Celebrating Women's History Month on Maine Public Classical

In celebration of women creatives at home and around the world, across the month of March, Maine Public Classical is showcasing their artistry with four new albums, a special edition of Songbook, “March of the Women”, and four of Maine’s finest leaders and practitioners from the worlds of music, dance, theater and visual art, as our State of the Art guests.

A composite of four album covers (clockwise left to right): The Future is Female, Vol. 3 At Play by Pianist Sarah Cahill. Next is Show Me the Way by Baritone Will Liverman. Number three is The Irish Isles Suite by Composer Ailbhe McDonagh. Number four is Ruth Gipps Vol. 3 with the BBC Philharmonic.

State of the Art guests:

Sun., March 9: Nell Shipman, Artistic Director, Portland Ballet
Sun., March 16: Bess Welden, Actor, Producer and Writer of the new play, Madeleines
Sun., March 23: Jamie Silvestri, Art Therapist and Program Director, ArtVan
Sun., March 30: Tina Davis, Pianist, USM Faculty and Fulbright Scholar

Our March State of the Art line-up includes Nell Shipman (Artistic Director, Portland Ballet), Bess Welden (Playwright, Actor and Producer), Jamie Silvestri, (Art Therapist and Program Director, ArtVan), and Tina Davis, Pianist, USM Faculty and Fulbright Scholar. We’ll hear from Nell on Portland Ballet’s upcoming New Works performance and Sleeping Beauty production, Bess on the premiere of her new play, Madeleines, Jamie on twenty years of ArtVan bringing art therapy to Mainers, and Tina on her year in Germany researching the evolution of the piano.

Sundays, March 9 - 30, 12:00 pm (Repeat Mondays, March 10 - 31, 12:00 pm)

Songbook – Special Edition

Sat., March 22: "March of the Women"

A special edition of Songbook, “March of the Women” highlights work by female composers who overcame adversity and broke down barriers for those that followed. Ethel Smyth was an English composer and figurehead of the women's suffrage movement: until 2016, she was the only composer to have an opera staged at the Metropolitan Opera. Hear her Mass in D and her "March of the Women," the anthem of the suffrage movement in the UK. Also on the program, chamber arrangements of songs by Florence Price and Margaret Bonds and melodies by the Boulanger sisters.

Saturday March 22, 11:00 am

Featured Albums

Week of March 3: The Future is Female, Vol. 3 Play – Pianist Sarah Cahill
Week of March 10: Show Me the Way – Baritone Will Liverman
Week of March 17: The Irish Isles Suite – Composer Ailbhe McDonagh
Week of March 24: Ruth Gipps Vol. 3 – BBC Philharmonic

Four featured albums will hit the airwaves in March, with hosts Joe Boucher, Heather McDougall, Gale Parmelee and Sarah Tuttle spotlighting women composers and performers. To start, we’ll hear from American pianist and NPR Tiny Desk artist Sarah Cahill's latest The Future is Female album, with selections including Chicagoan composer Regina Baiocchi's Gwendolyn Brooks-inspired Piano Poems, Chinese American composer Chen Yi's play on the popular Chinese tune, Guessing, and a sonata by a woman of Revolutionary France, Hélène de Montgeroult, whose flare for piano playing spared her from the guillotine. Next up is the Grammy-nominated album, Show Me the Way - baritone Will Liverman’s celebration of the women of American song. Among its offerings are Emmy-winning Jasmine Barnes's proclamation of Black Joy, A Sable Jubilee, and Alma Bazel Androzzo's hymn, immortalized by Martin Luther King, Jr., If I Can Help Somebody. With St. Patrick’s Day upon us, the following week we journey to the wild waters and landscapes of the Emerald Isle’s islands of the West in the album, The Irish Isles Suite. Courtesy of one of Ireland’s foremost musicians, composer and cellist, Ailbhe McDonagh, we’ll make musical visits to Achill Island, The Blasket Islands, Tory Island, and Skellig Island. Concluding the month is a hot-off-the-press 2025 release of world premiere recordings of the music of 20th century English composer Ruth Gipps. This album from the BBC Philharmonic seals Gipps' much-deserved and long-overdue place in the musical canon. We’ll hear her Lake District-inspired Cringlemire Garden, war-era First Symphony and action-packed Horn Concerto.