Women in Music was an American newsletter founded in July 1935 by its publisher and editor,
Frédérique Petrides, then the conductor of the
Orchestrette Classique – an orchestra based in New York made-up of female musicians. The publication ran until December 1940. The thirty-seven
extant issues were reprinted in the 1991 book by Jan Bell Groh, Evening the Score: Women in Music and the Legacy of Frédérique Petrides. The newsletter title Women in Music was coined in 1935 by Petrides's husband, journalist,
Peter Petrides to encapsulate the gist of its contents.[1][2]
History
Women in Music was founded in the summer of 1935 for the purpose of enlightening the public with little-known historical facts and current developments pertaining to female conductors, composers, instrumentalists, singers and women-led orchestras. Its scope was not limited to contemporary musicians – it chronicled the activities of female musicians from
Ancient Egyptian times to the then present.
The publication was sent free-of-charge to newspaper and magazine editors, libraries, music schools, institutions, and individuals in New York and elsewhere. The publication had a circulation of over 2,500.[3]
"The Women in Music newsletters are the primary source for research done by musicologists on women in music." — Adrienne Fried Block, PhD (1921–2009), musicologist and choral director[5]
Vol. I, No. 2 August 1935 Fadettes, Caroline B. Nichols, Gertrud Hrdliczka, Eva Vale Anderson, Long Beach Woman's Symphony,
Carmen Studer
Vol. I, No. 3 September 1935 Thomas B. Aldrich, Gustave A. Kerker,
Musical Mutual Protective Union of New York, Dr. Charles Burney, “Outline of a Prejudice”, Ebba Violette, Irene Sundstrom, Murielle and Portland Women's Symphony,
Nikolai Sokoloff
Vol. I, No. 6. February 1936 Caroline B. Nichols,
Julia Smith,
Antonia Brico, New York Women's Symphony,
Harley Hamilton, Woman's Orchestra of Los Angeles, D. Cesar Cianfoni
Vol. I, No. 7 March 1936 Sir Henry Wood, Marie Wilson, New York Ladies Ensemble, Musicians’ Union, Atlantic Garden Orchestra, Women's Little Symphony of Cleveland
Vol. I, No. 8 May 1936 Long Beach (group), Gertrud Herliczka
Vol. III, No. 1 July 1937 William J. Henderson, Caroline B. Nichols, Louis Elson,
Ruth Kemper, Commonwealth Women's Orchestra of Boston (WPA),
Nino Marcelli’s San Diego Symphony, Lela Hammer, Woods Symphony Orchestra, Lois Wann, Virginia Payton
Vol. III, No. 2 September 1937 Albert Roussel, Ebba Sundstrom, Herliczka,
The New Yorker, Virginia Short, Chicago Women's Concert Band, Lillian Poenisch
Vol. III, No. 3 October 15, 1937 Anne (or Anna) Mehlig Falk, George Schaun
Vol. IV, No. 1 July 1938 Ethel Leginska,
Teresa Carreno, Gladys Weige, Woman's Symphony of Chicago, Fanny Arnston-Hassler, Woman's Concert Ensemble
Vol. IV, No. 2 September 1938 Ruth Kemper, Howard Barlow
Vol. IV, No. 3 October 1938 Pauline Juler
Vol. IV, No. 4 December 1938 Nadia Boulanger, Lonny Epstein, Edgar Carver's all-girl band, John C. Freund,
Marian Anderson, William J. King, The New York City Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs. Otto Hahn,
Julia Smith