LunART Festival finds new ways to celebrate women in music | Music

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For nine years, LunART has provided resources, a platform and community for women composers, musicians and artists. 

The annual LunART Festival, set for May 27-31 this year, is the nonprofit’s capstone event — a weekend of concerts that feature compositions exclusively by women. This year’s theme is “Resonance.” 

“It is really about redefining the canon,” said Iva Ugrcic, the founder, CEO and artistic director of LunART. 

LunART takes a unique approach to the problem of women’s underrepresentation in music. The festival not only celebrates music written by women: it unites women in the arts across career phases, backgrounds and interests to form lasting and productive relationships. 

“People are coming from around the country, around the world to create this network of women and platform where we can all connect, collaborate and share our experiences, knowledge and skills to help each other,” Ugrcic said. “It is just so empowering.” 

A composers’ cohort

Each year, LunART selects six out of over 200 international applicants for its Composers’ Hub Cohort. In the week leading up to the festival, members of the cohort receive career coaching, attend lectures and workshops, rehearse with musicians, and receive individual lessons from the festival’s composer-in-residence. 

This year that mentor is Libby Larsen, a Grammy Award-winning American composer celebrated for her unique style grounded in tradition, as well as her impact on the American musical scene.

After a midweek panel at Arts + Literature Laboratory, the concert weekend kicks off at the WYSO Center for Music on Friday May 29 with “Becoming Together,” which prominently features LunART’s newest initiative, the LunART Choir. 

Formed over this past year, the choir celebrates women in the arts by exploring lesser known vocal music and providing a performance outlet for diverse treble-voiced singers. 

On the Friday night program are two of the LunART 2026 Call for Scores winners, Joan Johnson Drewes’ “Distant Murmuring” and Madeline Barrett’s “The Body a Tree.” The concert juxtaposes women composers across generations, with works by significant figures in the history of music, such as Amy Beach, Mel Bonis and Rita Stohl, alongside more contemporary composers like Jocelyn Hagen, B.E. Boykin, Sarah Bareilles and Larsen herself.

Though Saturday’s concert “New Currents” is devoted to new music, it begins with a piece by a lesser known Romantic era composer. Louise Harriet-Viardot Piano Quartet no. 2, “Spanish,” a work with both energetic dance rhythms and sorrowful melodies. 

Save one work by Larsen — her cowboy-dance inspired “Barn Dances,” from 2010 — the rest of the pieces on the program have been composed in the past few years. They include two world premieres: Madison-based composer Lawren Brianna Ware’s “Crane Cycles,” commissioned by LunART; and Emmy-nominated film and TV composer Chanda Dancy’s “January on Altadena Drive.”  

On Sunday, May 31, the final concert of the festival will showcase works by the Composers’ Hub Cohort, with pieces written for a variety of chamber ensembles. Also on the program is Larsen’s “Jazz Variations” for solo bassoon, which blends classical form and jazz idioms. 

How LunART began

Ugrcic cited her upbringing when asked about the motivations for forming LunART.

“Growing up as a woman in Eastern Europe and then living in Western music as a non-EU citizen, I experienced a lot of gender inequalities and sexual harassment,” said Ugrcic. “Once I moved to the U.S., I finally felt that I can be who I am and that I can be strong and act as a leader.”

Ugrcic began promoting women composers and musicians during her doctoral work in flute performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She wrote a dissertation on lesser known Romanian composer Doina Rotaru. 

“I was the first one to bring her music to the U.S. That’s how it all started.” Ugrcic said. “And then I started thinking that there’s many women like this.”

Beyond promoting the performance and study of music by women, Ugrcic also realized the need for a supportive community for women in the field. Madison, she said, “was a perfect place” for it. 

The LunART Festival provides a unique space. “In a room with all women,” Ugrcic said, “the dynamics are different. The support and love we show each other, showing vulnerability, showing that it’s hard. Can we be a mother and a performer and a leader? Yes, we can, but we need allies.”

At first, Ugrcic said, doubters told her that she would not have enough music to hold an annual festival of compositions by women. But after nine years, LunART has yet to repeat a piece on a program. 

Urgcic said that she often reflects on the very first LunART festival, when, she said, “one of the young composers left with tears in her eyes. I’ve never experienced such power.”

Beyond the festival

Along with the concert weekend, LunART commissions a visual artist to create a new piece. This year Andrée Valley created a print titled “Resonance,” copies of which will be available for purchase at the festival. 

In addition to the festival, LunART holds annual concerts in the fall and spring. LunART has begun holding regular online roundtable discussions, to actively maintain its community. 

Looking forward, Ugrcic hopes to expand the LunART Festival further to include a conference dedicated to the study of music written by women.

“There should be space for all these other voices that have been silenced for so long and are still fighting to break those barriers,” Ugrcic said. With LunART, she continues to create that space.