May Mukle

The not-so-silent Minority

Rebecca Clarke

is about late 19th and early 20th century string chamber music by women composers e.g. Louise Farrenc, Rebecca Clarke, Dame Ethel Smyth, Lili Boulanger. There are splendid stories about how these women managed to compose and perform all over the world. 

Talks can include a concert of some of the music, or examples from the CD. Audiences have included various groups such as the University of the Third Age, Adult Education courses, Oxford and Cambridge Societies, branches of the British Federation of Women Graduates, Gramophone and Recorded-music clubs, WI branches and similar groups. Contact Catherine for further details.

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Talks and music

As well as playing the cello in orchestras and chamber music groups (piano trio, palm court piano trio and cello /piano recitals), Catherine talks about the music that particularly interests her.
Catherine enjoys talking about her research and performance of lesser-known, but very enjoyable, music of the last hundred years written by women. Topics include the research which lay behind her CD, the ups and downs of actually producing it, the lives and struggles of her 'lady composers'. She also talks about the fascinating life of pioneer globetrotting lady cellist May Mukle (1880-1963)  All this can be illustrated on the cello or by use of recordings.

 A cello century of British Women Composers
      is about the CD that Catherine made in 2000, later given the rare gold award by Diapason, the French Recordings magazine.  It has lovely but neglected music by 10 different women composers.
      The talk is about how she found the music and found information about the lives of the women, including Sheila Power who was eventually traced to Madeira where she became a nun. Her publisher Augener did not even have the music in their archives. I had wondered on the way if she was married to a railway goods porter in Staines.  
      Amy Horrocks wrote a piece in 1894 and Caroline Bosanquet's Elegie was written in 1994, hence the 'century' of music. May Mukle was a well-known cellist who also composed a bit and performed all over the world with close friend Rebecca Clarke. When Rebecca came second to Ernest Bloch out of 73 anonymous entries, in the Coolidge Chamber Music Competition in USA, Mrs Coolidge said 'you should have seen the faces of the jury when it was revealed she was a woman'.  She has written some marvellous chamber music, strong, passionate and powerful.