Tromsø festival to promote music composed by women

Voices of Women is an interdisciplinary project between universities in Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany. Here is the project team that is now bringing the festival to Tromsø.

Philosophical discussions at Skarven, concerts at Rødbanken, a visit to the 28% exhibition at The Art Museum of Northern Norway, a reading at Perspektivet Museum, an evening with Bryggejentene – these are just some of the activities taking place when Voices of Women comes to Tromsø from 19th November.

Highlighting the unknown

“The overarching aim with VOW is to highlight unknown music composed by women,” says Professor Bettina Smith, project leader at the University of Stavanger. Voices of Women is an interdisciplinary project between universities in Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany.

The festival programme is available here.

“I think it is quite unique that artistic and humanistic research has received financing from the EU. As far as I can tell it is the first time that the EU has financed an artistic research project that focuses on so-called Western Art Music composed by women,” says Lilli Mittner, associate professor at the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research.

UiT is taking part in the project through a work package led by Mittner together with Anne-Lise Sollied, professor of classical singing, who is about to publish (with Musikk husets forlag) The Joy of Singing, a new compendium for singers.

Imaginary meeting at the Polar Museum

The project group invites everyone who is interested in listening to unknown music, seeing unknown art, reading unknown literature, and thinking differently to join them for Tromsø’s VOW week. The event Voices of Women in the Arctic and Beyond is particularly exciting. The Polar Museum is hosting an event where material sources from the Arctic will meet the imagination, play, and experimentation, in an evening where an imaginary meeting will take place between the hunter Wanny Woldstad, the artist Christiane Ritter (who overwintered on Svalbard), and the author Cora Sandel.

The need for agents of change

Mittner hopes that VOW’s audiences can become agents of change: people who make a difference when they go out into their communities with new ways of thinking after they have listened to the unknown.

“In order for women’s voices to be heard, someone has to listen. Therefore the audience has a vital role to play. If art created by women is going to become part of our collective heritage, it needs to be highlighted along with a discussion on what we listen to, how we listen, how much we listen to, and what the message is.”

VOW is a collaboration between the University of Stavanger, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, The University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar, and The University of Groningen. The project is financed by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme.

Kortnytt fra Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, Centre for Women's and Gender Research, Institute of philosophy and first semester studies, The Arctic University Museum of Norway and Academy of Fine Arts

Eidum, Espen Viklem espen.eidum@uit.no Kommunikasjonsrådgiver