UNBELIEVABLE!

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In the 2026–27 winter semester, the “Gender Dialogues” lecture series will focus on female composers who have written works on a grand scale and for large ensembles. For them, the confrontation with a male-dominated musical world is not only already inscribed in their music but also in various contexts: their engagement with performance venues and orchestras, with concert and opera stages, and with publishers and conductors. Far more frequently than has been previously recognized, female composers have nevertheless turned to large-scale forms: whether symphonies by Louise Farrenc or Emilie Mayer, operas by Antonia Bembo or Ethel Smyth, oratorios by Fanny Hensel or Adolpha LeBeau, or solo concertos by Maddalena Sirmen, Clara Schumann, or Sofia Gubaidulina. Even though many of these works were initially performed in small venues and with reduced ensembles, all of these female composers have broken through the boundaries assigned to them and, in doing so, expanded those boundaries for future generations.

Around the world, social norms governing how genders interact are portrayed in Music and Drama. They are questioned and negotiated, manifested, playfully reimagined, fiercely denounced, or imaginatively conjured. It is not uncommon for gender relations to be integrated into rituals and cultic practices through, with, and in music, and in this way preserved over centuries—even where other forms of coexistence have long since taken root in everyday life. At the same time, music in particular can develop an enormous emancipatory power or create safe havens, thereby challenging power structures; it can have a unifying and binding effect.
The Office for Gender Equality at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater (HfMT) organizes the lecture series “Gender Dialogues” each winter semester, with varying thematic focuses. The series emphasizes what unites us, dialogue, and “Universitas in Diversitate.”

Concept and Planning: Dr. Silke Wenzel / Prof. Karin Holzwarth

Eintritt frei

Dates at a Glance
October 27, 2026
November 17, 2026
December 1, 2026
December 15, 2026
January 12, 2027
January 26, 2027