New season to celebrate “remarkable women” in RAH history
The Royal Albert Hall has announced a new season of concerts, talks, comedy and networking events which hopes to celebrate the role of women in the London venue’s storied history – and help future female industry leaders succeed in an “unequal, male-dominated” music industry.
The 5,272-capacity concert hall – the site of 20 suffragette rallies, 100 years of Women’s Institute (WI) meetings and Janis Joplin’s only UK solo show – will “examine the roles of women in Britain, past, present and future” in Women and the Hall, which runs from January to April 2018.
Among the highlights of the season will be:
- A screening of the film Suffragette, followed by a panel including producers Alison Owen and Faye Ward, director Sarah Gavron, Women’s Equality Party co-founder Catherine Mayer and activist Helen Pankhurst
- Industry Insights – Women in Music, a free networking event for women aged 18–25 featuring a panel discussion with agents Emma Banks and Lucy Dickins, Royal Albert Hall artistic director Lucy Noble, Decca Records’ Rebecca Allen and BPI’s Maggie Crowe
- A performance of cult spoken-word event That’s What She Said on the eve of International Women’s Day
- A talk on the history and future of the WI, with former president Anne Stamper, national chair Lynne Stubbings and Daisy Cooney of the Shoreditch Sisters WI chapter
Women and the Hall will also include live music programming, with the venue’s regular regular Late Night Jazz, Live Music Brunch and Classical Coffee Mornings slots given over to female performers.
“We want to … engage with the critical issues facing women in Britain today and look to the future, celebrating the artistry and creative energy of up-and-coming female voices in music”
Artists playing the season include Emma-Jean Thackray, Nérija and Vula Viel (Late Night Jazz), Deelee Dubé (Live Music Brunch) and the senior girls’ choir from the National Youth Choir (Classical Coffee Mornings), with more to be announced soon.
“The hall has been at the centre of British cultural life for nearly 150 years, and in that time has played host to an extraordinary number of remarkable women, whose talent, determination and vision has helped to shape the country, and the world, as we know it,” comments Noble.
“On the centenary of the Representation of the People Act [which enfranchised women], we want to mark that legacy, engage with the critical issues facing women in Britain today and look to the future, celebrating the artistry and creative energy of up-and-coming female voices in music, and – through our Industry Insights event – helping them forge a path through an industry that’s unequal, male-dominated, and contains particular and ongoing challenges for women.”
In addition the widely publicised gender imbalance in live music, IQ revealed last month that many women working in the industry have been subject to inappropriate behaviour from male counterparts, with most agreeing on the need to create a culture when women are given equal opportunities to succeed – and aren’t scared to speak out against the perpetrators of abuse.
Tickets for Women and the Hall go on sale at 9am on Friday from www.royalalberthall.com.
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Sexism rife in UK biz, finds study
More than three quarters of women working in the British music industry have experienced sexism, according to new report by PRS Foundation.
PRS Foundation, the charitable foundation run by UK performance rights organisation PRS for Music, last week released its most recent Women Make Music evaluation report, outlining the progress made by the initiative since its launch in 2011. Women Make Music aims to “raise awareness of the gender gap amongst songwriters and composers”, “encourage more female music creators to come forward for funding”, “increase the profile of women who are creating new music in the UK” and “support role models for future generations”.
Among its findings were that 78% of interviewees had experienced sexism in the music industry, and that many female creators feel “pigeonholed: often, for example, as performers rather than writers and producers, or as sexual objects rather than artists”.
“Our key aim at PRS Foundation is to enable composers and songwriters of all backgrounds to realise their potential,” says the organisation’s CEO, Vanessa Reed (pictured). “When we recognised in 2011 that only 16% of the commissions we were funding involved female music creators, we decided to set up a fund that would tackle this imbalance and encourage female composers and songwriters to come forward for support. […]
“Our [most recent] evaluation explored the current barriers faced by music creators and solutions that respond to these challenges, such as the continued importance of awareness raising across the music industry, the need for more women in the industry workforce, involvement of men and women as ambassadors for change and investment in targeted initiatives like Women Make Music in response to specific barriers.”
“The success of this fund will be determined by how soon it becomes redundant”
“Based on everything we’ve learnt from this evaluation,” she continues, “there’s no doubt that our Women Make Music fund is still needed in the short term – our commitment to developing it further with new partners forms part of this report’s recommendations. In the longer term, the success of this fund will be determined by how soon it becomes redundant.”
Reed says PRS Foundation has set itself the target of achieving a 50-50 balance of male–female applicants for its funding by 2022.
“This report calls on government, fellow funding agencies and other industry partners to work with us on this goal by endorsing and investing in good practice and positive action, like our Women Make Music fund, promoting role models for the next generation and improving working conditions for women in music,” she adds. “Only then can we be sure that a broader range of talent will be empowered to develop a career in writing music and that the music industry will better reflect the world around us.”
The foundation has provided £522,790 in grants to 157 female artists to date.
A similar recent report from Australia highlighted a “powerful, negative culture” in that country’s music industry, characterised by widespread “bullying, sexual assault, sexism and racism”.
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