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Anna Shelest's 'Donna Voce' shows the power of music and women composers / Classical101

Pianist Anna Shelest's most recent recording, 'Donna Voce,' features solo piano music exclusively by women composers.

There was a time when a woman composer was a relatively rare phenomenon. There was also a time when music critics drew a clear line between "masculine" (read: strong, powerful, large) music and "feminine" (read: gentle, sweet, small) music. If the Ukranian-born pianist Anna Shelest had lived during that time, her new recording of solo piano music by women composers would not have come to fruition and, thus, would not have been able to showcase women's music in its own power.

Good thing we live in the now.

As the recording's title suggests, Donna Voce (Sorel Classics) gives voice to piano music by some of the world's foremost women composers – Fanny Mendelssohn, Amy Beach, Cécile Chaminade, Lili Boulanger and contemporary composer Chia-Yu Hsu.

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