Secret Songs of Women - 11 March 2025, 09:36

Radio "Culture" and the theater "New Opera" present a joint special project "Secret songs of women". On March 6, the New Opera will host a concert dedicated to International Women’s Day. His program is extraordinary: it is prepared specifically for this evening and will include very rarely performed compositions. Fantasia for piano and orchestra by Nadia Boulanger. Nadia Boulanger became the first woman to conduct several leading symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia (USA), as well as the Halle Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (UK). The compositional heritage of Nadia Boulanger consists of a large number of vocal compositions, including over 30 songs, and chamber music. Also in the program - Suite No. 1 from the ballet "Cinderella" S.S. Prokofiev. Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women. It was written by Chinese composer Tan Dong, winner of the Grammy and Oscar awards, one of the most performed contemporary authors. Nyu Shu (literally “women’s writing”) is an ancient language that was secretly created in China from the XIII century and was used for 800 years, but it became widely known only in the 80s of the XX century. It was invented by women as a means of communication, since only men could receive education. It is the only language accessible and understood exclusively by women, not spoken, but sang, and used for embroidery. Tan Dong created Nu Shu: Secret Songs of Women in 2013 after visiting a small village in his home province of Hunan, where more than 200 hours of footage were filmed. On this basis, the composer prepared 13 microfilms and composed music for harp and orchestra. The program will be presented by a young conductor from China Xiaobo Hu, who in 2022 received a concert engagement as a special prize from the New Opera Theater at the S.V. Rakhmaninov International Piano Competition, Composers and Conductors. *** Symphony "Nyu Shu: Secret Songs of Women" Composer Tan Dong Composer Nadia Boulanger "Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra" Sergey Prokofiev "Cinderella" ***