#ClassicsaDay #PrideMonth Week 2

For the month of June, Classics a Day celebrates Pride Month. And the challenge is to post works from classical composers who self-identified as other than heteronormative. 

There are a lot of composers to choose from -- and not just in the modern era. This was a challenge that deepened my knowledge of classical music. And deepened my appreciation of the additional struggles faced by LGBTQ+ composers both past and present. Here are my posts from the second week of #PrideMonth.

06/06/22 Henriëtte Bosmans - Piano Concertino

When the Nazis overran Holland in 1942, Bosmans was doubly in danger. She was Jewish, and was bisexual. She was able to avoid attracting undue attention of the authorities, and served in the Dutch Resistance.

06/07/22 Conrad Susa - Serenade for a Christmas Night

Susa is best known for his choral and vocal works. His "Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest" was composed as a companion piece to Benjamin Britten's "A Ceremony of Carols."

06/08/22 Gian Carlo Menotti - Piano Concerto No. 1

Menotti wrote this concerto in 1945. His second piano concerto would appear 37 years later, in 1982.

06/09/22 Ethel Smyth - Concerto for Violin, Horn, and Orchestra

Smyth's double concerto was written in 1927, and premiered the same year. Its second performance was with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1928.

06/10/22 Sylvano Bussotti - Five Piano Pieces for David Tudor

Bussotti loved theater. In addition to being a composer, he was also a set and costume designer, opera director, and theater manager. His music often had thatrical elements in it, like this set of piano pieces.