Women of Notes

Canadian violinist and researcher, Dr. Jennifer Martyn joins me for a conversation about the brilliant Swedish violinist, composer, organist and pianist, Amanda Maier, sometimes known as Amanda Röntgen. A stellar composer and performer; her music really deserves to be in the standard repertoire. Be sure to go to the substack (link below) where there are several links to recordings. Among her close associates and friends were Brahms, the Herzogenbergs, the Griegs, Smyth, Joachim, and Clara Schumann.

Listen to the end for Sandra's entrepreneurial idea to honour Amanda Maier. 🍮🍬

Jennifer Martyn enjoys a busy career...

I am joined by Dr. Hannah Roberts for a conversation about Scottish-born American composer, Helen Hopekirk. Hopekirk was known as one of the greatest pianists in her day and also became a well-regarded piano teacher. Hannah has recently released a beautiful recording of Hopekirk's piano music under the Parma label.

Known for her work championing female voices in the keyboard repertoire, American pianist
Hannah Roberts has performed throughout the United States and abroad in Austria, Serbia, and the
United Kingdom. Her scholarship focuses on reviving the works of overlooked female composers
with a special...

UK-based music researcher and writer Dr. Leah Broad joins me for an entertaining and informative conversation about the larger-than-life British composer, Ethel Smyth (1858-1944).

Dr Leah Broad is an award-winning writer, historian and broadcaster. She wrote the critically acclaimed book Quartet: How Four Women Challenged the Musical World, and her next book Unsung: Trailblazing Women Musicians of the Second World War publishes in February 2027. Winner of the 2015 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism, Leah has written for outlets including the Financial Times, New Statesman, Guardian and BBC Music Magazine. Selected as a BBC/AHRC New Generation...

UK-based Greek pianist and researcher, Dr. Maria Stratigou joins me to share some of her vast knowledge on a giantess in 19th French music, Louise Farrenc. Farrenc was a very accomplished performing pianist, a prolific composer, and an important pedagogue. She taught at the Paris Conservatoire for thirty years, and was the earliest and only woman to have a significant teaching career there in the 1800s.

Dr Maria Stratigou is an award-winning Greek pianist, researcher, and educator known for her pioneering work on 19th-century female composers. Holding a PhD in Performance from the Royal Northern College of...

Hilary Poriss joins me for a fun and wide-ranging conversation about 19th century Diva Extraordinaire, composer, pianist, salonniere, and voice teacher, Pauline Viardot who was born into a very musical family in Paris in 1821.

Hilary Poriss’ primary research interests are in the areas of 19th-century Italian and French opera, performance practice, diva culture, and the aesthetics of 19th-century musical culture. She has published four books: Gioacchino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (Oxford University Press), Changing the Score: Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance (Oxford University Press), Fashions and Legacies of Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera (Cambridge Univ...

Composer Linda Catlin Smith joins host Sandra Mogensen ahead of Catlin Smith's world premiere of her new work, The Horizon with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on September 24 (26 & 27). Listen in for an exploration of the creative life and an in-depth look at the creative process involved in composing.

Linda Catlin Smith grew up in New York and lives in Toronto. Her music has been commissioned and/or performed by many
soloists and ensembles worldwide including: Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tectonics Festival (Glasgow), Huddersfield Festival,
Vancouver, Edmonton and Victoria Symphony Orchestras, Tafelmusik, Tapestry New Opera, Bozzini Quartet, Arraymusic,<...

Molly McCann, aka Henselpushers, is a music publisher/editor/arranger dedicated to making all of Fanny Hensel’s works freely accessible to the world. Since starting henselpushers.org in 2020, McCann has published approximately 200 free PDF scores of Fanny Hensel's original compositions, and has published several arrangements of Hensel’s works for learners or alternate instrumentation. Please follow Henselpushers on Patreon at patreon.com/c/HenselPushers. 

McCann is also co-organizing Henselfest, a multi-day event of talks and music celebrating the life and work of Fanny Hensel. The inaugural Henselfest will bring together international Hensel scholars and performers and take...

Sarah Fritz is a musicologist, mezzo-soprano, and music historian who’s contributed to the New York Times, given pre-concert talks for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and appears in the PBS documentary, Mozart’s Sister. She runs the Clara Schumann Channel platform, dedicated to educating the public about women composers, and performs with the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Symphonic Choir, including an appearance in the choir scene of the movie Maestro. Fritz teaches on the faculty of the Westminster Conservatory in Princeton, New Jersey.

We discuss how Clara Schumann’s compositions deserve to be heard and studied on their own merits...

Episode 0: The Women of Notes Trailer with your host Sandra Mogensen, who you may know from the 'Piano Music She Wrote' project. Deep dives on the lives, stories, creative processes, and music of women who compose and women who composed. Weekly episodes of Season 1 begin on September 13, 2026.

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