from Tera de Marez Oyens, International Liaison as published in the IAWM Journal, February 1994, pp. 35.
Before writing about the various international projects, I want to tell how inspiring and exciting it is to work with this team of the interim executive board. In spite of the long distances between us, we are really working as a team, having regular meetings by telephone, and using fax and E-mail. When you feel the respect and support from the other board members, difficulties seem smaller, more things seem possible. I hope this spirit of cooperation and warm participation will be felt throughout the League.
In Alaska this summer we decided that I should explore possibilities for the next Congress, preferably in Europe. I started with England, but as there will be a major Festival in March (about which later more), there was no room for another Congress. Next I contacted Patricia Adkins Chiti in Rome, Italy, who, after many letters and telephone conversations, told me finally that a Congress in 1994 would be impossible, and in 1995 would be very doubtful, because on top of all other problems the Government cut the entire Culture budget. Now there are contacts with Kiev and Copenhagen, but nothing to report yet. Probably in the Spring of 1995, we will have a Congress in San Francisco. Since a few months there is finally a Women in Music group in Vienna, Austria. The contact is Regina Himmelbauer, who reports about this group elsewhere in this issue.
The English Women in Music Festival 1994 will take place from March 3 to 30 at venues all over London. There will be every possible kind of music: Jazz, Classical, Contemporary, Opera, House, HipHop, Rock, Pop etc. Some of the works to be presented are a piece by Juliana Hodkinson, performed by the ensemble "Capricorn," string quartets by Minna Keale, Elizabeth Maconchy, Ethel Smyth and Nicola Ellis will be performed by the Bingham String quartet, "Double Image" will play among others a work by Gillian Carcas for clarinet, violin, cello and piano. A very interesting project is "Operas in progress," an idea of Enid Williams and Cat von Trapp. There will be four operas which are in the process of being written. The composers and the audience will have the opportunity of hearing works in their inception, as from each work 15 minutes extracts will be performed. The composers involved are Enid Williams and Cat von Trapp, Lucy and Kyla Greenbaum. Films will be played about Elizabeth Maconchy, Elizabeth Lutyens, Meredith Monk and Minna Keale. For more information you can contact Women in Music, Battersea Arts Centre, Old Town Hall, Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TF, or phone (0) 71-9784823.
In November 1993 I was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the First International Festival of Women Composers, a very exciting event about which you also can read elsewhere in this issue.
In December 1993, we had two remarkable visitors in Holland: Isabelle Ganz from the States, who gave a fantastic concert, and Tamara Ibragimova, a Russian composer, who had some of her music performed in Holland. And earlier my good friend Beverly Grigsby visited me, as did Suzanne Raymond, a student from Antioch College, Yellow Springs, who did a research project on singers.
Please, keep us informed of your projects and travels. It is very important to be in touch with each other, and give support when possible.