Her Ensemble is a free form group that formed in response to the gender gap in the music industry.
01 THE SPARK
I’d always felt really torn between loving classical music whilst not loving all aspects of the scene. During lockdown I was living with singer-songwriters and started writing strings for their songs. This allowed me to view music making from a completely different perspective but also highlighted so many differences between the musical scenes.
02 MISSING VOICES
Around the same time, I stumbled across a statistic brought to light by Donne, Women In Music who discovered that in 2019 just 3.6% of the classical music pieces performed worldwide were written by women.
03 OUR NAME
Discovering a rich legacy of music pre-dating 450 BC, I realised there was a large gap in my education and I wanted to explore all this music. Her Ensemble is named after all the women whose voices have been overlooked or forgotten throughout history.
05 COMMUNITY
We asked our followers if and how they alter their appearance to fit into the classical world and we had a shocking number of responses. From being shamed and told to cover up skin, to dyeing their hair a more ‘natural’ colour, hiding their queerness, experiencing gender dysphoria due to strict binary dress codes, hiding body hair/removing piercings and covering tattoos in order to be taken more seriously and avoid harassment.
04 FREEDOM
Making music in lockdown in an environment with fewer rules was so refreshing to me. I was immersed in a world where people were unashamedly expressing their authentic selves. It made me feel like I could be accepted in all my imperfections too and encouraged me explore parts of myself that I had previously censored for fear of judgment in the classical world.
06 SELF-EXPRESSION
I find it strange that we are encouraged to express ourselves through music, yet so often confined to such a narrow margin when it comes to gender expression and clothing. Her Ensemble is as much about challenging the status quo as it is about celebrating underrepresented voices.
07 HIGHLIGHTS
Recent highlights include interviewing on BBC Woman’s Hour, releasing an EP of overlooked music with Sony Classical, recording for Netflix, collaborating with artists such as Kate Nash and Billie Marten, and curating live performances from nightclubs to renowned classical venues from the Barbican to the Musikverein. Her Ensemble have also led masterclasses at Chetham’s School of Music, the Royal College of Music, and Leeds Conservatoire.
