In honor of Women’s History Month, our latest Community Conversation, hosted by Evan Meier, Chair of Music Theory and Composition, features Levine violin faculty member and recording artist, Annabelle Berthomé-Reynolds. Annabelle received the prestigious Trophée Joséphine in 2024, which honors women whose bold paths inspire the next generation.
Annabelle introduces listeners to the music of Grażyna Bacewicz, Elfrida Andrée, and Sofia Gubaidulina, whose careers unfolded across different eras and cultures, yet were shaped by resilience and determination. Through discussion and musical examples, she explores Bacewicz’s powerful postwar violin sonatas, Andrée’s lyrical Romantic chamber music written during the early women’s rights movement in Sweden, and Gubaidulina’s bold, spiritually infused works that bridged Eastern and Western traditions.
Along the way, Annabelle reflects on the joy of uncovering forgotten music in archives, the interpretive challenges of bringing these works to life, and why their voices continue to resonate today.