Letter to Johanna Beyer

In 2020 the violist Chiara Ludovisi and the pianist Bruna Di Virgilio begin to collaborate with the intention of dedicating themselves to the contemporary chamber repertoire of female composers. A repertoire often hindered and forgotten, and which only in recent decades has been rediscovered to finally give the right voice to composers long erased from history.

This project – which also includes the performance of new pieces with the use of live electronics and makes use of the collaboration of the composer and visual artist Cristiana Palandri – is inspired by the figure of Johanna Beyer (1888-1944). A composer and pianist active in the United States of the 1930s, Beyer lived in the shadow of her teachers and colleagues Henry Cowell and John Cage and her work was completely forgotten for decades, despite her talent and her research of an innovative and experimental musical language. Her piece Music of the Spheres (1938) is the first known work for electronic instruments composed by a woman.