First of all, let me tell you have wonderful the Darkwater Womxn in Music Festival is. Hosted by UNC-Pembroke and led by the inimitable Sarah Busman, it is the most welcoming, most encouraging, most positive, most affirming conference I have ever attended. The 2020 conferences was the last conference I went to before Covid-19 shut everything down, and I have such good memories of it. I met all kinds of excellent and interesting performers and composers and scholars–all of them really, truly invested in making the entire world of music a better place for women. I heard fantastic papers. I heard gorgeous premieres. I got to have lunch with really cool people who did diverse things in music. I’m currently working on a collaboration with a composer I met at the festival, Jessi Harvey. I really cannot praise it enough, so if you get an opportunity to participate in it, do it.
This year’s conference will include a video recital for virtual presentation by the fantastic Lisa Neher, someone I am so lucky to have as a collaborator and friend. She’ll be performing works by herself and me as well as other fabulous composers. You are not going to want to miss a moment of this! Here’s Lisa’s line-up:
| Title | Length | Composer |
| Sick Cycle | 2:00 | Monica Chew |
| Alone | 5:30 | Catalina von Wrangell |
| Something About Isolation | 1:40 | Kimberly R. Osberg |
| Now Available | 7:00 | Lisa Neher |
| Stillness | 1:40 | Drew Swatosh |
| dark water, air stirs | 5:00 | Nicole Murphy |
| Strawberry Man | 2:00 | Lisa Neher |
I’ll have more details as the schedule develops. In the meanwhile, a big thank you to the Darkwater Womxn in Music Festival!
