Composer Of The Week

Johanna Müller-Hermann once held a significant place as a composer and teacher in Vienna, yet has been largely forgotten over the decades since her death in 1941. Radio 3 has been working to unearth her music and story through its Forgotten Women Composers project, in collaboration with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Dr Carola Darwin. This week, Dr Darwin and Professor Robert Evans join Donald Macleod to explore this fascinating composer and her times. Their series includes many specially recorded works by Müller-Hermann that have sat neglected in dusty archives for decades.Müller-Hermann was greatly celebrated in her own lifetime and moved in eminent musical circles. She studied with Zemlinsky, befriended Alma Mahler, and also corresponded with Arnold Schoenberg. She went on to teach at Austria’s New Vienna Conservatory where students travelled from as far away as America and the UK to study with her. She became a pivotal figure in Vienna’s cultural scene and her music was regularly performed a