Q&A Chaired by Edith Bowman

The lives, loves, adventures and trailblazing musical careers of four extraordinary women from a stunning debut biographer.

Ethel Smyth (b.1858): Famed for her operas, this trailblazing queer Victorian composer was a larger-than-life socialite, intrepid traveller and committed Suffragette.

Rebecca Clarke (b.1886): This talented violist and Pre-Raphaelite beauty was one of the first women ever hired by a professional orchestra, later celebrated for her modernist experimentation.

Dorothy Howell (b.1898): A prodigy who shot to fame at the 1919 Proms, her reputation as the ‘English Strauss’ never dented her modesty; on retirement, she tended Elgar’s grave alone.

Doreen Carwithen (b.1922): One of Britain’s first woman film composers who scored Elizabeth II’s coronation film, her success hid a 20-year affair with her married composition tutor.

In their time, these women were celebrities. They composed some of the century’s most popular music and pioneered creative careers; but today, they are ghostly presences, surviving only as muses and footnotes to male contemporaries like Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten – until now.

Leah Broad’s magnificent group biography resurrects these forgotten voices, recounting lives of rebellion, heartbreak and ambition, and celebrating their musical masterpieces. Lighting up a panoramic sweep of British history over two World Wars, Quartet revolutionises the canon forever.

Leah is a public historian at the University of Oxford. She researches twentieth century music, particularly women in music, and regularly works with performers and institutions to programme and contextualise marginalised historical figures.

Winner of the 2015 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism, Leah’s writing has appeared in outlets including the Guardian, Observer, BBC Music Magazine, Huffington Post, and The Conversation. She has written articles and programme notes for institutions including Glyndebourne, London Chamber Orchestra, Longborough Festival Opera, the Wigmore Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, Birmingham Symphony Hall, and the Elgar Festival.

Leah was selected as a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker in 2016, so is frequently on the BBC discussing her research.  As a public speaker, she has appeared at events including the BBC Proms, Elgar Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Southbank Festival, Being Human Festival, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Free Thinking Festival, and Hay Festival.

Academically, Leah has writing published in journals including the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Music & Letters, TEMPO, and Music and the Moving Image. She has chapters published and forthcoming in books for Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, and Boydell & Brewer.

Edith Bowman has worked as a TV and Radio broadcaster for over 20 years. Her radio work has spanned all the major stations, presenting shows on BBC Radio 1, 2, 6 and 5Live as well as Virgin Radio. As a TV host and producer she has fronted a versatile mix of shows for BBC, Channel 4, Sky Arts, MTV and the list goes on.

From hosting music festival coverage and the BAFTA Scotland Awards to presenting dozens of movie premieres Edith has incorporated her genuine passion for, and in-depth knowledge of, music and film in to her work. In 2016 she launched her own podcast “Soundtracking” allowing her to combine these two loves – ARIA & New York Festivals Radio Award Winning Soundtracking With Edith Bowman has become the go to music and film podcast where you can hear Edith talk to directors, producers, actors, writers and composers about their relationship with music both professionally and personally.

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