists in residence at The Red House, Aldeburgh. Their work included an exploration of song recital content and structure, focusing on universal human experiences such as loneliness, romance and our relationship to sleep and dreams. They explored various approaches to programming and presenting song recitals, in order to strengthen the connection between performer and audience. Workshops with local audiences and secondary schoolchildren offered attendees the opportunity to discuss song recitals and programming with the performers, as well as previewing some material from the concerts. The residency and concert series were sponsored by the British Council.