Julie Cooper's Top Five: Women Composers and Artists Who Inspire Me
In celebration of International Women's Day, composer Julie Cooper shares a selection of tracks by some of her favourite female composers and performers.
Read more…1. AFRICAN PIANISM (Various African Composers)
Rebeca Omordia
Nocturne No. 4 for Piano Solo – Nabil Benabdelijalil
Rebeca Omordia is the internationally acclaimed Nigerian/Romanian concert pianist and founder of the first ever ‘African Concert Series’ celebrating the music of African composers. We discovered each other when our post-lockdown album releases coincided, ‘African Pianism’ and ‘Continuum’ resulting in Rebeca featuring on my new album ‘Oculus’ with the track ‘Ascensio’, written for and inspired by Rebeca.
2. SACRED CHANTS (Hildegard von Bingen)
Grace Davidson
O Euchari in leta via – Hildegard von Bingen
The star soprano of Film Soundtrack and of the Baroque concert platform, Grace Davidson’s breathtaking album of composer Hildegard von Bingen’s chants from the Middle Ages celebrates the unique ethereal purity of Grace’s voice. Grace has inspired so much of my writing, featuring on three of my albums, most recently ‘Oculus’.
3. LYS (Various Women Composers)
Mari Samuelsen
White Flowers Take Their Bath – Meredi
A favourite album of mine, Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen has gathered the most glorious celebration of contemporary classical Women Composers on this album, the variety of tonal subtleties in her virtuosic playing flourishes throughout.
4. ANIMA I (Olivia Belli)
Olivia Belli
An incredibly talented composer/pianist with a huge following. OIivia has beautifully captured the atmospheric ambient sound of felt piano combined with chamber strings, a favoured sonority amongst the current leading contemporary composers and certainly one of mine.
5. THE NEW FOUR SEASONS – VIVALDI RECOMPOSED (Max Richter) Elena Urioste / Chineke! Orchestra
Recomposed By Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Sesasons – Spring 1, 2 and 3
Violinist Elena Urioste’s brilliance excels on this recording of Max Richter’s genius interpretation of the Vivaldi. Here he takes us back to the way Vivaldi would have heard his strings on period instruments, played by the groundbreaking multi-ethnic Chineke!Orchestra. I first discovered the extremely gifted violinist Elena Urioste during lockdown when she and her pianist husband Tom Poster created a wonderful daily ‘Jukebox’ remote recital from Elena’s parents’ living room!
I instantly fell in love with the richness and depth of Elena’s tone and the lyricism in her playing, inspiring the track ‘DUSK’ from the ‘Contemplation Suite’ on my lockdown album ‘Continuum’ where Elena duets with soprano Grace Davidson.