Hidden Women and Silenced Scores

Leah Broad, one of Radio 3’s New Generation Thinkers and a music historian, explores why the music of three 20th-century women composers, much loved at the time, is so little heard today. Looking at issues of style, gender, nationality and genre, she hears from those who knew Avril Coleridge Taylor, Doreen Carwithen and Dorothy Howell well, and uncovers the sometimes shocking stories of how their music was silenced.

Contributors include Dorothy Howell’s niece and nephew, Meryn and Columb Howell; Andrew Palmer and Andrew Knowles, who knew Doreen Carwithen; authors Sophie Fuller and Jeremy Dibble; musicians Chi-Chi Nwanoku and Samantha Ege; and Oliver Dashwood, the great-grandson of Avril Coleridge Taylor.

The producer is Paul Arnold, for CTVC.