‘Set No Limits’ performance to celebrate contemporary female composers

The Department of Music will celebrate the music of women composers on Thursday, April 21, with “Set No Limits,” a free concert at UNC Charlotte Center City at 7:30 p.m. Developed by Assistant Professor of Clarinet Jessica Lindsey, the program will present music by eight composers, performed by Lindsey and guest artists Christian Bohnenstengel, piano, and Christy Banks, clarinet. Funded in part by a Chancellor’s Diversity Grant, the concert is free and open to the public.

Of the eight composers whose works will be featured on the program, seven are living; the exception is one 19th-century composer, Alice Mary Smith. Two of the composers will be present at the concert, Marga Richter and Sheila Silver, the second woman to ever win the Rome Prize.

Although the works share similar instrumentation (clarinet and piano), they vary widely in style and inspiration, from Silvers’ soothing and darkly colored “Lullaby” to Richter’s restless and dissonant “Sonata” to Smith’s Mozartean “Sonata in A.”

Earlier in the day, at 2 p.m., April 21, in Rowe Recital Hall, the department will host a panel discussion with the composers and musicians, moderated by Associate Professor of Philosophy Robin James. The event will include performances of selected works and is open to the campus community.