Marion Caldwell | The Personal, the Political, and the Pianistic

**Please note: this event has been cancelled due to industrial action by the UCU**

Event details

Speaker: Marian Caldwell

Date: 16 February 2023

Time: 5.15 - 6.45pm.  

Venue: Alison House, Lecture Room A (First Floor)

Abstract

In this lecture recital which features works by Clara Schumann and Margaret Bonds, Marion Caldwell will share reflections on her approach to the playing and performance of these works. While acknowledging the progress that has been made in the study and performance of works by composers who are not white men, she will also explore how concepts of male genius and the universality and superiority of the Western Classical canon still inform many musicians’ and audiences’ attitudes, and how the work of discovering and sharing works by women such as Schumann and Bonds challenges these notions.

Biography

Marion Caldwell was born in South Africa and obtained her degree in Piano Performance from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. After years of teaching, accompanying and raising children, she returned to formal study and obtained her Master’s in Performance, specialising in accompaniment, with distinction from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The experience of growing up in an extremely unequal society, and later navigating the world of the advanced study of piano performance as a mature woman student, has informed her practice, leading to a special interest in the work of historically marginalised composers. She lives in Cambridge, where she teaches, accompanies, and enjoys performing collaboratively and as a soloist.