<\/p>\nAn ensemble performs at the LunART Festival in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Beth Skogen<\/span> On the Friday night program are two of the LunART 2026 Call for Scores winners, Joan Johnson Drewes\u2019 \u201cDistant Murmuring\u201d and Madeline Barrett\u2019s \u201cThe Body a Tree.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Though Saturday\u2019s concert \u201cNew Currents\u201d is devoted to new music, it begins with a piece by a lesser known Romantic era composer. Louise Harriet-Viardot Piano Quartet no. 2, \u201cSpanish,\u201d a work with both energetic dance rhythms and sorrowful melodies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Save one work by Larsen \u2014 her cowboy-dance inspired \u201cBarn Dances,\u201d from 2010 \u2014 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\u2019s \u201cCrane Cycles,\u201d commissioned by LunART; and Emmy-nominated film and TV composer Chanda Dancy\u2019s \u201cJanuary on Altadena Drive.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n <\/p>\nThe LunART Festival brings together women in music for a weekend each spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Beth Skogen<\/span> On Sunday, May 31, the final concert of the festival will showcase works by the Composers\u2019 Hub Cohort, with pieces written for a variety of chamber ensembles. Also on the program is Larsen\u2019s \u201cJazz Variations\u201d for solo bassoon, which blends classical form and jazz idioms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How LunART began<\/h3>\n Ugrcic cited her upbringing when asked about the motivations for forming LunART.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing 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,\u201d said Ugrcic. \u201cOnce 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n <\/p>\nFlutist Iva Ugr\u010di\u0107, shown in front, founded LunART nine years ago in Madison.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Beth Skogen<\/span> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the first one to bring her music to the U.S. That\u2019s how it all started.\u201d Ugrcic said. \u201cAnd then I started thinking that there\u2019s many women like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
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, \u201cwas a perfect place\u201d for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The LunART Festival provides a unique space. \u201cIn a room with all women,\u201d Ugrcic said, \u201cthe dynamics are different. The support and love we show each other, showing vulnerability, showing that it\u2019s hard. Can we be a mother and a performer and a leader? Yes, we can, but we need allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Urgcic said that she often reflects on the very first LunART festival, when, she said, \u201cone of the young composers left with tears in her eyes. I\u2019ve never experienced such power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the festival<\/h3>\n Along with the concert weekend, LunART commissions a visual artist to create a new piece. This year Andr\u00e9e Valley created a print titled \u201cResonance,\u201d copies of which will be available for purchase at the festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking forward, Ugrcic hopes to expand the LunART Festival further to include a conference dedicated to the study of music written by women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere should be space for all these other voices that have been silenced for so long and are still fighting to break those barriers,\u201d Ugrcic said. With LunART, she continues to create that space.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source captimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cap Times is an independent newsroom serving Madison and Wisconsin. Sign up for the Food & Culture newsletter for exclusive weekly insight. For nine years, LunART has provided resources, a platform and community for women composers, musicians and artists.\u00a0 The annual LunART Festival, set for May 27-31 this year, is the nonprofit\u2019s capstone event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2421973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2421972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/LunART-Festival-finds-new-ways-to-celebrate-women-in-music.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2421972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2421974,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421972\/revisions\/2421974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2421973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2421972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2421972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2421972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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