The Femfestival awards women composers
proclaimed the winners of the contest and the online contest
During the Femfestival closing event of November 27th, as stated by Cristina Giachi, president of the Culture Commission of the Tuscan Regional Council, there was an air of novelty and kindness. The Manifattura Tabacchi, in Florence, hosted, in a concert conducted by Concetta Anastasi, the Amat Unconventional Orchestra together with the voices of Federica Cassati and Keren Davidovich. The music written by the finalists of the “Women Composers” Competition was performed live and also in live streaming. The event, presented by Loredana Lipperini, was a feast with music from all over the world, a feast that saw different cultures in dialogue, women from different countries, all of them involved in music, who took the opportunity to learn from each other. Even Benedetta Albanese, Councillor for Equal Opportunities of the City of Florence, during her speech, confirmed that this is the path that women can show and that the Femfestival can help to trace. At the end of the evening there was the proclamation of the Competition’s winners. Larisa Shibert (Russia) won the first overall prize for the youth category, followed by Maeng Sooyeon (South Korea) and, on a par, Mozhgan Chahian (Iran) and Yue Song (China-Ireland). For the other category, without age limits, the first place went to Hsu Chia-yu (Taiwan-USA), second Cecilia Arditto (Netherlands-Argentina) and third place to Francesca Gambelli (Italy). Mozhgan Chahian was awarded the Special Orchestra Award, for the piece that the orchestra found most interesting, both from a technical and an expressive point of view.
The Femfestival is also online with an interactive dissemination and sharing project: the Amat Hub. It has just come to an end the contest launched on the platform Amat Hub in October, a contest which awards the “Audience Award” to the two most voted pieces: Corinne Latteur and Simona Iuorio were ranked first and second respectively. The contest is now over, but the online platform will remain open, therefore composers can still sign up to make their music known and participate in this dissemination and network project.
“There are many prospects for the future, even in the nearest one” say Francesca Lazzeroni, Concetta Anastasi, Barbara Rettagliati and Costanza Renai, the hearts of the femfestival, “Other interesting chances of collaboration are coming up: this is just the beginning”.